It Is Important to define success

LARRY ANDERSON
Larry Anderson

I have a lot of issues with the Left’s ambition to redo America into its own peculiar image, but none so necessary as describing our differences in defining success.

The Left, you see, tends to view America as a failure when it comes to matters of race, economic equality, and fairness, to identify a few within its lengthy list. I, being conservative, see our nation as a success, albeit flawed with room for improvement.

I have little truck with Lefties who dwell on such politically engineered polemics as the “War on Women,” among others. I dislike the practice of selectively conjoining past injustices to a modern rationalization for social engineering. A nation should acknowledge mistakes within their historical context, but it must also move on for success to follow.

The Left argues that some groups–namely, white people–have had an easier time succeeding than minority populations. That is true to an extent. I admit the road was laid before me sans potholes. I did not have to overcome overt discrimination or a range of attitudes designed to see me stumble. But everything else I had to do on my own. I’ll bet you did too.

Success depends on effort, not the woeful wailings of politicians who claim to feel our pain. Liberals want something from us far more than we need them, and we should not validate their inferior performance with passive support.

Waiting around for someone to come to the rescue won’t help anyone anymore than allowing politicians to excuse helplessness in exchange for power. A successful nation harnesses its substantial human resource; a failed government will pay it off.

What we’re hearing now within the political circus is no different than what we were hearing 20 years ago or 50. If politicians are as successful as they proclaim every election, it would seem some of these points would have been resolved by now. Instead they are being recycled to a new generation of victims.

Again, the message from the Left is America has failed.

The response should be: No, it has not. Politicians have failed the system; the system has not failed the people. Today, America ranks tenth in standard of living in the world. This slide isn’t because of failure within the citizen ranks; it is because of wrong-headed politics.

America succeeds when we all work together. The Left makes no pretence anymore of common purpose. It promotes the divisiveness of racism, sexism, and class warfare. Its advocacy is for numbing sameness rather than the satisfaction of remarkable individual achievement.

The playing field is level as far as law should go. It is not the government’s business to be our conscience or to live our lives. It is the government’s job to represent and protect rather than reissue a monotonous litany of failures for the sake of an election.

We should not be clinging to any problem because of ideological dictate; instead we have to find lasting solutions to long-term security. That requires more than speeches and attitude.

Part of freedom is being able to determine our own definition of success. For some it is having the biggest house in the neighborhood; for others it is the brand of automobile in the garage. For many it may be financial assets, or the grandkids who grow up to be a doctor or a general. It doesn’t matter; those successes don’t come through the exploitation of others as bemoaned by the politically anemic but through others’ help and understanding.

For some, myself included, success is achieved through the freedom to do what we want. Our challenge now is keeping that freedom in a society forced away from embracing varied achievements and into an antipathy for all things American.

The Left has folded our ambitions for success into the envelopes of “social justice,” “economic inequality,” and all those wars on so many folks without ever asking the ‘victims’ what their contribution has been, is, or will be.

Many can not live long off the success of a few, nor can a country flourish. Success has to be long, broad, and deep with hurdles leaped and a purpose in view. It has to be encouraged and rewarded. This requires leadership.

I believe America will do better now with an engaged electorate more than a little ticked off.

Larry W. Anderson believes faith in government must at times be replaced by action.