Con los pies en la tierra, now more than ever

I am no expert in politics, nor I consider I still fully understand how the political and legislative part of the US government works. I'm doing my homework, though.

That's why I feel I've been enlightened by Fred Thompson's article in The Wall Street Journal.

Not that I didn't know what I wanted, respected and valued before, but sometimes was kind of hard to explain it without going through the branches, mostly during philosophical conversations with people who lean way too much to the left.

But, from now on, it'll be easier for me to say the right words, in a nutshell. I feel that I am more empowered, simply because I can list the points and values that I stand for.

And I can do it because I, too:

1. Hate election-year quick fixes.
2. Wouldn't like to see in America a move to secularization, the growth of government, stagnation, mediocrity and loss of freedom. Believe me, I've had enough of all that.
3. Am very skeptical of mass movements, perfect solutions and what often passes for progress.
4. Recognize that change is inevitable, that we are humans and we make mistakes and that man is capable of great things, that is meant to be free in an unfettered market of ideas and not subjugated by a too powerful government.
5. Hold highly dearest the principles relied upon by America's founding fathers: a market economy, the primacy of the rule of the law and the abolition of slavery and the liberal trade policies.
6. Go for the basic constitutional government the US has preserved, go for the reform of failed welfare systems when needed and for the reduction of confiscatory income tax rates.
7. Agree that something needs to be done to fix the economy, the housing market, the health care costs and the education.
8. Stand for the fact that Congress can not repeal the laws of economics; that there will be not short-term fixes without longer-term consequences.
9. Believe that in a free and dynamic country with social mobility, there will be great opportunities, but also economic disparity.
10. Believe that the education system can not overcome the breakdown of the family and the social fabric that surrounds children daily.
11. Believe that free markets -not an expanding and more powerful government- are the solution to today's problems.
12. Believe that many of our current problems, such as health-care costs, energy dependency and the sub prime mortgage crisis were caused in large part by government policies.

Does that make me a conservative, right-winger. Well, so be it.

I do believe in the validity of those principles, even nowadays. And I do know that sometimes they wouldn't guarantee a ballot-box victory. These values are the ones that made America, and the human-made deviations that we've faced don't mean they are not valid anymore.

And, to set the record straight, I belong to that generation of newly arrived, newly naturalized Cuban Americans. 2008 will be my first presidential elections and I do not belong to any of the so called generational shift.

Y al que no le guste, que le eche azúcar.

H/T to Babalú Blog