All For the want of a Nail

For Want of a Nail - A Rhyme

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.

For want of a horse the rider was lost.

For want of a rider the battle was lost.

For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.

And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

It is so amazing to me how the smallest things in life are often overlooked. Last night I heard a lecture where the speaker spoke of “full follow through”. Full follow through requires that one not just make sure the projector works, it makes sure that the spare bulb is available, and that it works also. Full follow through requires that one not only make timely travel arrangements, but that a person rents a car ahead of time so he will not be told a car is not available.

Full follow through is the missing nail for most of the discourse we see in local, state, and federal politics. Promises are made by candidates, but where is the follow through? We rail against a voting record, but where is the follow through by the American voter? If follow through is the nail, then what are the consequences of the lack of follow through?

For starters, the vehicle of this unique American enterprise is the election process. However, the average American has either no follow through, or they have improper follow through on the actions of the those they are voting for. They blankly vote party lines, and not on principle. How sad it is that so many people hold moral principles in line with the most conservative of churches, yet blindly vote for a candidate whose party embraces a moral philosophy and value system that is the polar opposite of their beliefs. How do you mean, oh Conservatarian? Well, since I am a Conservative, let me explain it from my Conservative perspective: Most people born before, during and immediately after the Depression era (1929-1940’s) are the epitome of the “hard worker”. Eschewing material comforts for financial security, they sought to save their money, and did not buy anything unless they had saved the cash for it. Even when they had the cash, they still looked for the best deal available. In their opinion, anyone who did not care to work was considered lazy. God forbid that anyone get pregnant out of wed-lock, and two men being “friends” was absolutely unmentionable. These people are now the elderly among us. Yet, they vote for a party whose ideology is antithetically opposed to their values: a party that wants to provide funds to illegal aliens, endorse same-sex marriage, and undermine the meaning of traditional marriage. “You don’t work? Oh, that’s ok, you will still eat! We have a social program for that!”

To make things more difficult, these seniors are trapped into voting for a nanny-state that provides for their financial and medical security and call it Social Security and Medicare. Do they vote? Yes. Is it follow through? Yes. But it is follow through that is based on fear, not principle, and it is follow through that pits the practical concerns of these seniors against the moral values they hold so dearly. Since the vehicle is the election process, it has thrown the rider, the American voter.

Tonight, there was news that the Democratic National Committee may force a revote in Florida and Michigan. Obama is crying foul that his name was not on the polls in Michigan (and I don’t blame him). The American voter is being thrown off the horse, though, when a committee such as the DNC can seem to arbitrarily decide how to come up with a candidate, and there are no ends of loopholes for casting doubts on election results. Just as a nail lends integrity and stability to a horse shoe, the strength of our electoral process depends on the integrity of the voting process. At-large super delegates? No accountability to the wishes of the voters is what it sounds like to me. Revote sanctioned by committee, and not by law? That is reassuring to me (not). But let us not forget the Republicans in this either. Remember how Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul were almost completely ignored during the debate at the Reagan Library? We voters were thrown off the horse. Of all the candidates, Ron Paul, like him or hate him, even think him a kook, he had the most reasoned and well thought out platform because his platform was based on established principles, as outlined in our Constitution. But he was not given the time day by the media. I will leave the reasons for that to the conspiracists among us (though I probably agree with much of what they say about him not getting a word in edgewise during the whole election).

The principles were overridden by the sound bites being offered up by the dashing Romney and elder statesman McCain. Flash won over substance, and we were thrown off the horse. So here we Conservatives are, thrown off our horse, most likely voting for someone we have no confidence in. Democrats, you should realize you have been thrown off the horse, too, because the election has been decided not on principles, but on the advent of change for the sake of change, and not for the sake of principle. We are strange bedfellows, Republicans and Democrats, because we had no nails in our electoral shoes, and now we watch as the well-oiled machines of special interests and globalism take over our kingdom. We are helpless to do anything but watch them ride off into battle, and take over this kingdom we call the United States.

God help us all.