By CARL MUMPOWER

 It’s been a little over a year since the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” fiasco was put to rest in the military. It may surprise some to hear that this was a conservative outcome. Per its title, “DADT” was a childish exercise from day one. Performance, not gender, should have been the military’s focus all along. Unfortunately, the left’s pattern of celebrating and marketing homosexuality fed the right’s urge to react on emotion and resist on habit.  Conservatism has its roots in the word “conserve” which means to “manage wisely.” Per the more persisting forces of nature, women are a far more disruptive sexual influence in the military than homosexuals, yet we are successfully handling the feminine gender’s integration into all branches of the service. A third gender is doable too and it is not a matter of advocacy. Israel offers a model of success and sexual harassment, regardless of gender source, remains a punishable military offense. The left continues to spin their own web of deceit around this issue. The Bible persistently defines homosexual misbehavior as a sin – just like it identifies heterosexual misbehavior as a sin. One need not buy into this value system, but it is dishonest to pretend it doesn’t exist. “DADT” repeal was not a moral surrender to a homosexual cult movement.  It was a mature surrender to reason.

Spending addicts need enablers

America’s economy remains at risk. Our politicians have not only spent tomorrow’s entitlement and defense dollars, but they’ve also added a mountain of debt that cannot realistically be repaid. It takes 32 years just to count to a trillion. Through the mixed blessing of the dollar as the world’s currency, the U.S. has had the temporary luxury of printing real and electronic money as a way out. That formula works only if no one notices and foreign creditors retain faith in the value and security of the dollar. Both illusions are vulnerable. A review of world financial flows reveals that countries like China are being spooked. Sure, they have their own forms of economic mischief, but ascending economies do not suffer the same risks that developed countries do. We have less room to grow ourselves out of mistakes. Our leaders are doing what they know will keep them in office – please the majority by postponing accountability for another day. We should thus all be ashamed of our part in this unethical mismanagement of our economy. Natural law assures a day of reckoning no matter how sophisticated our denial system.

Celebrating Western civilization

Though it’s popular to criticize Western civilization, celebration should be the mission. Our Judeo-Christian foundation, with the values, humanity, and work ethic it contains, has propelled mankind to unprecedented heights. It’s not racism, but realism that points to western civilization’s superiority over most alternatives. Former Minnesota professor Vishal Mangalwadi was born and raised in India. He’s not a gentleman you’d expect to champion western civilization and Christianity, but that’s precisely his assignment and he does it with fascinating clarity. Dr. Mangalwadi notes that western civilization has flourished through an exceptional dedication to human dignity — a value that begins with a God who created man in his own image. No spiritual faith in the world has a more credible track record of uplifting the common man that Christianity. Yesterday’s western civilization produced DaVinci, Michelangelo, and Bach. Today’s indifference to western social, moral, and spiritual values has produced Hugh Hefner, Curt Cobain, and Paris Hilton. We would all do well to celebrate our traditional western cultural heritage — even better to preserve it.

Normalcy can be dangerous

Odds are you’ve never heard the psychological term “normalcy bias.” It has to do with denying danger when it’s staring us in the face. Those two words explain many of the mixed signals on America’s financial situation. Remember the irrational frenzy on tech stocks just before the dot com collapse? How about the “buy and hold” recommendations just before the 2008 market collapse?  Remember all the articles saying that gold at two hundred fifty dollars an ounce was a sucker’s bet? It’s now at twelve hundred and fifty dollars and the same people are saying the same thing. Financial prognosticators, including the ones working for government, are in the comfort and entertainment business. They have a built in normalcy bias and consequently speak most often to what we want to hear or what others want us to hear.  There are no easy ways to separate financial fact from fiction, but the saying “don’t wee-wee on me and pretend it’s raining” has application.  We are not living in normal times and rosy economic predictions may predict just the opposite.

America at the Crossroads

Recent decades have brought us two particularly dark moments. First came the Bush-Cheney administration and Republican dominance. Those years were characterized by borrow and spend policies, ill advised foreign entanglements, and tremendous expansion of government. None of these priorities had anything to do with honest conservative thinking, but the propaganda of the left and insincerity of Republican power brokers secured the association. The failure of this make believe conservatism demoralized the right and invigorated the left.  The selective application of principle brought on an even darker reality – the election of the most liberal presidential administration on record.

Extremes breed extremes and the political pendulum responded with full and misguided enthusiasm as it careened from a fantasy right to a very real socialist left. Left-minded despots pretending to be rescuers took full advantage of the fuzzy politics of the Bush years and economic fears to recapture the presidency and Congress. Conservatives became alarmed – about eight years late. 

We are witness to the greatest makeover of government in America’s history. With a knack for bureaucracy and regulatory heaviness, expenses are exceeding revenues by thirty percent. As this American Debt grows bigger, the American Dream grows smaller. 

One would assume such a reality would stimulate a conservative call to action. The best response to descending darkness is turning on the lights, but that’s not happening. Ture conservatives, by principle and dedication, are exceedingly bright. These days there is not a lot of light out of the right.

America continues to struggle at an unprecedented crossroads. Never in our history have the numbers of those seeking something for nothing been so great. Experience in other countries has persistently demonstrated that when the ratio of feeders to producers exceeds a certain threshold, societies sacrifice their real liberties for fantasy securities.

If we are to sustain our country’s beacon as the true land of liberty, opportunity, and responsibility, conservatives must find their backbone and get back in the fight. It is not too late for America to recover its heritage and challenge liberal absurdities. It’s amazing how men who will face a loaded gun to fight for their country will studiously avoid the wrath of a liberal with a frown. For conservative thinkers, a frustrated opposition represents progress.

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Carl Mumpower, a former member of Asheville City Council, may be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it