<!–

–>

December 10, 2022

I am not an editor or journalist.  I’m not an influencer.  I don’t sit in a boardroom or govern my companies’ policies; I abide by them.  Not exactly a position of fortitude, but like many of you I don’t have the luxury of not having a job.  I have a mortgage to pay and a son to put through college.

‘); googletag.cmd.push(function () { googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-1609268089992-0’); }); }

For most of my life I’ve been apolitical.  I’ve only voted in a handful of elections and my votes have never been one party-centric.  Perhaps I just never had the inclination to support a political entity that would invariably let me down. Perhaps I just thought that silence would serve me better than plainspoken conversation.

But inaction has consequences too.  In recent years, I’ve seen many of my colleagues and friends readily embrace the illusion of safety over personal self-determination. As these same friends and colleagues are equally eager to embrace a mantle of inclusion based on the exclusion of intellectual diversity, I’m reminded of Benjamin Franklin’s warning that adversaries of liberty would need to begin by “subduing the freeness of speech.”  

This isn’t a minority of my peers, mind you, that take no issue with federal mandates and the idea of government led disinformation boards.  It’s disheartening to see how quickly we’ve lost our grasp on the historical truths that distinguish free societies.  But what did we expect?  Most of us never provided our children with a historical context to understand or even consider these truths. Instead, we’ve relinquished our role to Yahoo and Google, Facebook, Tik Tok, and Instagram.  We’ve given academia the green light to raise our children and we’ve taught our children not to question authority.  We’ve been lazy and now we’re disappointed about the way the cake turned out.

‘); googletag.cmd.push(function () { googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-1609270365559-0’); }); }

So, what can we do now?  Namely, what can someone like you or I do? What can someone with no audience and no political capital really accomplish when nearly every medium of political discourse and method of communication is driven by a coastal elitist narrative?   In truth, maybe not much.  But, not much, isn’t nothing either.  And, maybe if there are enough of us commoners doing something more than nothing, we’ll actually accomplish something quite substantive. 

Let’s focus our attention on few resolutions that promote vibrant communities and limited government. These aren’t schematic changes.  They are resolutions that “Main Street” Americans can implement without any real time commitment, monetary cost, or risk of reprisal.

1. Vote with your Wallet

You may vote at the ballot box once or twice a year, but you vote every day with your wallet. As Americans we are constant consumers.  We spend a lot and we spend often. And, every day we funnel our hard-earned salaries to corporations like: Paypal, Apple, Ben and Jerry’s, Starbucks, Target, and Nike.  It’s a sad irony, but we’re financing the who’s who of Woke Inc.

In 2023 let’s commit to changing our spending habits. The good news is most of us spend the majority of our money within the same circles of retailers and restaurants.  Switching over a handful of products is easier than you think and you can feel good about money you were already spending anyway.

2. Vote with your ‘Clicks’ (aka: Never Google Anything Again)