Dear Leadership of the Republican Party
I guess I should start by clarifying that I am not a member of your organization, though I have at times voted for your candidates. In my almost thirty years of voting I have never found enough common ground with either of the major political parties to affiliate with them; and at this point, it seems doubtful that will ever change. While I generally try to steer clear of the bipartisan brawl, my growing concern for the future of this country compels me to offer you a little advice for the 2012 Presidential election. Obviously, you can take it or leave it.
First and foremost, is that I hope the current rhetoric being spewed by many of the GOP presidential hopefuls is just the intro to something more substantive. Simply pointing out how bad things are isn’t much of a platform to run on. Don’t count on getting the free pass that the buzzword “change” got in the last election. I suspect that “We the People” will be looking for a definition this time.
Along those same lines, remember that we are a distinctly western culture and that aesthetics matter more than they should. Offering up a candidate who is nearly seventy years old, and whose political heyday was three administrations ago, would be a serious mistake. Barrack Obama was able to sell the idea that he’d be something different based largely on the fact that he looked and sounded different than the alternatives. Mr. McCain’s campaign was floundering until Sarah Palin entered the picture and her appeal was also rooted in the fact that she didn’t look and sound like everyone else. Those same aesthetics will matter in 2012.
Since I mentioned Sarah Palin, I ought to add that I believe that her political shelf life has expired. If she had remained the governor of Alaska and had led them as boldly as she presents herself, she might be considered some sort of credible alternative. Unfortunately, she quit that job, hit the talk-show circuit and her life has become tabloid fodder. At this point, she seems like a caricature; who has way too much in common with the Kardashian’s to be taken seriously.
Despite what the special interest groups will tell you, the number one issue on the minds of most American’s is the economy, and more specifically, jobs. If you don’t have some new ideas about how to turn things around, I’d get working on that now. Please don’t try to perpetuate the myth of the “Consumer Based Economy”. Low interest rates, more affordable lines of credit and tax breaks aren’t going to bring our economy back; we are not going to borrow, spend and consume our way back to prosperity. Our country has got to find a way to restore the balance between what we produce and what we consume. Trying to defy the law of supply and demand is the economic equivalent of trying to defy gravity.
Speaking of balance, I appreciate the idea that some of your guys have been trying to promote about government spending; it is absolutely out of control. Unfortunately, hammering the budget for things like Medicare and Medicaid, while discretionary spending remains largely unchecked, isn’t going to gain you much support with the American people. If you’re serious, you and your brothers across the aisle need to start axing all the activities that the government has no business being involved in. Using that criterion, you could probably cut the budget in half.
Finally, as a man who takes his morality pretty seriously, I like the idea of the “Moral Majority”. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen much evidence that such a group really exists. But as I’ve watched the last few election cycles, I have become convinced that there is a group of people who could rightfully be called the “Moderate Majority”. I believe that it is this group who represents the swing vote and that these are the people you need to reach. While staunch conservatives may feel that you’ve done a poor job of representing them, it seems doubtful that they’d be willing to re-elect Barrack Obama to another term. Though the extreme elements of both parties will attempt to hijack the primary process, the actual election will most likely be decided by this large group in the middle.
Well, that’s really all I had to say; hopefully something within this will be helpful to you. Good luck with all that, because there are an awful lot of lives and livelihoods that hang in the balance. See you at the polls.
Sincerely – Bryan J. Corbin (Ohio)
Bjcorbin's Blog 
10 Thoughts for This Year’s Graduate
May 16, 2011 by bjcorbin
With our oldest child graduating this year, it’s hard to resist the urge to attempt to dispense some wise counsel for the future. Of course, at eighteen she’s probably not likely to hear much of what I’ve got to say; so I’ll offer this list for everyone else’s graduates. Hopefully she’ll room with one of them at college. [Note: Because good advice is timeless, this is an only slightly revised version of other lists I’ve written in recent years.]
1. Life is not a ride, it’s a journey. A ride is simply being carried along to wherever the vehicle happens to be going, while a journey has an ultimate destination, which requires some navigation and effort to complete. Unless we purpose in our heart to be someone, or to do something, we are likely to live life like a pinball; propelled by gravity, and bouncing from one obstacle to another. Anything worthwhile in life will require some investment on our part. Those who are unwilling to make such an investment will generally be pushed along by the winds of circumstance to some uncertain end.
2. Misery not only loves company, it wants to settle down and have children too. I’ve noticed that miserable people not only seek out other miserable people to bond with, but that they’ll often unconsciously sabotage anything that has the potential to pull them from their misery. There are few emotions that are as debilitating and self-sustaining as self-pity. Generally the only way to remain free of such feelings is through a dogged determination not to live that way. As long as we are willing to blame other people, and circumstances, for our condition, we will remain powerless to change it.
3. What other people believe about you isn’t as important as what you believe about yourself. Only the things which we genuinely believe have the ability to impact how we live. Therefore, the only words (positive or negative) that have the power to move us are those which we accept as truth. If a man concludes that he is a failure, no amount of praise or encouragement can bring him to victory; and if a man concludes that he is an over-comer, no amount of criticism can hold him back. While we are generally powerless to keep others from speaking about us, we possess the ultimate responsibility for what we are willing to accept as truth.
4. Planting apple seeds won’t get you an orange tree. Just as dependable as the law of gravity is the concept that we will reap (i.e. harvest) what we sow (i.e. plant). Though this phrase is immediately recognizable to most people, there are few who actually live as though it were true. Our human nature will often cause us to be unforgiving with other people, while expecting generosity in return; to be deceptive about our motivations, while expecting others to deal with us honestly; and to be selfish about our desires, while expecting others to be considerate of us. We must always remain conscious of the fact that the cup we use to dispense blessing is the cup that we will eventually drink our blessings from.
5. The path of least resistance is rarely a road worth taking. Often what causes something to be valuable is that it cannot be easily attained. It follows then that the most valuable things in life normally require some perseverance to apprehend. While everyone may sincerely want these kinds of things for their life (e.g. a healthy body, a strong marriage, a successful career…), few are willing to endure the process it takes to secure them. Unfortunately, we live in a culture that increasingly values convenience above quality, and in which many of our children have grown up with an expectation of the instant gratification of their desires. Many a parent has worked hard to ensure that their kids get a great education, so that these children won’t have to struggle like they did. But this ignores the fact that it is in the midst of the struggle that we tend to develop our character and work ethic; and that without this development we are generally ill equipped to handle adversity. I’ve found that you can teach someone with character and work ethic just about anything, but without those qualities, an education becomes of little value. I’ve also come to believe that giving my children everything that I didn’t have when I grew up will likely handicap them for life.
6. There are few jobs easier than being a critic and few that are more taxing than being a builder. I’m ashamed to admit that there have been times in my life when I’ve been like the guy who sits in the back of the classroom, ridiculing the person whose teaching the class. Playing the role of critic, while someone sincerely tries to have a positive influence on the people around them. While I might try to rationalize that their efforts were less than perfect, or maybe even in vain, life has taught me how little that criticism helps anyone. It takes a tremendous amount of effort and patience to bring unity where there has only been division, or to stir a group to battle, when they’ve only known defeat, or to restore a sense of hope to a place of desolation… The builder must make a concerted effort to create, while the critic can bring destruction with little effort. As a witness to, and a participant in, both of these processes, I’ve committed myself to spending the rest of my days being engaged in the building up, and not the tearing down.
7. No person or thing can “make you happy”. People can support us, love us, inspire us, and even enhance the quality of our life. But unless we determine within ourselves to find the joy, the beauty and the hope within our given circumstance, we will never be “happy”. The idea that it is someone else’s role to bring happiness into our life places tremendous pressure on our relationships, often causing them to fail (e.g. they just don’t make me happy anymore…). Similarly, material things do not have the ability to bring satisfaction to our souls. I’ve noticed that people who can be grateful for what they have today, will generally be that way regardless of what they have. And that people, who crave something more, will normally continue to crave regardless of what they get.
8. For everything there is a season and it’s important not to despise the season that you’re in. If you live long enough you notice that there is a sort of pattern that life follows and that things come and go in seasons. While we have a natural tendency to like some seasons better than others, I’ve found that every season comes with both challenges and blessings. If we focus on the challenges of the season we’re in, we’ll often miss the blessings, and spend our time pining away for the season to change. Conversely, if we focus on the blessings of each season, it makes the challenges easier to endure, and brings a sense of variety to the journey.
9. It’s hard to be Clint Eastwood if you’re really Mr. Rogers. As I was growing up my conception of what a man was came largely from my father, who was a big fan of men like John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. Throughout my adolescence there were other icons (e.g. John Travolta – Saturday Night Fever, Sly Stallone – Rambo, Don Johnson – Miami Vice…) who seemed to collectively shape the culture’s conception of manhood, and who I unconsciously graded myself against. Since I was nothing like these men I assumed that I just wasn’t much of a man, and in subtle ways I let their image affect how I walked, talked, dressed… But as I got older I began to notice that there weren’t many things less attractive than someone trying to be something that they’re not (e.g. a middle aged woman dressed like teenager; a suburban white kid acting as though he grew up in the ghetto; a man with a bad toupee, acting as though it is his natural hair…). I eventually came to peace with the understanding that regardless of the fact that I bear little or no resemblance to the trendy cultural images of manhood, the best thing I could do was to be myself. That catharsis has allowed me to do things like wear the clothes that I feel comfortable in; to act silly in public, just to make my kids laugh; to say “I love you too honey” when I hang up the phone in front of someone; to cry at sad movies…, all without feeling self conscious. I highly recommend it.
10. It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game. Experience teaches us that the road to victory is generally paved with some amount of defeat; and that how we respond to those defeats will generally determine whether or not we ever come to the place of victory. While victory tends to be the goal of every player, I’ve found that what we remember is how they played the game. It is not necessarily the player with the highest winning percentage that captures our imagination, it is the player who played unselfishly, or with integrity, or who overcame the biggest odds… Even for those who taste great victory, it is always in a moment that quickly passes into a lifetime of other moments. At the moment we pass from this life, it won’t be that moment of glory that matters most; it will be how we lived all the other moments that ultimately defines us.
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