For a long time, I thought to myself, “Who am I to even write a blog or a book about wanting to become the next President of the United States of America? I am virtually unknown, and I’ve never published anything let alone run for public office – even Dog Catcher? Unlike many leaders and politicians today – I don’t have a law degree or a financially successful business background to lend credibility to my qualifications for high office. So, who will listen to me? Who will even care what I have to say?” Then I remembered those timeless truths written into the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress, on July 4, 1776 that stand today as the basis for all our freedoms and liberties: “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” So, America – I am officially raising my hand and declaring this simple truth: that I, Frank C. Sense, promise to honor an Oath that I had taken as a young boy with these words:

“On my honor, I will do my best

To do my duty to God and my country

To do my duty to God and my country

and obey the Scout Law;

To help other people at all times;

To keep myself physically strong,

      mentally awake, and morally straight”

© The Boy Scouts of America

That’s right – I was a Boy Scout a long time ago during a period in our history often referred to as the “Golden Age of Scouting.” Membership was high; “Ozzie & Harriet” and “Leave it to Beaver” painted and idealized picture of life in America on TV while Norman Rockwell captured the Scouting Experience on canvas. Societal distractions like R-rated movies, pop music with Parental Advisory labels on the packaging, the Internet, and cell phones didn’t exist. What did exist and have survived for more than 100 years are the Scout Oath and Law. I believe that now more than ever, these core values as expressed in the Scout Oath and Law represent more than just words on a page, but rather a “policy of behavior”. . . a “code of conduct” to abide by and an unwavering standard to be measured by throughout Scouting and indeed in life! At the risk of sounding like a Pollyanna, I have tried to live my life by unapologetically following that code of conduct.

For the past 35+ years, I have served as a Scoutmaster. Over the years, I’m often asked, “Why I continue to remain involved in Scouting?” My answer is always the same – “it’s just darn good fun!” Whether I’m teaching a kid how to overcome their fears of the water and learn how to swim or how to read the downstream flow of a river or demonstrating how to start a fire – in a rainstorm or developing an understanding of basic first aid skills – each challenge, each experience, taken together builds character, teaches life skills and self-confidence and leadership.

© FrankCommonSense.Com

I dedicate this blog to the “low-information” or “under-informed” voters of America. Let us be clear, I personally resent using the term “low-information voter” because it suggests that these individuals have neither the ability, the desire nor the intellect to become engaged in the political process when in reality – nothing could be further from the truth! I first heard this term “under-informed” or “low-information” during the Presidential campaigns of 2008 with reference to large voting blocks of Americans who, for reasons unexplained, had chosen to opt-out of the political process. And, because of their detachment and lack of awareness of national politics and the key policy issues facing this country, this under-informed voting block could become a huge swing vote “wild card” of influence on election day – easily swayed in the eleventh hour by a damaging “witch-hunt-style” media blitz, filled with lies and distortions, that would never be questioned or challenged by a clearly sympathetic, left-leaning media bias in lockstep with Democratic Party line politics. After all, this “vast confederacy of fools made him (Barack Obama), their prince.” ¹

The phrase “low-information” voter became even more commonly used during the 2012 election campaigns between Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney. By definition, “low-information voters are those people who have little interest or understanding of political affairs, rarely watch the news, and can’t name major political figures or national events yet vote anyway on this limited knowledge basis. Low-information voters can definitely be both Republican and Democratic voters.” 2

Here’s my take on which Americans made up this “low-information” group.

1. The hard-working “middle class”, who pay their taxes, mom and dad are raising a small family and often both working longer hours for less money, living paycheck-to-paycheck, just to keep their heads above water to support the family. Is it any wonder that at the end of their day they simply have little or no time or energy to become informed about the pressing policy issues facing America?
2. The “under-employed” make up the second segment of Americans. These are folks who perhaps were middle income at one time, but they’ve lost their higher-paying jobs, lost their dreams of home ownership and typically work 2 to 3 minimum wage jobs (if they can find work at all), just to make ends meet. But perhaps most humiliating of all – they must now rely on food stamps and a plethora of governmental assistance programs which only exacerbate the problem by lulling the recipient into a false sense of security, complacency, utter hopelessness and loss of ambition – followed by a sense of “entitlement” for an ever-expanding array of ill-conceived social benefits our government can’t even afford.
3. Last but not least are those Americans who’ve just given up hope that their voice has any chance of being heard. Ignorance is bliss they say. Or, what you don’t know – can’t hurt you. In reality, this ostrich-like mentality has brought civilizations to ruin.

Wake up People!

I believe that each of us has a responsibility, to understand and appreciate America’s history and a duty to become informed about the events that will shape our lives and our children’s lives for generations to come. There can be no excuse for apathy or complacency for the consequences of living an “uninformed life” will most definitely signal the end of our free Republic. Consider this – if we live in an age of unprecedented access to information, and so much of that information is coming at us from all sides 24/7 from Television to Cable service with hundreds of channels to choose from, not to mention the Internet and all the social media platforms that are inexorably linked together by an ever-expanding selection of hi-tech communication devices – how could anyone be uninformed about anything? The real question is who has the time to sift through the constant drumbeat of information in a typical 24-hour news cycle to understand what really is the truth?

READ THIS BLOG AND YOU WILL KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT THE ISSUES FACING OUR COUNTRY AND THE THREATS TO YOUR LIBERTY.

Here’s a final thought for the day – often referred to as “The Quote of the Century”

Some possess the vocabulary to sum things up in a way we can understand. This is a quote from the former Premier of the Czech Republic. Obviously, we have a lot of work to do to repair the damage they’ve done. “The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama Presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man as their President. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America. Blaming the prince of fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.” 2

Vaclav Klaus

Notes

1. Dustin Hawkins, from “Who are the Low Information Voters?” About.com, February 28, 2014.
2. Vaclav Klaus, from “Quote of the Century.” Google, February 27, 2014.

© FrankCommonSense.Com

The idea for this blog can be found in the words beginning with the letter “D.” In particular, words that begin with the prefix (dis), to be away from, apart, not or opposite of.

As you look out your window of life to the world around you – ask yourself if the following words apply to how you feel about what you are seeing:

Do you feel –

Disabled, (incapacitated, powerless)

Disadvantaged (economically deprived)

Disaffected (alienated in feeling or loyalty)

Disappointed (unhappy because of frustrated hopes)

Disapproval (moral condemnation)

Disarray (lack of order / state of confusion)

Disaster (hardship or suffering to many people)

Discard (to get rid of) as being of no further use)

Discomfort (physical or mental uneasiness)

Disconnect (no longer connected)

Discouraged (to take away, to restrict or hinder)

Discredit (to refuse to believe or have confidence in)

My name is Frank Common Sense and “I Promise to Tell the Truth, The Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth – So Help Me God!”

My name wasn’t always Frank Sense; in fact, I was somebody else for most of my adult life. So, why did I change my name? Was I ashamed of my name? No. I guess I reached a point in my life when I realized that if I wanted to make a statement about where our country is going . . . or not going, I had to become someone else. Someone fresh, unknown to the world and spy technologies in play today, so, I thought it would be a good idea to become momentarily anonymous. When and if what I have to say here would become the talking points on conservative talk radio, like Limbaugh, Hannity or Glen Beck – well – then the “cats’ out of the bag,” and my real identity will be discovered and dissected by the mainstream media and/or the NSA in record time. But, at least the conversation will have started. A Frank Common Sense conversation about how the leadership in America has lost its sense of true North and abandoned the “rule of law” as expressed in our Constitution. It’s a conversation about how the Obama administration has systematically subverted the law, lied repeatedly, and weakened our economy by pursuing policies that have increased our national debt, demonized capitalism by attacking small-business entrepreneurs, created an ever-growing “entitlement class” with hand-out programs designed to encourage even greater dependence on the Federal Government, and eviscerated the middle class by supplanting the principles of a Democracy with a Socialistic anti-American agenda not seen since Nazi Germany. Many have sounded alarms and coined phrases that suggest we are at a “tipping point” and the abyss is just ahead.

So, I decided to put my thoughts, opinions, observations and ideas down on record. At the end of this literary exercise – I might even write a book. My words will draw from my own life experience, but in the end, the reader will have to determine if this is a work of fiction, or considered a serious fact, or the empty ramblings of some clueless nut job. As Frank Sense, I’ll tell you about how things are and how they might become better for all Americans if I would become the next President of the United States.

© FrankCommonSense.Com