The time-honored American way of life is being dismantled. The freedoms to disagree and speak your mind without retribution, to live a quiet and peaceful life and to work hard to retire with enough money for the rest of your life, are all being eroded.
There are three major measures being considered in Congress that will set the liberal agenda on a course of no return. These proposals threaten our cherished way of life and represent a massive government overreach in areas that hardworking Americans must combat to block.
Below are brief descriptions of the three bills that are being advanced by the liberal left. It’s important to note that they have already passed the US House of Representatives!
The first is the total makeover of election laws in this country (The House calls this the “For The People Act”). This bill was recently blocked by Senate Republicans who stopped this disastrous legislation. The act would shift the power to decide who can register to vote, how to vote and when (or how late) to vote to the federal government. Currently, election laws are the responsibilities of the individual states and should stay that way to conform to the strictures of our Constitution. This bill would have changed the face of the election process in America and threatens to undermine the trust of American citizens that is the heart of our Democracy.
The second threat is the so-called “American Family Plan” which is a massively expensive welfare system with vastly expanded entitlements for nearly every person in the United States. Through this proposal, President Biden seeks to pay for childcare, family leave, college and community college tuition, and everything in between. This tax and spending proposal will make significant swaths of our citizens dependent on handouts and beholden to the government.
The third threat is the “American Jobs Plan” which Democrats claim is an “infrastructure bill.” It’s as if the liberal left thought of everything that the federal government could possibly spend money on, called it “infrastructure and crammed it into this piece of legislation.
These three bills – if you total the combined audacity of spending – is a whopping $6 trillion. Unconscionable.
Continuing to print money with no end in sight will ultimately cripple our world-class economic system. This outsized government spending will impose a potentially unbearable burden on our children and grandchildren. In short, it threatens our way of life.
If we consider why it is important to remain true to conservative values, consider the 11 principles that were the basis of Ronald Reagan’s value system:
- Freedom
- Faith
- Family
- Sanctity and Dignity of Life
- American Exceptionalism
- Founder’s Wisdom and Vision
- Lower Taxes
- Limited Government
- Peace through Strength
- Anti-Communism
- Belief in the Individual
Without a foundation such as the Reagan principles, future generations of Americans will not understand the importance of individual freedoms and responsibilities or the right to pray freely, speak freely or stand up for what they believe.
We must stand firm, take action and stop the agenda of the out-of-touch progressives in Washington. Working to block the passage of these three measures in the US Senate is a critically important first step.
Nancy Shields is the executive director of ASA and a former news reporter, editor and managing editor and the winner of numerous Associated Press awards.
