1. Freewill - The American Dream to me has nothing to do with a big house and a white picket fence. I look at it more as the "Dream that was America." I see it through the immigrants eyes. The idea that you could come to this land and do whatever it is you wanted to do with your life. In most countries you were stuck with the same lot in life as your parents. If you father was a blacksmith, then that's what you became. The government told you were to go to school and what doctor to see. We live in a country were kids grow up to become professional skateboarders. You can actually turn your passion into a career in the United States. Like Rock music, listen to it 24 hours a day. Hip Hop, same thing. Want to roll around in jello? Go Crazy!! Freewill is a beautiful thing.
2. People lose - People don't like to hear it but there are losers in life. Not every kid in school is meant to go to college. There are businesses that fail no matter how hard they try. However, the most successful people in our society have also lost before. Its is through those losses that lessons were learned and skills developed. Lets take sports as an example. Lebron James wouldn't have become the player he has if he would have won the NBA title his first year. The guy stayed determined and focused and used the losses to fuel him. Losing stinks but its a valuable educator.
3. Big business is killing capitalism - I hear a lot of people blaming the problems of the country on greedy businessmen. Capitalism is robbing from the poor and keeping our kids from getting an education. Its not capitalism, its big business that's the issue. Capitalism doesn't hire lobbyist or donate to campaigns. GE, Goldman Sachs, and Walmart do that. Don't compare you neighborhood baker to Bank of America. Lets use GE as an example. They were a large donor to the Obama 2008 campaign. They owned MSNBC at the time and their CEO is on the president's job board. In 2010 they paid $0 in federal taxes on $5 billion in domestic profits. I bet the restaurant down the block paid a little bit more that year.
4. Socialism did lose - If your around my age you remember The Wall coming down in East Berlin and the end of communism in Eastern Europe. The USSR had lost the Cold War and the fantasy that was Communism/Socialism had been shattered. Today, we see Red China becoming a model for capitalism. Ask anyone from any of the old Soviet republics has bad it was for the 99% in their country. Their 99% didn't have cable TV or Playstations. So tell me why is it that every few years in this country we keep having this battle over Socialism vs Capitalism. Who are these people that keep trying to sell central planning to us? Do we really believe that a large centralized government make the right decision on how we use our economic resources?
5. Debt and Death - I first heard of this concept on a YouTube channel - The Greatest Truth Never Told. Basically, its that we keep getting into wars that cost us a lot of money and thus we keep running up the national debt. Personally, we keep buying new toys for which we rack up debt and thus have to work ourselves to death just to try to pay off. It seems the more debt we ring up the more death we bring upon us. With all this debt, we have to keep the economy going. We end up going to war over resources like oil. We need to stop the debt madness both personally and nationally.
6. More Tony Robbins less Tim Robbins - I just love Hollywood actors like Tim Robbins who have hot political opinions. They tell us the evils of big companies and the %1 all the while making $10 million a movie. The Hollywood elite tells us about caring about the working man but still attend campaign dinners and join the CFR. I think we should spend a little less time watching Snookie, American Idol, and Tim Robbin's movies and spend a little more time reading books by people like Tony Robbins. Learning to work on your diet or improve your finances is going to help things more than dumping $10 at the local theater so another Hollywood starlet can tell me how to live my life.
7. Give to Live - I'm a big Sammy Hager fan and he had a song called Give to Live. That title right there sums up a lot for me. We all say that we care for the old and homeless but do we really? What most people mean is that we like the idea that the government is saying they will take care of that. Americans like the thought that government will tax the bad guys (big business, corporations, etc.) and give to the needy (the poor, sick, etc.) They will do this while not disturbing you from watching football or Twitting. That's not going to work kids. If you haven't noticed, government hasn't really fixed much. If you care about the homeless or poor, I suggest you pull a shift at a soup kitchen or Habitat for Humanity site. If not, then please shut up and quit forcing your beliefs on someone else.
8. Local vs national - I love the idea of "buying American." Keeping you dollars in this country instead of sending them overseas is great. However, I would like to encourage you to take it to another level. "Buy local" is my motto. Many of the big American companies like GE, Walmart, and GM have huge foreign components to them. Also they are the ones that have lobbyist and donate to PACs. The mom and pop shops in your town don't have these things. Instead of going to one of the big restaurant chains tonight try out that little Italian joint down the street. A prime example of this is beer. The 3 big American breweries (Bud, Miller, and Coors) are now owned by foreign corporations. Try a Shiner or Sierra Nevada instead. It will be local merchants that will get the economy back on its feet.
9. Our media sucks - Why is it that we trust our news media so much? They are ran by the same people that gave us "Desperate Housewives" and "Jersey Shore." Am I suppose to believe that all these bimbos reading the news actually know what they are talking about? Networks like CNN, MSNBC, and FOX hire all the professional pundits and ex-politicians and then tells us they are objective. Really??? How much time do these same networks spend on things like the OJ trial and Lindsey Lohan? Too damn much! Check out a broadcast from the BBC. Its full of news, amazing!!! I beg you to turn off the mainstream media and check out alternative news sites and read newspaper where you can self edited the fluff.
10. You are the change you wanted - Last but not least, you have to quit waiting on the government to change and fix everything. Its not going to happen. Ben Bernanke is not going to fix the economy so get to fixing your own economic situation. Go buy a Dave Ramsey book and get to paying off those credit cards. Don't worry about Obamacare. Eat an apple and start walking. Like I said earlier, there is a soup kitchen near you that need another hand. We have to stop believing someone else will care about what we care about as much as we care about it. As the old saying goes, "the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." That step is you.
Platt Robertson
Write-in Candidate for President
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