The American Dream ~ Can’t We All Get Along?

Can we at least admit that we are all Americans first? No matter your political or philosophical affiliations, are we not all striving for the same thing? “One Nation under God for Liberty and Justice for all.”

We all remember the words, but do we remember the meaning? All of this infighting and political one-ups-manship has to stop. As much as I disagree with the present administration, I am much more repulsed by the parties and the likes of Nancy Pelosi, her Democrats and their hidden agenda of cultural and governmental transformation. An Agenda driven by so few atop the political strata, yet still in the shadows. Groups like Apollo and ACORN organizations, which are backed by the Tides Corporation, whose sole purpose appears to be the stagnation of freedom via programs designed to create dependancy via the "redistribution of wealth" yet defined as the government providing the American Dream for everyone, rather than clearing governmental and regulatory roadblocks impeding personal liberty. The Republican alternatives, while perhaps closer in line to my conservative thinking, are just as involved in the dirty politics as usual and just as implicated with special interest.

I think the American Dream does not need to be redefined but remembered for what it really is. I remember it as having “the freedom and opportunity, unencumbered to pursue the happiness of life this great nation has to offer everyone.”

Are we now so divided that no one can remember what we stand for, what our people and our soldiers stood for countless times. The few left of the Great Society are sickened by the changes since the end of the Viet Nam War. Its not the technological or social advances we have made that have lead to a greater lifestyle than any have ever seen on Earth but the political division and derision that has developed as a byproduct that disgusts them and many of us.

I don’t believe that any Liberal or Conservative, Democrat or Republican is willing to see a child starve, or not have a home to live in. The differences come in the approach to the solutions. Solutions for problems that have been created by lethargy, both public and private. We all believe in the happiness of this nation’s citizens but to what point is the government responsible and to what point is the citizen?

The American Dream and the promise of our Founding Fathers demonstrated in the Constitution is that the individual citizen is the one responsible for their own dream. You make of it what you will, but it is your liberty, you have to do it. The government needs to reestablish itself as a protector of the individual’s rights to build their own dream not the provider.

Taxation is a responsibility we all must share, but government needs to use these funds for national defense, local protection, education and fixing potholes. Get out of the way of commerce. Too many laws, too many regulations and too many government interferences hamper the abilities of its constituents.

For example, every municipality, what ever its size, has a building department or Growth department all of which have inspection departments to enforce adopted building codes and ordinances, which in most cases are law. All of these departments employ inspectors and code compliance officers, that are paid with tax dollars and permitting fees, whose job it is to verify whatever being built minimally meets or exceeds these laws. Is not redundant that the very same departments require special fee based licensing for anyone who works on any particular permitted and inspected portion of this building. Why?

If this building is going to be inspected by a qualified, licensed municipal official (yes most departments require their inspectors to get a fee based inspector’s license) why does the electrician or plumber or whoever actually performs the work have to be licensed as well? If these individuals have the skills to perform the work to the satisfaction of the code why should they be required to be licensed to work? Or be taxed via licensing requirements to apply their trade?

You may be thinking that licensing and codes were put in place to protect the public and you would be partially correct. However licensing was actually a protectionist act first employed by the unions to protect union jobs from nonunion contractors, and then large contractors fearing competition from smaller or even individual entities furthered the standard. This was all started as “a good idea “ by a special interest groups lobbying governmental bodies.

The code is also susceptible to the same lobbying tactics. For example in the 1980’s the conduit manufacturers fearing they were losing too much business to the cable manufacturers introduced a “good idea” to prevent fires. Their idea was cabling must be installed an minimum of 1 ¼ inches from the edge a framing member, if it was not the cable had to be protected from physical damage, and thereby the conduit guys thought electricians would be forced to sleeve all the cables in conduit and both manufacturers would be happy and equal forcing the sale of both cable and conduit and in the process increasing the cost of the total electical installation to the consumer. And while this code change was adopted, these guys were not as smart as the electricians. Electricians simply routed the cabling differently and the electrical box manufacturers came up with a snazzy little device called a nail plate. In neither case was the public actually protected from anything.

I bring this example up in a time of vast unemployment when hundreds of thousands that possess these skills are prevented from working on their own because the government is in the way, threatening fines and imprisonment if they perform the work of their trade without a license. The very same work that will be inspected for code compliance and the very same work they produced when working for a "licensed" employer. I understand the governments “responsibility” to protect the citizenry, but isn’t that what the code and the inspections are for? These regulations should not hamper an individual's rights and liberty to earn a living by applying his trade.

This is a typical example of the government getting in the way and creating its own problems and ours. Between ½ and ¾ of a million people have lost their jobs each month since before the election. How many of these would not be in foreclosure or still collecting unemployment if just this one road-block were removed? How many millions of tax dollars would be saved and gained if these people were earning and living the dream rather than be stuck trying to find a job that doesn’t exist for them, soon to lose the American Dream they had worked for so long?

This is the simple type of solution this country needs. Government has to get out of the way and allow each of us to progress unimpeded. All we need are simple things, children should go to school, criminals should go to jail and everyone should respect each other’s right to the American Dream.

We can all get along by remembering what the dream really is and striving to attain it together.