They Think You're Stupid (18 page)

Democrats instill doubt in people's belief in their ability to achieve their American Dreams on an individual basis with individual responsibility. In doing so, they have helped create the politically homeless, who have given up on government and the prospect of change in the political status quo.

Some Republican leaders are also guilty of creating and perpetuating feelings of doubt among the public. Weeks after election day in 2004, a Republican senator, who is also chairman of a powerful committee, was asked about the prospect for replacing the tax code with a fairer system, given that Republicans now enjoyed an increased majority in the Senate. The senator stated, "Comprehensive tax reform would be difficult to do. I'm not one to spend a lot of time tilting at windmills." Instead of following the president's lead by working on a much needed replacement of the federal tax code, the senator chose to express doubt instead of hope for an aggressive solution to the tax code mess.

What would happen if your boss at work asked you on Monday to complete a task by Friday, and you said, "Boss, not only can that task not be completed by Friday, I don't think it can be completed at all. I'm not going to spend a lot of time tilting at your windmills." You would be on the unemployment line by Tuesday. You would be out of a job because, as an employee, your job is to answer to your boss. There is an expectation that you will complete the tasks you were hired to complete or you will be replaced by someone who is driven to excel and wants the company to succeed. We must hold our elected officials to results, or they will ride the wave of complacency.

All elected officials in the U.S. serve and are employed by the people who elect them. They are obligated to fix the problems of government and make the government operate as efficiently as possible. For too long, however, elected officials have preyed on a politically apathetic public. Instead of fixing our biggest problems, they have exacerbated them by annually spending billions on pork barrel projects for their home districts and heaping tax credit upon tax credit to the federal tax code mess with one objective in mind--do whatever it takes to keep the voters and campaign donors happy so they can get reelected.

It is no wonder why millions have lost hope in their government. Their government has forced them to lose hope in themselves, and their ability to be a new voice for policy change.

Our nation has been blessed with many leaders in its history who faced seemingly insurmountable challenges and legions of doubters en route to achieving political victories that have forever changed the world. They have literally made possible what was once thought impossible. Leaders like Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Ronald Reagan were not dissuaded by the doubters and political foes who told them their aspirations could not be achieved. Instead, they relied on their faith in God and the American people, their belief that anything can be accomplished in America, and their hope and optimism for the future.

Every day millions of Americans who possess those same qualities as our greatest political leaders carry with them the hope that today they too can get a little closer to making their American Dream a reality. I believe the majority of Americans are truly hopeful and optimistic people. In the face of the myriad of challenges we face each day, including, of course, those instilled by our political leaders, most Americans work hard every day to make their lives and the world a little better.

I believe that we are a nation of hope. Whether we will forever remain the
beacon
of hope for the world, however, depends on the willingness of the public to force our politicians to enact aggressive policies that will unleash our country's economic potential and protect our moral foundations. Solving problems and changing things begins with believing that it can be done, much like the bumblebee believes he can fly even though, mathematically, he is not supposed to fly.

Then how does the bumblebee fly?
When I was a math major at Morehouse College, one of the things we studied was the equations of motion. The equations of motion are those equations that they put into computers to design airplanes and figure out how they are going to fly. Mathematicians and aerodynamicists for years have been trying to figure out mathematically and scientifically how the bumblebee flies. You see, the bumblebee is not supposed to fly. An aerodynamicist will tell you that the bumblebee's body is too big for its short little wings to suspend it in the air.

So the mathematicians and scientists take the aerodynamics of a bumblebee, of the little fat body and the little flappy wings, and put it all into a computer model. Then, they run the model with all of these measurements and the computer comes back and says, "The sucker can't fly." So out of frustration the next generation of mathematicians and aerodynamicists go get some more poor little bumblebees and put them in a wind tunnel. They take some more measurements. They get a bigger computer. They get a faster computer. They put it all in there, they run their models and equations, and the computer says, "The sucker still can't fly."

I'll tell you why the bumblebee flies. Nobody told the bumblebee that it could not fly. He just keeps flying around, gathering his nectar, and stinging you or your dog if you get too close. The bumblebee flies because he believes he can fly!

Like the bumblebee, we can change the status quo in government and can create a new brand identity for the party that represents the Government Of the People. We are a nation of hope because hope is the key to happiness, and happiness is the key to success. We have been successful as a nation because people have been free to define and pursue their own happiness. Self-motivation and happiness are synonymous because no one can make another person happy. If you are already happy you are motivated to stay happy, and if you are unhappy you have to be motivated to get happy. Many people have experienced the feeling of happiness without being able to explain or define the feeling. The same is also true of unhappiness.

A person who claims to be unhappy typically has a personal barrier to motivation. Happiness begins with a good attitude and with knowing what would really make you happy, but people cannot always answer that question.

A few years ago when I lived in Omaha I heard the minister of my church, Rev. Dr. Nigel McPherson, use some thought-provoking words to define happiness: "something to do, someone to love, and something to hope for." "Wow!" I thought to myself that Sunday morning when I first heard this definition. It makes so much sense and explains why I have felt a sense of happiness most of my life, although I did not know exactly why or how to articulate my sense of happiness.

I have always had something to do (school, work, career, more work, and even more work). I have always been blessed with loved ones (my parents, my wife, our children, and some very close friends). And I was never without hope for something . . . a healthy family, the next promotion, or the next adventure in my life or career.

But additionally, this definition gave me a vehicle to stir peoples' thinking who may be searching for happiness in their jobs and lives or who may be trying to eliminate a bad attitude. If one of Reverend McPherson's "somethings" is missing, you have a happiness deficiency that only you can fill.

I believe much of the general public's dissatisfaction comes from an overload of negative news, negative political rhetoric, and the false perception that somehow the government or someone else is responsible for making them happy. This creates a mass bad attitude, which is a major barrier to happiness.

Something to do, someone to love, and something to hope for, but the greatest of these is hope. Hope has been the common thread of all the great leaders throughout the history of our nation. They have shared their hope and optimism for the future with their fellow citizens and inspired the public to believe in themselves and the possibility of positive change. There would be no great achievements in our history, and people would not be working hard to achieve their American Dreams, if it were not for hope.

Hope inspires people to believe in themselves and their abilities. Hope inspires people to start their own businesses or create the next great invention. Without hope in the prospect for success and a brighter future, we as individuals and as a nation are without purpose and vision. Hope is the basis for all achievements, great and small.

Hope inspired our Founding Fathers to declare their freedom from the tyranny of a distant king, and then fight and die to secure it for their children and the coming generations of freedom-seeking people from all over the world.

Hope inspired Thomas Jefferson to write in the Declaration of Independence,

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness . . . . That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it . . . . And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

With the stroke of a pen on July 4, 1776, fifty-six brave and hopeful colonists banded together and signed a document that set in motion the greatest experiment in history--the birth of the United States of America and a system of government by the people, of the people, and for the people.

Hope inspired President Abraham Lincoln to take all measures in his power to protect the Union during the tumultuous years of the Civil War. In his 1863 Gettysburg Address, he urged a public weary of war to continue the fight to preserve the Union and to remember all those who have come before to do the same:

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Hope inspired President John F. Kennedy in his 1961 inaugural address to warn would-be aggressors that the United States stands ready to defend its freedoms and the freedoms of its allies across the world. In addition, he called on citizens to accept the responsibility of protecting America's freedoms,

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility--I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it--and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

Hope inspired Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to persist in the great struggle for civil rights and equal opportunities for all citizens, even when confronted by angry mobs, police beatings, police dogs, fire hoses, jail sentences, and death threats. In his 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech, Dr. King inspired the entire nation that in spite of all the obstacles he faced, his dream and his persistence in seeing it come true had never faltered:

We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.

Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.

Hope further inspired Dr. King at a rally on the night before he was assassinated to urge striking sanitation workers in Memphis to remain steadfast in their struggle:

Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination.

And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation.

I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land!

Hope inspired President Ronald Reagan on many occasions. President Reagan was one of the most hopeful, optimistic leaders in the history of the United States. His belief in the spirit and abilities of the American people and peoples throughout the world was unwavering, and his faith in God and belief that He has a special purpose for our country resolute. In his 1981 Inaugural Speech, Reagan stated,

We hear much of special interest groups. Well, our concern must be for a special interest group that has been too long neglected. It knows no sectional boundaries, or ethnic and racial divisions, and it crosses political party lines. It is made up of men and women who raise our food, patrol our streets, man our mines and factories, teach our children, keep our homes, and heal us when we're sick--professionals, industrialists, shopkeepers, clerks, cabbies, and truck drivers. They are, in short, "We the People." This breed called Americans. . . . The crisis we are facing today does not require of us the kind of sacrifice that . . . so many thousands of others were called upon to make. It does require, however, our best effort, and our willingness to believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity to perform great deeds; to believe that together with God's help we can and will resolve the problems that now confront us. And after all, why shouldn't we believe that? We are Americans.