The candidates in the presidential sweepstakes race talk, talk, talk all day long to the media about the symptoms of what is wrong with the country’s present state of politics and human misery. Let’s just list a few so everyone is on the same page:

• Monstrous debt
• Open borders, illegal immigration
• 97 million eligible workers not working
• Deficit budgets, year after year
• Decimated military
• Worst race relations in years
• Constitution is ignored, impugned, as President Obama said on 1/5/16 “… a piece of paper”

What are root causes of these and a multitude of other problems facing this country? LIBERALISM. When children are brought up believing in nothing but themselves, when there is no right, no wrong, “if it feels good, do it” attitudes, there are no winners or losers and political correctness overtakes common sense and order – that is liberalism.

Taking religion out of schools and public institutions, erasing religious symbols from the public square, making pride of country, pride of state, pride of school out of the education of the young – you wonder why the country is so screwed up? Teachers and professors of the liberal persuasion bordering on communist fanaticism teaching socialism and political correctness is the new religion of the young minds full of mush.

I was once a liberal – yes, it’s true, I was. Long hair, rebel without a cause, pissed at everything and everyone – my first vote was for George McGovern, my next was for Jimmy Carter  (1976 and 1980). I rejected everything I knew and was taught growing up – religion, education, and morals. Drinking and smoking became an everyday thing – fast cars, fast motorcycles went hand in hand in my pursuits. I was pro-abortion and had no qualms or reservations about it.

Then I didn’t have a job and I had to get sober and face reality. Was I going to take a job I didn’t want or find another way? I couldn’t and wouldn’t sit on my rear end, so the armed services looked pretty good. Saved my life, changed me completely, stopped drinking, smoking. Learned a trade and was good at it. I had good mentors – sergeants that took interest in my job progress and my personal life.  I loved my time in the service

I came out and got my old job back and was making good money, the only thing was, my whole life had changed. I was no longer angry, hung over or reeked of cigarettes. I excelled at my job and had other opportunities which offered more money and responsibility.

Others I worked with voiced I had changed, some grumbled I wasn’t as much fun, and worked all the overtime I could, making a future for myself. I was attending college every night I could (and some weekends). Others that were in the service said they changed after being in the military and getting out – it opened their eyes to possibilities instead of the limiting viewpoints they had about their futures before.

I kept moving up the ladder of success, more responsibility, more work, more money, more challenges. I illustrate this not because you give a damn about my life, but to show you an example of a liberal changed to a conservative. When President Reagan ( whom I didn’t support at all the first time) came to office, things started to happen. The whole economy started to hum, gaining momentum, providing more jobs and opportunities to everyone.

If you were alive back then and couldn’t find a job, you either were too lazy to work or you weren’t looking. I knew people leaving the company I worked for to start a new job at another company the next day. Reagan had Americans believing in themselves, their country, their leadership like no other president before him. Franklin D. Roosevelt presided over eight years of the Great Depression and it finally ended when World War II started. Without the war, it wouldn’t have ended with his misguided policies.

The people who accomplish much in their lives have all things in common. The college coaching legend Lou Holtz has a list of things you need to be successful:

You need something to do.

You need someone to love.

You need something to believe in.

You need something to hope for.

With those four things satisfied, there is nothing you can’t do.

If you want to change your life, get off your butt, wear pants you don’t have to hold up, clean up, cut off the long hair and get a job. If it only pays minimum wage (there aren’t many of them out there any more), be the best minimum wage earner your employer has ever seen. You will be noticed and you will get a raise and more opportunity over time.

If you’ve never had a job, don’t expect someone to pay you to learn work skills you should already have. Show up for work on time, do a great job, be prideful in your work, take pride in yourself.

You’ll be amazed if you quit smoking cigarettes and dope, quit indulging in an alcoholic stupor, how good you’ll feel and be able to accomplish more.

How do I know this to be true?  I was once a loser, but found purpose in life. You can too.