"Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof."
Leviticus 25:10, Inscription on the Liberty Bell
The Exceptional Conservative Show had a Litany of Best Guests in 2014. DC GOP Vice-Chairman Ralph Chittams offered provocative commentary on the late Mayor-for-Life Marion Barry. Military Veteran Brigette McCoy opened the world's eyes to returning soldiers' and veterans' suffering under the Obama Administration. LTG (Ret.) William "Jerry" Boykin and Kamal Saleem left us speechless while warning that Europe's fall to Sharia Law is inevitable and that the United States' would follow succinctly. However, of all, none offered an access that could entice and entertain the World's Greatest Minds in considering America's most dramatic threats to prosperity and endurance than Dr. Mark Skousen. Who is that man papa? Well, an Obama Administration member said this about his most recent economic analytical device, Gross Output:
“Gross Output provides an important new perspective on the economy; and one that is closer to the way many businesses see themselves.”
– Steve Landefeld, Director, Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce
Yes, the man that stealthily garnered support for the new supply-side “Austrian” macro statistic Gross Output from the Keynesian, socialist Obama administration flamboyantly offers society one of the most ebullient festivals of political, economical and moral philosophical discourse in Freedom Fest, annually hosted at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, Nevada. Moreso, Dr. Skousen has given us one of the most challenging questions to consider for 2015. Simply, "Can We Restore the American Dream?"
As a habitual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) attendee, I expected lectures that bemoaned without solutions the problems of the day, activities that regaled only a political response to potential epic economic crises and a certified rejection of intellectual honesty that cutting taxes and blaming Obama alone would not satisfy the leadership lack and financial duress our Nation truly faces. CPAC, attempting to modernize the convention experience in its leap to the Gaylord at National Harbor, Maryland and upgrade the substance of political discourse, seems so one dimensional that it leaves its attendees in a cultural silo. Sure, future elections will have a vanilla appeal to the common public that neither offend the Established Grand Ol' Party (GOP) or the Washington Media. Albeit, The Conservative Movement is more than elections or political rhetoric. Maybe some one out there hears what I'm saying!
Drum roll please!
I found none of this at FreedomFest 2014. Last July, I had the tremendous honor of attending FreedomFest's "Big Brother" themed event. The lectures pitted champions of multiple philosophical ideals and variant economic concepts for consideration by men, women and children. Yes, I said children! I was astonished to find Social Media Titan Zachary Marks, a teenager, promoting his Facebook alternative creation on the FreedomFest floor. The World's Largest Gathering of Free Minds unashamedly promoted one of the greatest ingredients to human liberty: CAPITALISM. No Free Market Convention Host sallied forth encouraging attendees to practice the "reach around" with their local Big Government socialists and Marxists when they return home. Unlike the Washington event, there was no separation of presenter and "state". Actually, some of America's most prolific philosophers--Steve Forbes and Steven Moore--offered after-presentation conversation with attendees on the floor of the exhibit hall. No blue screen separating the thinker from the masses. You could have joined The Exceptional Conservative's enriching conversation with former Maryland Lieutenant Governor and MSNBC political analyst Michael Steele. What a Joy! No, not the conversation, the convention was. This is sincerely why I am urging as many, especially conservatives, to take advantage of the "Early Bird" registration and attend this one of a kind event in July 2015. It takes more than a group of Compromising Politicians to answer how we can restore the American Dream.
What is the American Dream?
Glad you asked Fidel and Raul Castro! It is a passion that has driven men to ride rusted steel, broken wooden vessels and cross deserts afoot to achieve its end. It is a pursuit that requires men and women of all stripes to lay down their momentary satisfaction for the eternal prosperity of their inheritance. Neither politician nor scholar can secure credit as the impetus for its ultimate protection and for its fullest literal exploration. Where the spirit discerns and the flesh desires, Liberty and Freedom are amassed in the American Dream. No other Nation on the Earth's face extends such great hope that any man, woman or child can overcome the ignorance and wants of the world, achieve great successes, build greater marvels and secure our posterity. This is the profoundness of the American Dream. Benjamin Rush wrote to John Adams, February 17, 1812, "Some talked, some wrote, and some fought to promote and establish it, but you and Mr. Jefferson thought for us all." It was America's Founding Fathers that put pen to paper and codified the Reality of the American Dream. Yet, they were not the first to experience its strengthening resolve. Many a forager for political, economic and religious independence sought this great land for the privileges and resources it offered. Remember, Fidel? You sent a bunch them here on boats of driftwood and Communist Manifesto wrappings. Our forefathers, whether on the beaches of the Atlantic or Pacific, sought a life not infringed upon by radical theocrats, noble landowners or tyrants. Having found it, they would as soon perish than submit to the tyranny of encroachments. However, as we move more swiftly towards a time in American History where we are ruled as an Empire with one political body that seeks only one acceptable solution--mob rule and lawlessness---we must ask ourselves, "Can We Restore the American Dream?"
James Truslow Adams, in his book The Epic of America, which was written in 1931, stated, "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position." (p.214-215) This is the great glory of our Nation. Thomas Wolfe said, "…to every man, regardless of his birth, his shining, golden opportunity ….the right to live, to work, to be himself, and to become whatever thing his manhood and his vision can combine to make him." We have neither equal beginnings or assured outcomes. No man can guarantee his life by enslaving anther's life. We are dependent on our Creator to mature His gifts unto us, to yield these gifts to mankind that we might meet the needs of some, draw profit in such executions and extend an inheritance to our posterity. It is our will to pursue the Rights granted us by Nature's God, the Liberty that frees every man to excel beyond what he can ask or think and pursue our happiness by the limits of the intellectual property we explore and the personal property that we will amass. Our Founding Fathers and ancestors made for their posterity a society all of mankind would dream of having for themselves. One built on freedom and liberty.
Yet, we, the most powerful and freest Nation in the history of mankind, are concerned with extinction. We are not concerned with the extinction of our tremendous economy. Although, it is duly threatened by the printing press in the basement of the Federal Reserve. We are not concerned about the depletion of our natural resources. Despite the predictions of Tesla investors and environmental Eco-terrorists, we have oil and natural gas "du jour" for centuries to come. We are most concerned with the depletion of liberty and freedom that this Administration's ideological pursuits have produced. There are several items that I will broach but certainly the threat list--foreign and domestic--is almost endless. Our culture of work is under assault. Work gives men and women dignity, prospers the family and empowers the neighborhood. Yet, this Administration and past Congresses have endorsed a call for greater regulation of the free market and encouragement of laborers to seek the comforts of entitlement over the risks of employment. Many populations have been impoverished and made dependent on the solutions of governments. Hence, the Nation is devolving into a debt ridden welfare state. Our national debt is ever-expanding and an uptick in interest rates could limit Congresses to merely paying interest incurred on our debt rather than reducing taxes, fees and other strangling costs on the American citizen. The federal government is wresting greater political, economic and moral power from "We the People". We see it in the Administration's promotion of the US Small Arms Treaty, the Installation of Agenda 21, the passage of Obama Care and Signing of Executive Orders on Foreign Policy related to Cuba and a scandalous rewrite of Immigration law. In addition, our public education system has become more a craft of federal policy analysts and tax revenuers than parents, teachers and students. Those seeking greater opportunity are rejected by those willing to uphold the greed and largesse of unions and those with political influence. Slowly a Nation built on Judea-Christian and Classical liberal principles are turning towards the ease assured by Redistribution Politics and Liberation Theology.
The Heritage Foundation surmised the conditions that we face because of America's fanciful exploration with Karl Marx's Dream since the late 1830's. They write:
"For the Left’s new American Dream to deliver on its promise, America would have to be completely overhauled and the character of its citizens altered. The spirited, entrepreneurial and determinedly self-reliant citizens envisioned by the Founders of our constitutional republic would give way to timid and envious clients who increasingly turn to an omnipotent state for their well-being. That’s a future we can’t afford.
Yes, King George, you might, in the end, win the Revolutionary War. Or those that support the ingredients of totalitarianism might find a great friend in the new USSA. That's if, America succumbs to its false sense of guilt, the Great American Progressive's War of the Roses and dissonant citizenry. It does not have to be this way. There is a great bridge of triumph that awaits us.
I am submitting two proposals to Dr. Skousen that I believe will make "profitable" convention opportunities. The first is "Introducing Economic Freedom to Urban America". For years, especially in Washington, DC, urban political leaders have eschewed liberty principles to meet the great problems of society: "affordable housing, public school education and health care". CPAC has not offered key discussions for activists to win the economic and moral debates for freeing the citizen-body from the chains of progressive thought and totalitarian execution. Winning the economic and moral debates of financial freedom and wealth creation will spur the opportunities for legislative discourse and eventual, political execution. It's not an accident that, in the People's Republic of Maryland, a Republican Governor and Lieutenant Governor will take the helm. Their Battle Cry was "End the Rain Tax". Indeed, it was a boon for Maryland however, there is a looming message that will help us to Restore the American Dream in Urban America. I hope to uncover it in Las Vegas in July 2015.
The second is "Unleashing the Power of Internet Radio to Bring Down the Walls of Progressive America". Establishment America has determined in their hearts that their recipe for cultural victory is find the best message that our enemies will accept and then, repeat it until we have lost. Establishment America finds its way towards the microphones of every Progressive Market Station to Promote Its "Reach Around" Agenda. In the end, Conservatives and Libertarians just don't understand that in order to get nothing, we must give everything. In such manner, we will be liked and never lose an election or damage the economy. This is what we are led to believe by Establishment America. However, they have forgotten us. They have forgotten the economic principles that made this Nation great. They have traded "access and influence" for "poverty and debt". There are multiples of Internet Radio powers that are overlooked for the sake of political goodwill with the Left. In order for us to begin winning the "American Dream" debate, conservative and libertarian Austrian economists must avail themselves to the available marketplaces. Doing so aids grassroots activists that are in the fight of their life to influence the political forum. The more messengers and more message centers sought out, the better inundated America will be with liberty and classical liberal communications. Simply, the more they have a chance to hear you, the more they are likely to listen. We have one great solution to start the conversation of Republicanism, free markets and freedom and liberty. My conservative and libertarian brethren, both foreign and domestic, let's start talking at FreedomFest.
Start Listening to The Best in Urban Conservative Talk Tonight.
The Exceptional Conservative Show.
