What is a “Common Conservative”??
As each of us move through our daily lives, we find ourselves often asking what does life REALLY mean. To some, it requires a lot of indepth thinking and to others, the answer seems to be already there. To some, there are answers that seem extremely theoretical in content, and to others, just plain common sense offers the best solutions.
My grandfather was a very wise man. To many, someone with an eight grade education wouldn’t seem to be such an intellegent person, yet he managed to start and build an extremely successful business, became a millionaire, and lived life as many “wish” they could. His approach to business was a total hands-on method of ownership. What he MAY have lacked in education, he more than made up for in understanding the human aspect. His success came from understanding people, what made them tick, and a complete knowledge of HIS business and what it took to make it succeed. On that front he never failed.
His personal life was perhaps unique today, as he married his grade school sweetheart, stayed married until the day my grandmother died, and loved her unconditionally each and every day. The lived through the Great Depression, raised my mother and uncle during those times, and struggled just to make ends meet all the time. My grandmother told me of days that neither of them had a nickle to buy a loaf of bread, so it was biscuits sometimes for days on end. Nothing went to waste. Grandmother saved every scrap of aluminum foil, plastic carton, and egg carton she ever had. Yet, they ate everyday and VERY well at that, managed to buy a small farm, raised cattle and a large garden and took life as it was dealt to them and flourished.
Grand-dad was a registered Democrat. Yet, his politics, his philosophy on life, and his method of success was TOTALLY Conservative. In the early 60′s he must have “seen the light” and changed his political registration to a Repubican. He believed that people were basically either hard working or lazy and that those who worked hard and succeeded would survive. He detested laziness. He also believed that Government was not supposed to interfere with a persons ability to earn a living nor tax someone to the brink of disaster. He opposed wars for the sake of war, yet believed that no one should pull the tail of this American nation either. His favorite president was Ronald Reagan, yet he thought John Kennedy was not a “liberal democrat”.
The one thing I can say I understood totally from granddad was that “if it was to be it was UP TO ME”. He didn’t believe in government social programs and though Social Security had beeen plundered to the point of no return, he thought it was something that needed work to make if viable. Many times he thought that Government handouts to “the poor” would be far better spent teaching them a trade or vocation and THEN letting them find a job that paid them what they were worth. He taught me the value of work at an early age with daily chores and things that were expected to be done BEFORE anything else would happen.
He encouraged education and often said that “it was one thing no one could ever take away”. He often said he would rather talk to someone with a “half an ounce of horse-sense than someone with a ton of education”. He believed that with a good education, used with a lot of common sense, you could solve an yproblem you would ever face in life…no matter how difficult or how simple in nature.
That is the goal here…to use a little bit of common sense in the approach to the political issues today. Criticism of both sides of an issue won’t be spared, nor will someone be spared commentary because they are Republican or Democrat.
Let’s see how we do!
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