“In a poll conducted a few days ago by NBC News / Wall Street Journal, a record 57% of Americans responded that they want MORE government in their lives, and that the government should be doing more to solve people’s problems.”  This presents quite the challenge for Republicans who value small government, fiscal restraint and personal liberty.

New Poll Finds Record Number Of Americans Want More Government In Their Lives.

Is Democracy in a Death Spiral?

 

 

“Do Republicans really think that fewer than 5,000 appointees can win against 2.8 million federal employees who have a vested interest in absolutely nothing changing?”

“If there is to be real change in our form of government, the Trump administration needs to avoid the fatal flaw of previous Republican administrations: choosing to play the game by the Left’s rules.”

In his article, To Truly Beat The Bureaucrats, Trump Needs To Shut Their Agencies Down, Ned Ryun, founder and CEO of American Majority, makes the case that our overgrown, burdensome, freedom-limiting government cannot be managed into reasonableness by a Republican administration, but must instead be dismantled to protect citizens and their liberty.

The UCRC through our  It Matters initiative seeks to promote policy discussion and grassroots activism among Republicans for the benefit of our community, state and country.

 

 

These are stressful days as we rapidly approach November 8th.  We experience hope and fear as we read the daily news and hear the latest poll.  Now more than ever we need to plant our feet on solid ground.  We need to pray for those who represent us at every level, those who hope to and those who will cast votes on Election Day.

55 years ago Ronald Reagan said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

Yet a few weeks ago, a newly release survey found that only 55 percent of millennials believe Communism ever was or is still a problem.  This and other observations, both anecdotal and measured, reveal our country has wandered far from the ideals of our Founding Fathers and the principles of republicanism.

In 1788, Noah Webster said, “Every child in America should be acquainted with his own country. He should read books that furnish him with ideas that will be useful to him in life and practice. As soon as he opens his lips, he should rehearse the history of his own country; he should lisp the praise of liberty, and of those illustrious heroes and statesmen, who have wrought a revolution in her favor.”

That the United States now boasts a citizenry devoid of understanding the principles this nation embodied at its founding, is not simply an inconvenience to be explained when someone isn’t sympathetic to the Republican Party.  It is instead, the revelation that the very foundation of our existence has been undermined as time and neglect did its often silent, but dangerous work.

On the centennial of the signing of the Constitution, President James Garfield said, “Now more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress… If the next centennial does not find us a great nation … it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces.”

As we listen to our speaker and candidates, let us evaluate their thoughts and promises as if we are the guardians of liberty.

Because we are.

(UCRC Chairman’s comments at our Fall Dinner.)

Uncontrolled state spending threatens every dollar hard-working Pennsylvanians earn as government grows its obligations.  The tax increases required to fund that spending create a stagnant and slowing economy dimming the Commonwealth’s future as people leave the state in search of jobs and a more cost-effective lifestyle.  But it does not have to be that way.  Pennsylvania can get its financial house in order and live well within its means.  One way is to eliminate prevailing wage, a priority of our own Rep. Fred Keller (R-85).

Today’s Commonwealth Foundation blog, Bad Budget Trends Must Be Reversed, discusses other changes that must be made it Pennsylvania’s future is to be bright for us and future generations.