America visited Doctor Gallup last Friday and the diagnosis wasn’t good.  It seems we have an intense case of multiple personality disorder with shades of schizophrenia.

According to the latest poll, 42% of all Americans consider themselves to be conservative while only 20% claim to be liberal.  Yet when you look at Congress and the White House, we’ve got the greatest gang of liberals and progressives, running the country since Roosevelt pushed the New Deal through.

The problem is the center.  Gallup reports that 35% of us self-identify as being moderate.  Since the majority of our elected officials currently tilt strongly to the left, we can safely assume that enough of the moderates are voting with the liberals to give them a 51% plurality.  Since only 20% claim to be liberal, this means that about 88% of the so-called moderates are voting for the more liberal candidate.

This poll was being trumpeted by the conservative movement as proof that we haven’t lost the hearts and minds of Americans.  Unfortunately, I don’t agree with that assessment and the make-up of Congress and the White House is evidence in my favor. 

So, what exactly is a moderate?  We could easily make the case that it is someone who is ashamed of being a liberal.  After all, they are voted to put tax-until-you-drop, spend-until-we’re-broke, don’t-impose-your-morals-on-me politicians into the highest offices in the land.  But for whatever reason, they don’t want to be labeled a liberal.  Could it be that they are dependent on the government and embarrassed to admit it?  Until the moderates in this country take a real stand for what they believe, our political process is going to remain a psychotic mess.

Yesterday afternoon, I was coming out of a nearby Walmart and was stopped by a signature gatherer to sign a petition.  Here in Washington, citizens are able to get proposed legislation on the ballot through the initiative process.  The initiatives I was asked to sign prove how schizophrenic we are as a people.  The first was to privatize liquor sales, so that the state is no longer sole proprietor of the hard stuff.  As I don’t think the state has any business running liquor stores I gladly signed that one.  Then signature gatherer cheerfully asked, “I have another initiative here you might like, tax the rich and give it to the poor?”  I politely declined, although being in front of Walmart, he was certainly getting a lot of signatures on that one.  Later I was thinking how diametrically opposed these two initiatives were.  The first attempts to place restraint on government and take from it something it should never have been involved in to begin with.  The second essentially involves government more in our lives in the form of taxation (their definition of rich is very low) and outright Marxism (via the redistribution of a wealth).   Yet people were gladly signing the second petition, even after signing the first.

Are Americans really that selfish, that we would take from those that have worked hard and achieved success in order to give it to those who have not?  Is the American dream dead?  Before conservatives can claim that a majority of people in this country truly are conservative, we must first overcome this sickness and class envy that has permeated our society.  The dream must be reinvigorated.  This country didn’t become great because lazy people sat around waiting for a hand-out, it became great because adventurous people took chances, in exploration, in industry, in medicine and worked hard.  As my political hero said, “Government isn’t the solution to the problem, government is the problem.”  We need government to get out of the way of people doing business if this country is ever going to turn itself around.  Until that happens, we’re going to be stuck in petty class warfare, each trying to get their fair share (earned or not) and the dream that conquered the West will fade into the past like a distant memory.  Americans must get over our collective schizophrenia if we are to ever overcome our current economic woes and begin to move forward again.  We must demand that government get out of the way of people working hard and demand from those expecting an entitlement to get off their backsides and do something constructive to earn a living.