By CARL MUMPOWER

Our nation’s addicts, drug culturists, and marijuana enthusiasts are growing and so are their harms. Twenty years ago who would have imagined a day when most every community in America would hold a cell of users, dealers, and enablers busily recruiting more human prey. Where there is violence, child abuse, poverty and personal disintegration, intoxicants are at the scene. No matter what you hear, a very small percentage of drug addicts are authentically rehabilitated and our court and enforcement system is amazingly inconsistent, weak and unrealistic.  No one was ever uplifted to a better place through drug addiction, and yet we continue to tolerate this widespread form of domestic terrorism. Defeating the harms begins and ends at the same place – new recruits. We make it easy on drug predators to ensnare our young and naive. Legalization is a fantasy – today’s drugs, and that includes marijuana, are simply too powerful.  Remember, addicts don’t just go into the woods and quietly fade away - they become burdens to their families and communities. Whether the drug of choice is legal or not, new recruits become addicts and addicts become predators who, in turn, recruit others to their circle of despair.  Asheville’s permissive drug culture is selfish and self-destructive – anything but loving and progressive.

On being clever

 Two events are standouts in the life of my generation.  Sorry Asheville, it wouldn’t be the election of Barrack Obama or the invention of hydroponic marijuana. Those events were Vietnam and the invention of the Internet. The first bit of craziness curiously birthed the liberal-progressive movement. The legitimate rejection of political adventurism masquerading as protecting America morphed into a broader movement. Somewhere along the way the visionary wonder of the American Dream was rejected and feeling good became more important than doing good. That happens eventually to all societies – usually just before they get wiped out by someone smarter, stronger and more in tune with reality. The invention of the Internet put the world’s knowledge base right in our own little hands. That’s been an extraordinary opportunity, but access to knowledge isn’t a guarantee one knows how to use it.  Opinions abound in 21st century America.  While we’re running around celebrating how clever we are, reality is sneaking up to remind us of how clever we aren’t.

Consumption is consuming us

 Though government officials continue to do their best to stimulate America’s consumers, our future rests firmly in the hands of America’s producers.  Any country not busy making something useful is getting lost in our growing world.  What we need to produce can include goods, food, ideas, or services, but it’s necessary we do it faster, cheaper, and better to stay on top.  That’s OK, in that nature has always been set-up to push us toward being better.  Don’t believe for a minute the concept of survival of the fittest is no longer running the planet. One problem in America today is we like consuming more than producing.  Curiously, our timing is terrible.  We’re busy abandoning our traditional competitive free market thinking for the something for nothing promises of socialism.  It’s a fascinating world that has Cuba’s Fidel Castro criticizing socialism, Chinese communists becoming paragons of capitalism, and Americans buying into the something for nothing deceptions of liberal-socialist-progressivism. Our children’s economic future rests on getting back to what we have historically done well – not what everyone else has historically done badly.

White people should be afraid?

 For a glimpse into the mind of a professional racist, take a look at commentator Tim Wise.  Mr. Wise is the guy who enjoys telling America’s white majority, what he calls the “Regressive White Right,” to be afraid.  Isn’t it interesting that almost anytime someone is playing the race card, it’s a “love your fellow man” liberal?  It seems that racist dialog is useful to (1) stimulate white guilt (2) secure the loyalties of minorities or (3) shut down honest conversation with an overused trump card.  How about a little racial reality check - those who keep pointing to color may be doing more to fan the flames of racial divide than those few souls still dumb enough to judge people by color.  Most of what the average person dislikes in others has to do with their fellowman’s choices, character, and cultural model – not color.  Anyone who assesses a person by color is a fool - anyone who fails to assess a person by their choices, character, and cultural model - likewise. The minds of Mr. Wise and too many habituated liberals seems to be stuck in replay mode. It’s past time to move beyond this tired and paralyzing thinking. Our society’s real racists are those who keep fanning color pain for personal gain.

Consequence over restriction serves America best

Few things reveal the disingenuous mission of the new age liberal movement more than the patterned exchange of liberties for control. The resulting restrictions on the creativity, opportunity, and potentials of the individual and our culture at large are extraordinary. It is comparatively easy to institute rules and laws. Execution and enforcement are another matter. The first mission is based in fantasy and the illusions of power, while the other finds traction in reality and the responsibilities of power. One seeks to create order without accountability and the other seeks accountability as a foundation for order. In today’s liberalized America, we have lots of signs to guide behavior on our highways, but neither the will nor the manpower to reliably enforce those signs. Cities pass laws restricting firearm liberties for responsible citizens at the same time they maintain a revolving door for criminals at liberty to abuse the property and persons of those citizens. Regulations are passed by the ton to manage the behavior of energy and finance companies, yet patterned abuses are given a conspiratorial wink by PAC fed politicians and lackey regulators fattened by the spoils. In the author’s hometown a crack dealer must be caught and convicted three times before he or she receives meaningful jail time. Inconsistent enforcement efforts and the lack of alternative sentencing resources insure a never-ending parade of young men corrupted into becoming career criminals before accountability is responsibly applied. A pattern that is pervasive through our culture is thus revealed – though rules, regulations, and laws exist with a depth and breadth unprecedented in history – a misguided emphasis on restriction over consequence guarantees social failure. One mission of the true conservative is to sidestep those who confuse permissiveness with compassion. Handing responsible citizens a heavy regulatory burden as you minimize accountability for those who abuse the culture is social cowardice – not compassion. Passing new laws without matching enthusiasm for enforcement is like dropping bombs from 30,000 feet and rationalizing the consequences because you don’t observe the impact.  The best way to contain the frivolity of those who enjoy making rules, regulations, and laws is to make sure they are required to fund and embrace the responsibility of enforcing their creations…

Special interests trumping our common interests

The federal government has a demonstrated inability to solve almost any problem on a timely, cost efficient, and realistic basis. One major reason for this paralysis centers on the confusing competition for resources by special interest groups. From a positive perspective, a special interest is any organized effort to raise awareness on issues of magnitude – at least in the minds of the organizers. Making our leadership smarter is a good thing and the best special interest groups seek to inform as a primary agenda. Unfortunately, human nature being what it is, stopping the train at the information station is difficult. Over time most special interest groups transition into attempts to control and manipulate a desired outcome. Our common interests, and other special interest competitors, get pushed aside for selfish interests. Special interest lobbyists are some of the most corruptive influences on Capitol Hill. Almost always attractive, smart, and polished emissaries, these professionals are dedicated to reaching into America’s pockets for money and power. Special interest groups are not usually intentionally seeking to harm the American way of life. In fact, some of the more harmful groups represent mainstream citizens – including teachers, physicians, veterans, businessmen, and the elderly. These predatory bodies exploit Capitol Hill and thus the rest of us behind the bright banners of the National Education Association, the American Medical Association, the Military Officers Association, the Chamber of Commerce, and the American Association for Retired Persons. The expansion of government into an “all things to all people” fantasy feeds an increasingly intense power struggle for increasingly limited resources. The common interests are trampled in this rush to the table and the priority of “we” is losing out to the greed of “me.” We will not secure America’s future by slicing up its resources for select special interests. The conservative thinker can help reverse this trend by speaking up to tame the appetites of these organizations and giving membership careful consideration. “What’s in it for me” is not a healthy foundation for anyone’s interests…

Taking care of the things taking care of us.... 

Planets are like bodies – we only get one. On that basis it makes good sense to take care of what we have. Contrary to political legend, the environment is not a matter of discussion reserved for liberals who fly jets as they ask the rest of us to embrace mopeds. When it comes to protecting our world, the separation between progressive socialists and conservatives has more to do with the “how” than the “if.” Liberals have a tendency to build cults around social issues and are thus vulnerable to the corruptions of “ends justify the means thinking.” On that basis, under their touch the 4 R’s, reality, reason, responsibility, and right – along with our economy and quality of life – are at direct risk. Man-made global warming advocates model environmental extremism by employing methods familiar to a used car dealer unloading a lemon on a teenager. Using the same technology that can’t predict the climate three days from now, disaster junkies cuddle selective truths. They also ignore the reality that most of us are not teenagers. There is a point where the doom and gloom of environmental extremism does intersect the course of reason – that being the need for a “Made in America” energy policy. The damage we are inflicting on our planet with our lack of sound energy strategy may or may not be real or permanent. We can however be sure that our lack of energy coherence is undermining our economy and security as we are uplifting despots and enemies. The conservative version of environmental enthusiasm centers on good science supporting sound policies enforced honestly. An unreasoned rush to address man’s part in global warming can result in a lot of cold, hungry, immobile and impoverished people.

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Carl Mumpower, a former member of Asheville City Council, may be contacted at drmumpower@thecandidconserva>tive.com