The Candid Conservative

Today’s America is a production machine for social predators – including the generation we call “Baby-Boomers.”  On the watch of these more fittingly called “Baby-Doomers”, our society’s aborted fifty-million children, a number matching WWII’s death toll, and betrayed the survivors with an inexcusable yoke of debt. 

So far my generation’s bequeathed its offspring seventy-trillion in entitlement commitments and postponed liabilities.  As a bonus, we’ve exported jobs, capital, and vigor to fund our increasing devotion to consumption.  There is great shame in this legacy of greed and mismanagement. 

Baby-Boomer robber barons come in two flavors – crony capitalists and crony socialists.   Both are dedicated to the toxic agenda of nest feathering out of the pockets of others.  Our generation has abandoned the road to reason found in an honest free-market economy uplifting everyone for these two not-so-special interest ditches rewarding the select.  

In his book, The Vision of the Anointed, stellar conservative voice Thomas Sowell warned of a growing source of cultural dysfunction.  He cautioned against ends justifies the means thinking and the license to do pretty much anything because you believe your mission is special.  There’s nothing special about savaging your children.

The world is running out of fairy dust.  The bill for living beyond our means and on the means of others is coming due.  We cannot talk, print, steal, or sponge our way out of a day of reckoning.  Follow-up generations gifted with our burdens are angry and will grow angrier.  Instead of attempting to replicate our entitlement attitudes, the best will discover a positive destiny rests most firmly in their our own hands.  Dark realities always hide hope for those willing to skip the fairy dust and get to work.

No more than twenty-five percent of Baby-Boomers are prepared for retirement.  When we task our young with funding and nursing our golden years, we better pray for forgiveness.  The fact today’s Americans buy fewer diapers and more diaper rash ointment ominously forecasts our fate.     

Generational unity is birthed in social responsibility and fairness.  We owe it to our children to act promptly and stop pandering to special interests over the common good.  Out-of-control deficits require we get serious about living within our means.  The assured mediocrity of the left’s socialistic agenda merits passionate dismissal.  And we should start paying our bills now – not rely on the grim reaper to sneak us out and leave the kids with the tab.

Click here for the temporary Asheville Citizen-Times link...rmumpower@thecandidconservative.com">

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on states’ rights…

The House recently passed a bill allowing concealed weapons permits to be used in all states – regardless of a state’s existing firearms laws. Though we understand the sentiment, conservative thinkers should not support the action. The National Right to Carry Act is heading for the Senate. If approved, gun owners and concealed permit carriers will be understandably thrilled. Those of us falling into those categories but with a deep interest in preserving our Constitution will feel differently.  It’s about States’ Rights. Do we support a large Federal government that both parties use to push their special interests, or states that have the power to address social issues as the Founding Father’s intended? Constitutional questions on state gun control should be addressed by our judiciary, not Congress. Using the Feds to trump states’ rights on guns opens the door for doing exactly the same thing with gay marriage.

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on the word illegal…

Have you noticed how the liberal media avoids the words “illegal” and “aliens” when addressing the issue of illegal immigration.  It’s a duplication of the effort of the North American Man-Boy Love Club’s effort to conceal their mission of molesting children.  Calling illegal aliens “immigrants” avoids the central issue – these folks are violating the law when the cross our borders and again when they use fake identities to stay here.  That’s just the beginning of the greatest conspiracy in our country’s history to break down the rule of law.  This team effort involves politicians from both parties, employers wishing to side-step the self-corrections of our free market economy, and enablers wishing to get a feel good fix.   Replacing the rule of law with the rule of emotions or the rule of greed is a poor trade.  A society that corrupts or abandons justice inevitably betrays its future.  No one will be uplifted by a broken American Dream.

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on our flight to disaster…

Conservative Barry Goldwater once offered that “Extremism in the pursuit of liberty is no vice.  And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”  He’d recognize we’ve lost our way on both counts in today’s America.  All three branches of government – legislative, executive, and judicial – are putting control before liberty.  Most Americans are passive or even supportive of this slide away from our traditions of freedom.  We don’t seem to believe that dark things that have happened to other cultures can happen to ours.  It’s already happening.  Spending beyond our means, spending tomorrow’s defense and social security dollars today, and increasing citizen dependency on government are doing great harm to our society. Harms that will show up later – when it’s too late to alter the outcome.  It’s sort of like the guy who claims he can fly, jumps off the building, and for awhile, appears to be correct.

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on a world in denial…

If you’ve ever wondered how so many people do crazy, harmful, or evil things, look no further than the word denial.  Anywhere you find addiction you will find an equal measure of denial.  Thus the more you do something, the less aware you become of its impact.  People who pick their nose in public are usually in denial about how unpleasant it is to others.  Evil doers are especially prone to denial because the truth would impair their behavior.  People who do bad find a way to believe it’s justified or otherwise OK and politicians are no exception.  In the  Republican Presidential debates every candidate  is practicing denial in one form or another.  And that’s from the party with the closest dedications to reason and reality.  Liberal Democrats often appear to be out of touch because they are.  An addiction to the promise of giving or receiving something for nothing is out of touch with reality – and thus very much in touch with denial. 

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on growing distractions…

Remember when you were a kid and got a boo-boo?  Likely as not your mom, dad, or teacher distracted you with some version of “look over there.”  It worked then, and though we’re now adults, it still does.  Political opportunists are masters at this game.  Sorry for George Bush fans, but this gentleman and his administration perfected the art of distraction to justify our boots on the ground adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The impact of those boo-boos will haunt us for decades.  Liberal big government advocates love to distract us by attacking private business, conservatives, Christians, and anyone else resisting their socialistic agenda.  Fortunately, distraction is an escape from reality, not a replacement.  A trip for a vehicle tag, a tax question, a social security card, unemployment, food stamps, or a mail stamp reveals that government works poorly at best.  Adults embrace reality and resist looking over there.

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Attempting to sell our eight-year military adventure in Iraq as defending America mirrors Coach Sandusky pretending to uplift children with private lessons.  Political opportunists often share the same mindset and denial system that land child molesters in jail.  In fact it can be well argued that sacrificing our young to military adventurism is a precise form of child abuse.

With a dedication to reality, conservative thinkers recognize a dangerous world where the strong reliably seek to abuse the weak.  Under those circumstances, a steady commitment to military defense is crucial.  Military adventurism and military defense, however, are never compatible.  Military adventurism has placed America at great risk as we’ve conjointly neglected our defense infrastructure and prematurely spent tomorrow’s defense dollars. 

A ground war in Iraq, like Afghanistan, was a doomed undertaking.  We began with inflated threats and proceeded with downplayed human and financial cost projections.  We then attempted nation building in a troubled society founded on religious zealotry, tribalism, and corruption.  The house of democracy cannot be assembled on that sandy foundation.    

We lost thirty-five hundred combat troops in this undeclared war.  Ten times that number were wounded.  That’s abuse that makes Sandusky’s run look like amateur hour.  We should be treating the people responsible like social pariahs, not respected statesman.  We won’t, because too many people buy the red, white and blue sales job used to conceal a foreign entanglement championed by Democratic leaders as surely as Republicans. 

When America fights we should do so with enthusiasm, but we should declare war per the Constitution and make sure we’ve committed to the right thing.  We haven’t done that since mid-1945, when we began appeasement practices turning half of free Europe over to communist despotism. 

We followed up by investing our young in one-hand-tied-behind-their-back fights in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq and failed to retain the appropriate lessons – don’t get involved in pretending to police the world with boots on the ground and don’t let anyone undermine your troops if your dumb enough to repeat that error.  Iran provided most of the deadly IED’s that killed most of our soldiers in Iraq, and we let them get away with it. 

There are two things to celebrate as we leave Iraq.  Our troops fought with great courage and tenacity.  And, finally, a majority are coming home.  We honor them most sincerely by mirroring that courage and tenacity in challenging their abusers.  

 (400 words) Carl Mumpower is a practicing psychologist and a former U.S. congressional candidate and Asheville city council member. Contact him at rmumpower@thecandidconservative.com">drmumpower@thecandidconservative.com

Click here for the temporary Citizen-Times link-

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on our race from freedom…

If you’re looking for a New Year fear, you can’t do better than America’s fascination with fatal attractions.  The list is unlimited, but some of top contenders are consumption, drugs, something for nothing, sex, and the idea of a savior on earth.  All of these addictions are deadly to mental, social, physical, and spiritual health, but it’s the last one that should keep culturists up nights.  Though the reality Obama has not remotely measured up to the fantasy Obama, isn’t it fascinating how his mascots remain so loyal?  In truth that loyalty is to an idea – there is someone out there who can save me – not to Obama.  PBO is simply good at tapping into this passion to be saved.  Experience tells us that intelligence, political views, and economic status do not insulate us from the desire to be led.  Eric Fromm, in his book Escape From Freedom, noted this tendency to exchange paradise for a fantasy – and thus open the door to a nightmare.

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on diversity of thought…

I recently had an interesting experience with a young man who asked my name and then thanked me for an editorial challenging our home town’s devotion to one voice – liberalism.  He recognized the importance of multiple angles of view and the dangers of the left’s socialistic dedications.  Though he viewed himself as liberal, he voiced concern over friends on food stamps justifying their status as entitled victims.  It may be true that we Baby-Boomers have betrayed their future, but becoming dependent on politicians is not their solution.  Matt has his finger on the right button – he works, hard, and should be prouder of his efforts to carry his own weight than he is.  As the corruptions of socialism and entitlement unfold Matt and his peers will become more conservative.  Not as political mascots, but independent reality based thinkers and truth seekers—more dedicated to recovering and overcoming than victimization.

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on the difference in talk and walk…

“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the US Government cannot pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies. Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.”  What you’ve just heard is a 2006 quote from Senator Barack Obama.  We appreciate his insight and wonder if he’d mind passing it on to President Obama.  Since flagging our nine trillion in debt, he’s added another five – all of it indeed resting on the backs of our kids and grandkids.

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on scamming the poor…

Poverty is a persisting reality of the human condition.  But America’s prosperity has had remarkable impact on assuring our people do better than most.  In fact, the world’s poor laugh at what we call poverty.  No one who has cable, a car that moves, a cell phone, food on a regular basis, heat, and a stout roof is impoverished by world standards.  Nonetheless, the drums of despair beat relentlessly for the less blessed.  The music makers include media outlets searching for relevance, Democrats searching for mascots, and poverty workers searching for job security.  All are dangerous, but the last group escapes scrutiny.  America is full of social workers, community organizers, activists, government workers, and others who live off of poverty.  Performance reviews persistently demonstrate their ineffectiveness.  Work, not dependency on poverty workers, remains America’s best social service. 

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on our paralyzed government…

Most Americans — pretend conservatives as surely as autopilot liberals — remain pawns to crony capitalism, or a bird of the same feather, crony socialism. Culture vultures differ in color, not agenda.  Quietly awaiting our attention rests an honest free-market system dedicated to liberty, opportunity and responsibility — the model of governance envisioned by our Founding Fathers. Unlike today’s please-and-appease politicians, they understood we do not uplift our fellow man by making him more dependent on the least dependable thing in the universe — politicians. Contrary to the deceptions mouthed by political opportunists in government and media, most of the paralysis coming out of Washington can be tracked not to principles but special interest devotions.  Until we get focused on our common interests over special interests, our government and potentials as a country will remain in deadly paralysis. 

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Should we feel sorry for the twelve illegal aliens recently arrested in Asheville by ICE?  Absolutely.  Just as people of conscience feel sorry for drug abusers, white-collar criminals, child molesters, drunk drivers, shoplifters and anyone else who’s personal behavior has created personal consequence.

America has long benefitted from a well-managed legal immigration policy.  Ronald Reagan began the process of abandoning system sincerity by granting amnesty to those skipping the accountabilities of legal citizenship.  Rationality and enforcement enthusiasm have taken a backseat ever since. 

Republican power brokers, standing behind red, white, and blue camouflage, have persistently supported illegal immigration.  Like the Chamber of Commerce, a bias for business over principle makes it easy to prioritize a cheap labor pool over the rule-of-law.   

Democrats are equally self-serving.  Donkey, Inc. likes the control that comes with making people dependent on politicians.  What better potential voter bloc than an uneducated, impoverished, and disenfranchised underclass? 

The costs of our short-sightedness are high.   Jobs that were once a bridge to adulthood for teens no longer exist.  We’ve similarly abandoned this generation’s young black males because we don’t need them.  Illegal aliens import most illegal drugs and account for a disproportionate percentage of crimes.  Contrary to the spin of apologists, the costs associated with education, social, and medical services are staggering. 

Solutions rarely attend liberal pity-parties.  Conservative action steps begin with ending support for farmers, contractors, manufactures and other predatory employers milking our free enterprise system while behaving like opportunistic communists.  That’s precisely the role assumed by those supporting  governance by special interest, selective enforcement, and ineffective central bureaucracy.

Fantasies about busing millions back over our porous borders are just that.  An invisible fence of persistent enforcement, E-Verify, and serious fines against employers is the real answer.  Illegal immigration will reverse naturally when the funding dries up. 

Most police administrators, sheriffs, and state and local officials are moral cowards when it comes to this issue.  Dedications to job security and please-and-appease public service models prevail over allegiance to the rule-of-law and America’s future.   Nothing will change until our citizenry says enough. 

Should we support those who violate our borders, illegally assume false identities, and then attempt building families, careers, and futures on that shaky foundation?  No – there is essential difference in enabling and compassion.  Awkwardly for most illegal immigration activists, the deepest roots of enabling spring from vanity and self-service, not the needs of their mascots.

Carl Mumpower is a practicing psychologist and a former U.S. congressional candidate and Asheville city council member. Contact him at rmumpower@thecandidconservative.com">drmumpower@thecandidconservative.com

Please click here for the Asheville Citizen-Times temporary link-

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on love…

There’s a reason that so many Americans are losing their love of country.  It’s a simple equation – you love only that in which you invest positive and loving energy.  The left has successfully sold the illusion that the love you feel is based in the love you get.  That’s bartering and dependency – not love.  Love is a choice involving voluntary contribution – not forced participation.  As America becomes increasingly characterized by a government of force, our love of country is being murdered.  The American Dream is founded in partnership, investment, and contribution, not dependency, entitlement, and consumption.  Making people pawns to big government assures anger, resentment, and detachment, traits increasingly evident wherever liberalism thrives.  Feeling neutral or negative about your native land?  Start putting something positive back in and you’ll get reacquainted with that warm furry red, white, and blue love.

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on the heart of liberalism…

Though liberals play hot potatoes with the concept of socialism, it’s the heart of their menu.  Have you noticed how left-handed thinkers automatically ridicule attempts to question that agenda?  It’s sort of like child abusers caught by hidden cameras.  They blow off challenge right up to the moment their confronted with proof.   Socialism is real and it’s a real threat coming from a real source – the liberal Democratic Party.  The dictionary offers several definitions of socialism, including “The stage following capitalism in the transition of a society to communism, characterized by the imperfect implementation of collectivist principles." In the real world, when government controls production and distribution through the law, regulations, tax policies, and big government, that’s socialism.  With addiction always comes denial.  With Democrats always comes an addiction to the corruptions of socialism. 

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on the power of debt…

Paul Krugman of the NY Times is a liberal-socialist-progressive.  Like his peers, he’s a big fan of debt as a solution to our economic problems.  Recently he took time to chastise miserly Republicans for not turning up the printing press. He used a parade of half-truths to support his position.  It remains that debt as a solution is a bankrupt idea.  America had more debt at the end of WW II, but we were ascending with 60% of the world’s manufacturing capacity.  We’re descending now – rapidly. He also ignored 70 trillion in debt we’re passing to our kids through entitlement promises, unfunded mandates, underfunded retirement plans, student debt, and a depleted social security pool.  More debt will add to that burden and postpone action on tax policy, government ineffectiveness, trade practices, and military adventurism that will make a difference.  Liberals endorse debt because they’re addicted to power – at any price.

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on a mediocre future…

Most liberal progressives bristle at the idea of American exceptionalism.  Their dedication to the inevitable mediocrity of socialism runs in competition to the extraordinary potentials of a responsible and free society.  Unfortunately, that’s not today’s America.  We’re trying to run a hybrid combo of crony socialism and crony capitalism that’s exceptional only because its dysfunctional.  We’ll remain a bright beacon to the world only if we make bright choices.  The values we talk and walk today will set the course for our future and those must be good to work good.   The replacement of liberty, productivity, and responsibility with dependency, consumption, and entitlement is the left’s mission in word and deed.  Conservative thinkers should challenge this exceptional effort to corrupt America.  The side, right or left, which works the hardest will secure an exceptional future or assure our exceptional failure.

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on our scary President…

Now that his “Dear Leader” daddy has departed, North Korea’s new tyrant, Kim Jong Un, is planning to carry on as the new self-described “Great Leader.”  Curiously, the leader of the free world, Barrack Hussein Obama, has similar plans.  According to the LA Times, in 2012 Obama plans to mostly skip his Constitutional relationship with Congress and go directly to the people.  We can assume that the most expensive private jet in the world, Air Force One, will be his primary means of getting close to the people.  Obama and Kim are more truthfully skipping leadership and going directly to despotism.  We understand why Kim’s taking that great leap, but find it curious an elected President would entertain the idea. But what else is new?  Obama has been preaching olive branches and practicing political opportunism since day one.  Of the two, Kim, as measured by match between talk and walk, ironically seems to be more sincere than our guy. 

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on the folly of foreign entanglements…

We’re out of Iraq now.  We won the war, but we’ll quickly lose the peace.  It was unraveling before our troops closed the last door on the last outpost.  Fantasies on creating Democracy had the longevity of containing a handful of sand.  Afghanistan will be no different.  For a front row seat to that absurdity, talk with the family of former Afghan President Rabbani, the deceased head of their High Peace Council.  He was taken out by two Taliban hoods visiting as fantasy peace emissaries.  Their bombs went unnoticed. Just like the fact we’re pretending to negotiate a responsible settlement with the same players on the future of Afghanistan.  You can’t negotiate with insanity.  You can only pretend until you tip toe away.  That’s what we’re doing, and we’re sacrificing our young to prop up the charade.  Conservative thinkers do not support military adventurism.  They recognize it as the real enemy of a strong defense – and our children.

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on a betrayal of liberty…

It won’t last long, but what’s happening in Europe is the birth of a new form of government – a “Technocracy”.  Roosevelt played with the concept during the Great Depression – he failed but hid the mistakes.  Robert McNamara attempted to run Vietnam as a technical exercise.  He failed too.  For the first time in history, the economic collapse of socialism in Greece and Italy has resulted in a takeover of their sovereign governments by European Union technicians.  EU crony appointees have replaced elected officials.  Democracy got lost in this leveraging act – another reminder that debt is a dangerous enemy to liberty and independence.  Today’s Europe is being run by technicians offering hollow solutions to a collapsing social system too long living beyond its means.  This Technocracy, will, for a time, pretend to save the day.  It will fail.  What comes next will be even more dangerous to our falling world.

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on an American epidemic…

The Occupy Wall Street folks may not be good campers, but they’ve admirably turned the lights on crony capitalism.  Unfortunately, their alternative – crony socialism – is worse.  In today’s America, a growing majority are dedicated to a poisonous agenda – alignment with those who can feather their nest.  One of my favorites is the Military Officers Association.  I know you’d think this to be a group of dedicated patriots, but you’d be wrong.  This PAC is little more than a country club for retired officers seeking to milk the system – and they’re good at it.  While we ignore the cogent solutions of an honest free market system, cronyism – also sometimes referred to as special interests – is busy corrupting America.  At some point there will be no pockets left to pick.  Then we will be like most other countries in the world.  Except we’ll be able to remember having it all, and squandering paradise to greed and self-service.

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on our job problem…

Recent government figures heralded by TV cheerleaders suggest progress on jobs.  It’s artificial or misguided enthusiasm.  This recession-slash-depression is not like others.  Before, we’d hit a slump and then better jobs would develop out of new opportunities.  This time the new jobs are there, but they aren’t better.  The only jobs flourishing are those that can’t be exported like healthcare and food prep.  Our middle class is withering while we pretend all is well.  Our government’s policies have been designed to prop up crony capitalism and crony socialism – not jobs.   There’s no consensus on what to do, and that’s part of the problem.  Consensus won’t work – we need strong and principled leadership.  That’s even more rare in today’s America than a new job that will feed a family.  Dedication to production, accountability, excellence, and personal responsibility will best create opportunity out of misery.

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on diaper rash…

As the New Year begins, some reflection is due on how we can make it better than the last one.  That’s especially appropriate if you, like me, are a baby-boomer.  Our generation is the first in history to pass our children a worse deal than we got.  A much worse deal.  In fact, we’ve saddled them with around 70 trillion in debt, entitlement costs, and, unfunded government mandates.  We were also kind enough to screw up the economy and job opportunities so that paying off our debt is going to be even tougher.  No more than 25% percent of all baby-boomers have prepared for retirement.  When we get to the nursing home, we better hope our young caregivers are forgiving.  The fact that Americans are buying less diapers and more ointment for diaper rash would be an early sign that they may not be.  Tomorrow’s adults will be less than pleased with our failure to live within our means and look out for them when they needed us most.

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Thanks for making The Candid Conservative the most popular Podomomatic Conservative podcast and second most popular of all News and Politics podcasts on Friday, December 30, 2011! 

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on an abused army…

Anyone attempting to sell our 8 year military adventure in Iraq as defending America needs medication, a lie detector test, or a kick in the fanny.  Seriously claiming success by sacrificing our young in that quagmire mirrors Coach Sandusky pretending to uplift kids with private lessons.  Military adventurism is different than military defense and one never serves the other.  In fact, our foreign entanglement in Iraq has placed America at great risk.  We’ve neglected our military infrastructure and spent tomorrow’s defense dollars on this police action.  That’s criminal behavior and treason, not something to celebrate.  We should be treating the people responsible like social pariahs, not respected statesman.  We won’t, because too many people buy the red, white and blue sales job.  Still, there are two things to celebrate as we leave Iraq.  Our troops fought with courage and tenacity.  And, finally, most of them are coming home.

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on an assault on liberty…

Leave it to Washington to do one thing consistently – get the wrong things right and the right things wrong.  Case in point, the increasingly permanent 4^th Amendment assaults by the anything but Patriot Act.  Bush, Obama, Republicans, and Democrats all jumped on board and sacrificed liberty for this shaky attempt at safety.  Round 2 has the expanded National Defense Authorization Act setting the stage for despotism in America.  Sure, there’s no one, right now, trying to put a boot on our head.  But if he’s waiting in the wings, Washington has given him the leather for tomorrow.  The NDAA gives license to martial law, domestic military intervention, and other risks to freedom.  Create any window of opportunity, and someone will attempt it.  One man’s independence is another man’s terror.  Thanks to the boys and girls in Washington, those fearing a liberated people now have another tool to make sure we aren’t.

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on the real mission of Democrats…

Our current Congress has the lowest approval rating in history.  Lower, in fact, than telemarketers.  Get that low and you’re keeping company with pimps, drug dealers, and child abusers.  What makes that low rating really interesting is the people earning it are trying hard to sell the idea we need more of them, not less.  That’s sort of like a restaurant that gives you food poisoning offering to send over dinner.  Objectively, Republicans are as bad at growing government as Democrats.  But they at least understand the concept of small government.  Democrats don’t.  They’re dedicated to making as many Americans as possible dependent on the least dependable thing in the universe – politicians.  We should be laughing them out of town, but instead, about half of America regularly joins this circus parade.  The Donkey sells dependency on politicians for his benefit, not ours.

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on conservatives behaving badly…

Though Mitt Romney gets the heat for birthing ObamaCare, he was actually the first to get it done, not the first to propose it.  The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, and Newt Gingrich, a political opportunist, got the idea rolling in the late 80’s and early 90’s. They were for it then, but now that Obama has the reins, they think it’s a bad idea.  In truth, it was a bad idea then and now.  Forcing nationalized health care participation in a free society will never be the right thing.  Besides, we’re stumbling between socialized medicine and rigged medicine instead of fixing our health care system.  Both of those paths eliminates competition and the power of a truly free market.  That’s how we get on top of quality and costs in health care - doing what America once did best.  Instead, Obama, Gingrich, and sometimes the Heritage foundation are confusing power politics for leadership. 

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on an American mission...

Socialism is the dominant model of governance in the world.  Like the devil, it takes many names and faces, but all serve the same tired lie.  Socialism is marketed as a source of hope and promise – mostly of something for nothing.  The reality is about mediocrity and subjugation.  Conservatives should resist America’s slide into socialism with enthusiasm and three tools.  One is the flashlight.  Socialism does not survive in the light.  The second is our model – productive, engaged, and reality oriented people are happier beacons in a darkening world.  The third tool is a dedication to American exceptionalism.  We have a long history of reaching higher – toward excellence – in everything we do.  America’s not based in perfection, but it sure as heck isn’t based in the other extreme of mediocrity.  In the real world we live no better than we earn.  Excellence will best preserve the real America and the good people who make it so… 

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Speculations on a third party are wasted.  We already have one.  The mumbling majority party is the greatest political force in America.

John Kennedy once offered a message of indictment to this de facto third party, “There are risks and costs to action.  But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.”

If we don’t have the juice to keep our existing parties from floundering, it’s naive to believe we have the capacity to build a better new one. We have the parties we’re earning. 

The first priority of all political entities, and indeed all organizations, is self-preservation. Minus safeguards, that dedication is toxic. One path to organizational health is the purposeful embrace of transparency, honesty, and accountability as core values. Very few groups have such courage or character. That’s especially true for governmental agencies, crony capitalists, subjugating socialists, and political parties. Even if a third party was established, per our current social model, it would immediately prioritize self-service.

American humorist Josh Billings prophetically summed up today’s Democratic Party, “Some people are so addicted to exaggeration that they can’t tell the truth without lying.”  Donkey pitchmen replay their own propaganda so much they’ve lost touch with Mother Nature’s four cornerstones – reality, reason, responsibility, and right.  Lose touch with those and you’re doomed to lose everything.

Obama’s promise of hope and change is nothing new.  For years his party’s championed the idea that dependency on the least reliable force in the universe – politicians – is a good thing. This contaminated self-preservation tactic condemns the donkey to extinction.   

Republicans were thoroughly stripped of their authenticity during the Bush years. Pretend conservatives squandered the opportunities found in holding the presidency, house, and senate for six years.  W’s replacement was right about inheriting a mess, but conveniently forgets volunteering, promising the moon, and then making everything worse.

Salvaging the elephant rests on local Republican organizations making sure their party stands for something people can count on and publically grading the match between their elected official’s words and actions.  Anything less is fluff.

Attracting the mumbling majority is important, but not by compromising principles.  Republicans libeled as right-wing extremists must remember Alice’s experience in Wonderland.  In a crazy world, common sense can appear extreme. We serve America best by standing as an island of sanity sense in a sea of chaos.  The muddled middle will swim for something they can count on…

(400 words)  Carl Mumpower is a practicing psychologist and a former U.S. congressional candidate and Asheville city council member. Contact him at rmumpower@thecandidconservative.com">drmumpower@thecandidconservative.com

Click here for the temporary Asheville Citizen-Times link...

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on Reality 101…

Socialists are dedicated to subjugating people to government.  As an incentive to accept this modern version of slavery, promises of something for nothing are offered.  It’s that persisting message that accounts for America’s decreasing dedication to personal responsibility.  Accountability avoidance has become an art form for too many of our citizens and non-citizens.  How does a person come to this country illegally, use false documents and have children here, and then become a social problem for which the rest of us must pay?  Folks in Dallas Texas have finally said “enough” to accepting the costs and mayhem of having 25% of their drivers, many here illegally, uninsured.  Get caught now, and your car is towed and impounded and you face stiff fines.  Accidents have already dropped dramatically.  As students of reality, conservatives have long known that’s what happens when you combine creativity and responsibility with action.

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on grabbing hold of our American…

Anyone wanting to win America’s hearts and minds better have a steady hand.  There are five clear points of action for leaders with vision.  Healthcare is one – between socialized medicine and a rigged market like we have now is a free market that lets competition drive costs down and quality up.  Our military budget is another – spending tomorrow’s defense dollars policing the world is dumb.  To protect here, we have to stop silly foreign entanglements over there.  Jobs will come from taxation and regulation policies stimulating manufacturing and production here versus there too.  Social unity comes from social opportunity – we must stop pandering to special interests over our common interests.  Our deficit status requires government and individuals to live within our means.  Going forward, sacrifices must be spread fairly and transparently.  Laying a strong hand on these problems is the only way to stop them from laying hand to us…

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on standing for something real…

If Republicans plan to beat Obama next fall they better craft a better message than we’re hearing today.  Sure, constraining government, entitlements, and tax increases sounds good, but there’s too much pain for that message to be nearly good enough.  Democrats are painting the Republican Party as fat cat HQ even though Democrats are where the real fat cat money is invested.  Unless the party that’s supposed to be about conservative values helps people understand what that really means, America’s socialist slide is going into high gear with Obama’s second term.  Reality, reason, responsibility, and right are the foundations of political conservatism.  Are those words that anyone really associates with the Republican brand?  It’s not too late to be about something instead of running against what someone else is about.  To win we must stand for something people can understand and count on…

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on using our air force against us…

The Obama 2012 campaign is in full swing.  He’s using Air Force One to market himself like Hugh Hefner once used the Playboy jet to market sex.  Having worn himself out impressing the faithful, Obama needs a break.  How does two weeks in Hawaii courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer sound to you?  I guess it’s easier to believe you’re a man of the people when your playtime comes out of the pockets of those people.  Those concerned that this may not be an ideal time to suspend campaigning need not worry.  Obama continues to receive Christmas presents in the form of endorsements by a really interesting mix of fans.  Would you believe Warren Buffett, Jon Corzine, the former head of Goldman Sachs, the National Education Association, the USA’s Communist Party, and about every actor in Hollywood are already on board?  The people who work for a living remain in a deadly struggle with Air Force One and those who vote for a living.

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on an Obama point of truth…

It may come as a shock to conservatives, but Obama is right about inheriting a mess.  Much of our economic collapse was created by Bush and other Republicans behaving badly.  Their socialistic drug plan, military adventurism in two corrupt countries, and persistent borrow and spend policies were expensive Republican nonsense.  Bush and his pretend conservative cronies squandered a six year opportunity when they had control of the presidency, house, and senate.  Apologies to Republican loyalists, but being the lesser of evils still puts you in the middle of evil.  As you might guess, the story doesn’t end with a halo for Obama.  Democrats took congress two years before he was elected.  They spent like crazy and then Obama jumped in with his own hope and change  fantasies.  PBO’s right about inheriting a mess, but conveniently forgets he volunteered, promised the moon, and then made everything worse.

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

In marriage and international relations, dependency invariably leads to hostility.

America’s unconscionable dependence on Chinese products, credit, and benevolence has placed both societies in grave danger.  We’ll one day regret having spent tomorrow’s defense dollars on today’s pretense of policing the world. 

In a recent simulated fight with China over Taiwan, America lost.  The imposing size of our aircraft carriers constructs exceptional targets for increasingly numerous and sophisticated Chinese missiles.  Check the manufacturer on your computer for clarity on our vulnerabilities to Chinese military technology. 

It’s important to remember the Middle Kingdom remains a Communist country run by dogmatic despots.  The gap between the people of China and the government of China is even greater than the gap between our citizens and Washington.  There, like here, power, profit,  patronage, and propaganda, not people, remain firmly in control. 

China has embedded flaws and they lie about them.  It doesn’t matter if it’s disaster deaths, poverty statistics, systemic corruption, a growing inability to feed their people, or melamine poison in baby formula.  China’s economic miracle is not based on affordable labor and manufacturing expertise so much as easy money and booming real-estate speculation.  Their bubble holds lethal potentials to pop our bubble too.

American greed has artificially empowered China.  Did we really believe a Communist country championing sweat shops, women as second class citizens, and social pariahs in Iran, Korea, and their own government could be a reliable friend?  Ask anyone doing business with China.  Hurdles are growing, copyright laws are a joke, and trade rules remain steadfastly one sided.  Ask Japan, Vietnam, and Tibet about territorial disputes.   Napoleon, a first-string geopolitical thinker, got it right on China, “Let her sleep, for when she wakes, she will shake the world.” 

A cautionary park sign, “Don’t feed the bears”, offers a way around our pending clash with China.  Getting serious about fair trade, revitalizing our manufacturing base, legitimizing “Buy American” enthusiasms, living within our mean, separating defense from military adventurism, and reaffirming our commitment as the beacon of the free world begins the answers list.  

Like a hungry bear, China tolerates a shallow affinity only as long as we feed her.   While there’s still time, it’s important to remember who becomes the menu when the food runs out.   Another sign outside China’s equivalent of NASA’s space center boldly declares their task and our test, “Without haste, without fear, China will rule the world.”

Click here for the temporary Asheville Citizen-Times link...

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on putting on big boy pants…

Hope springs eternal that this time America will elect an adult to the Presidency.  Voting on the basis of personality didn’t work so well last time.  That exercise in feel good folly got us things like a publicity hound burning 9,000 gallons of jet fuel to plant a tree on earth day.  It also got as an offshore drilling embargo, lawsuits against states resisting illegal immigration assaults, a new and well used teleprompter in the White House press room, an IPOD for Britain’s Queen and DVD’s for their Prime Minister, 57 states instead of 50, an unannounced Air Force One joy ride over Manhattan, 32 new Czars on a government power trip, and a healthcare plan that puts those same wise and frugal bureaucrats in charge.  The presidency is an executive position.  That means the job centers on administration, not personality.  We’re moving into a darker time for America.  We need a president who can turn on the lights – not just his fan club.

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on enabling and addiction…

Democrat clamor for raising taxes is similar to chatter about amnesty for illegals.  Both are an effort – typical to the party of progressive socialism – to put the cart before the horse.  Raising taxes before our government proves it can cut expenses is like giving beer to an alcoholic promising to quit drinking.  Giving border bandits citizenship before you stop the mass illegal migration is like giving transfusions to an accident victim before you stop the bleeding.  Make no mistake about it, higher taxes are coming, but they should only come after dramatic cuts.  A 3 to 1 ratio generates realistic budget numbers.  Before rewarding law breakers, we must control our borders and the employers creating the attraction.  Many illegals will return home when the jobs dry up.  We can then talk about work permits, visas and earned citizenship options.  Give Congress another blank check on taxes and amnesty?  Forget about it.

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on turning on the lights…

America has a long history of serving as the beacon of the free world.  That light dimmed dramatically with this century’s decision to expand our role as the world’s policeman.  That deal with the devil got us focused on mowing the other guy’s grass instead of our own.  We’ve spent a trillion plus dollars on Iraq,  Afghanistan, and Libya and foreign aid to equally ungrateful countries.  They’ve replied back with a reality check on the limits of US power.  We live in a crazy world and it’s getting crazier.  It’s not necessary we become isolationists, but the sooner we start working on America the sooner we can turn our light back on.  We serve the world best as a model, not a benefactor or policeman.  America has been exceptional and can be again.  Productivity, responsibility, excellence, service, creativity, and persistence are the keys to happiness and cultural sanity.  The sooner we shut down the left’s efforts to take us to socialistic mediocrity, the sooner we can renew our relationship with prosperity and a future of hope – no matter what our crazy world does.  

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on Reality 101…

The world has used up most of its fairy dust.  Our capacity to postpone reality has shrunken with each stolen minute of denial.  Living beyond our means, living on the means of others, and living on borrowed means are short-cuts to social bankruptcy.  The problem is that about every country in the world has been practicing these policies.  All are connected to the false god of socialism.  Even countries, like ours, that pretend devotion to free enterprise have bought into socialism’s bright lie.  There is no such thing as something for nothing.  Somebody, sometime, somewhere always pays.  In this case it’s a world full of people who’ve attempted to sidestep responsibility and consequence.  It makes no matter how much money politicians print, we’re going to take a big prosperity hit.  Take heart that our destiny rests best in our own hands.  Dark reality always hides opportunity for those willing to skip the fairy dust and get to work.

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on cleaning up our own yard first…

Words and images are often more about deception than description.  Actions speak best to the sincere mission of everyone – including politicians.  Republicans continue to talk and pretend conservative, but actions give them away.  The absurdities of the Super-Committee and automatic budget cuts being one recent example.  Almost everyone in Congress went with this confidence game.  It’s folly to drop a marble off a building and plan on it going up. If Republican leaders are ever to operate from principle, that transition will have to begin at the local level.  County party organizations have the power to turn the lights on the voting records of candidates and thus strengthen a match between walk and talk.  We’re responsible for our own children.  Complaining about Donkey off-spring, while we ignore Republican missteps, assures we’ll never have the party of promise and principle America desperately needs.

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Taking a candid shot at the Democratic Party...

Today’s my birthday and illuminating donkey mischief is a great way to celebrate. 

For starters Democrat powerbrokers do a splendid job of concealing their role as America’s socialist party.  That’s what you are if you push legislation, regulation, and taxation that swells government and shrivels people.    

Socialism plays to needs and entitlements.  Aristotle taught us that in the real world responsibility and productivity are the keys to happiness.   As the unraveling of his motherland reveals, there’s a difference in bait and food.

The Democratic Party is like the cigarette industry.  They’re great at marketing, but offer a toxic product.  In the real world smoke and unearned benefits are both carcinogens. 

Donkey, Inc’s advertising campaign relies heavily on fear and other emotional appeals like, “Republicans hate clean air and poor people and want to take away grandma’s social security.”  Voters, like smokers, are easier to maneuver when feeling good replaces thinking good.  

Politicians, Republicans as surely as Democrats, are like teenagers.  You can’t measure their status by words, charm or self-descriptions.  Actions are the sincere yardstick.  Voting records pin a stinging tale on this donkey.

There are eleven Democrats, one Independent, and zero Republicans currently serving on Asheville’s city and county boards.  Voting records expose one indisputable fact – they’re all liberals.  Apologies to those successfully hiding in the closet, but having a business bias or occasional conservative burp doesn’t make you a moderate or conservative anymore than citing a few scriptures makes you a preacher. 

Eliminating all conservative representation isn’t smart for the same reason a car full of teens with a case of beer isn’t smart.

It’s amazing how so many voters with traditional conservative values, including minorities and older folks, support a political party diligently working against their core beliefs.  Donkey pretenses of being for the little man are backed up by a capable propaganda machine, not truth.  No one ever uplifted anyone by increasing their dependence on politicians.   

My party deserves much of the credit for Democrat success.  In failing to offer a reliable and principled option, the Republican Party power structure has detoured millions of Americans to that cliff on the left. 

The Democratic Party has a fatal flaw.  They’ve made too many promises they can’t keep and violated too many realities they can’t dodge.  For those few Democrats still operating from conscience versus habit, I’d offer one more birthday indulgence – people make poor pets.

(398 words)  Carl Mumpower is a practicing psychologist and a former U.S. congressional candidate and Asheville city council member. Contact him at rmumpower@thecandidconservative.com">drmumpower@thecandidconservative.com

Click here for the temporary Asheville Citizen-Times link to this editorial...

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on fat hungry people…

By now you’ve seen one of those hunger shows on TV.  Humble and happy hungry people are seen praising the gift of free food.  Sorry America, but when a hungry family is obese, something’s wrong.  Gratitude can come from greed as surely as need – free feels good. And so it goes in the land of plenty.  98% of our poor have a TV.  80% have air conditioning.  65% have cable.  By world standards, that’s living large.  We should not confuse poor with marginal.  Most poverty is directly traceable to lifestyle and personal accountability.  Our so called poor eat more unhealthy food, drink more unhealthy sodas, smoke more, and play the lottery more than the middle class.  Notice all of those behaviors are voluntary.  Choices create poverty as surely as circumstance.  Too many people have climbed out of ditch in India and thrived.  Enabling is about vanity.  We should not give our sort-of-poor a pass on personal responsibility.

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on the magic of please and appease…

Congress, Republicans as surely as Democrats, may not know how to lead, but they sure know how to kick the can down the road.  Speaker of the House John Boehner did a masterful job of just that with the August budget agreement. The pretense of automatic cuts and appointment of a Super-Committee to reduce Congressional spending was super political theater and nothing more.  Congress will cut spending the same way a cow stops eating grass – only when there is nothing, absolutely nothing, left to spend.  The so-called automatic cuts are not binding and if they were, the restraint amounts to 3% over 9 years.  When Congress spends almost twice what it takes in, that’s pretense, not stewardship.  The Republican proposal on cap, cut, and trade had real potential, but political pragmatists like Boehner chose appeasement over leadership.  The Super-Committee was a magic trick – we shouldn’t clap. 

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on a new and maybe dangerous Germany…

Angela Merkel, Germany’s Chancellor, is not the front man one would expect for the rebirth of an empire.  Nonetheless, that’s precisely the role she’s playing and it’s all coming together thanks to Europe’s persisting fascinations with the seductions of socialism.  That boat always sinks, and when it does, the castaways start looking for an island of stability in the midst of the chaos.  Enter Germany, a country no bigger than Montana, that’s the third largest exporter in the world.  They’re also the only country in Europe that has prioritized productivity and prudence.  All the rest, to one degree or the other, have lived large and passed the costs forward.  The bill is due and it’s overwhelming.  What Germany couldn’t do with war, they’re now doing through economic turmoil.  Germany remains as dedicated to power as ever – history tells us it’s in their DNA.  The German leader to watch out for waits in the shadows.   

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on a tough voice for tough times…

We live in the halcyon days of political pussyfooters.  Voters elect their chosen ones based on one priority above all others – the ability to help us sidestep reality and responsibility with smooth words and hollow promises.  Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK’s Independence Party is rejecting this “People of the Lie” approach to politics.  Borrowing from the courageous models of Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill, voices of reason in their own time, Mr. Farage takes no prisoners in confronting this generation’s flock of culture vultures.  Watching him challenge the incompetency and lack of accountability of Europe’s bureaucrats is a fascinating exposure to a voice of power and truth.  Conservatives and Libertarians working to strengthen their own voice would do well to check out Mr. Nigel Fairage.  His tongue is a sword and he knows how to leave the mark of Zorro on the bad guys.

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on treason versus reason…

It will surprise most conservatives to know  Ronald Reagan was a pioneer on amnesty for illegal immigrants.  Though he later recognized his error in believing Congress would keep its promise to enforce immigration law, the damage was done.  Now, one of our generation’s stellar political opportunists, Newt Gingrich, is singing a similar tune.  Don’t buy the political double talk.  Any form of amnesty before we get serious about enforcement is about treason, not reason.  Comments about we can’t send fifteen million people home on a bus are designed to confuse, not inform.  We’ll know our politicians are serious about enforcement only when they go after the folks funding this mass illegal migration – employers.  Fines and other consequences for employers will dry up illegal jobs, and no jobs means no stolen access to the American Dream.  That’s a virtual border fence that will work and put millions of Americans back to work too…

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

A critical review of my political party-

What’s wrong with the GOP?  It’s a light version of the opposition. 

Being high on grand and low on stand is not what America needs today.  My party is dishearteningly persistent in positioning power, patronage and profit before principle.  That matters, because in the absence of a party of principle, people naturally default to the party with the least principles.  Donkey, Inc’s hollow promises of something for nothing are thus winning the struggle for America’s hearts and minds. 

It’s not that Republicans have no principles.  They just seem to also have an institutional predilection for ignoring or losing them.  A cyber-trip to our national website reveals further impairment, kindergarten social media skills, along with no evidence of stated principles.  From personal exposures in 2008, I know the Republican Party’s nine core principles were then buried in the deeper recesses of an equally uninspired website.

Republican principles are important because they reflect America’s roots.  The nine can be summed up as a promise to be careful with other people’s liberty, life, property, and values – a mirror image of our Founding Father’s vision.       

Unfortunately Republicans talk about liberty and then do things like champion permanence for the Patriot Act’s Constitutional indifferences.  A great conservative thinker, Benjamin Franklin, warned us about the dangers of placing temporary safety before liberty.  He’d recognize the insincerity of this elephant walk.

Republicans promote the sanctity of life and rightfully challenge a social model that’s aborted fifty-million children.   We confusingly betray the sincerity of that mission by sacrificing our young in foolish police actions in corrupt foreign lands. 

My party speaks to being careful with other people’s money, property, and resources, but embraces borrow and spend policies guaranteed to make government bigger and people smaller.  

Republicans talk values, but routinely walk political expedience and moral cowardliness.   The failure to protect our borders represents the second greatest act of cultural suicide in our country’s history.  Out-of-control deficit spending remains firmly in first. 

The Democratic Party, like all of history’s socialist pretenders, has permanently corrupted itself by seducing political mascots with expectations it can never fulfill.  I remain a Republican because, in contrast, my party has lost its way, not its vision. 

Republican recovery will occur at the local level.  When party organizations begin holding their elected officials accountable for walking their talk.  There’s still time for the elephant to remember and reliably stand for something that really is grand. 

(400 words)  Carl Mumpower is a practicing psychologist and a former U.S. congressional candidate and Asheville city council member. Contact him at rmumpower@thecandidconservative.com">drmumpower@thecandidconservative.com

Click here for the temporary Asheville Citizen-Times link...

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on standing on the right…

Michael Medved is a reasoned voice for conservative thinking.  In a recent WSJ article he correctly pointed out that political candidates win by seizing the center.  He’s right, but appealing to independent or moderate thinkers doesn’t mean abandoning conservative principles.  Political conservatism is about Constitutional governance, being careful with other people’s money and liberty, and resisting the use of government to rob Peter to pay Paul.  Political conservatism is different than moral conservatism, not better necessarily, but different.  Being called a right winger is not bad – it’s great.  In a crazy world, sanity can appear extreme.  Conservatives should never attempt to seduce the middle by compromising principles.  We serve America best by being an island of sanity in a sea of chaos – the muddled middle will swim for something they can count on.

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on picking your flavor…

Ever thought about what defines who we are as people?  Politicians, for example, like to define themselves by how they think, feel, talk, and look. That’s all make-up, because voting records are the only sincere measurement.  By that standard, there are very few true conservative politicians in America.  In today’s permissive culture, people from painful backgrounds are often given the license to define themselves by earlier hardships.  I got a raw deal when I was a kid, so I deserve a get-out-of-jail free pass for being a jerk.  There’s an immediate problem anytime we define ourselves by image or limitations.  Nature doesn’t give deceptive politicians, professional victims, or anyone else a pass on accountability.  Ultimately, we’re defined by what we do.  Those who struggle to stand for and do the right thing, no matter how hard it is, remain on the right side of reality. 

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Hi, this is TheCandidConservative with today’s minute on a real employment program…

Alabama has one of the newest and toughest anti-illegal immigration laws in the country.  They’re going after the folks that every state should be going after – employers.  Those funding the mass invasion of our borders are the key to stopping this illegal form of cultural suicide.  Importing a dependent underclass from Mexico may provide companies with good cheap labor, but you and I get to pick up the tab for education, healthcare, and other high dollar social services.  There are other costs.  Our children, older workers, and minorities are losing an opportunity to earn a decent living.  It matters that in one month Alabama’s unemployment rate has dropped almost a full point as illegal labor has left the state.  Obama’s spent trillions and hasn’t moved the rate anywhere but up.  There’s only one thing to say about this new illegal immigration crackdown – Go Bama!

I’m Dr. Carl Mumpower and you just spent a minute with a candid conservative…

Next Page