Harvard's 97-pound-intellectual weaklings should consider marching in a parade

Let me get this straight, the 'geniuses' at Harvard actually conducted a study to find out that Republicans are more likely to appreciate 4th of July parades? These people are supposed to be smart, right? And, they needed a study to figure that out? By what stretch of whose imagination did anyone think otherwise?

When Barack Obama said that America is exceptional in the same sense that someone from another country finds their country exceptional (in other words, America is no more exceptional than any other country - i.e., not exceptional at all), he wasn't just speaking for himself; he was speaking right out of the liberal progressive bible. The vast majority of liberals believe that. And, if they see nothing truly exceptional about their country, what do they have to celebrate on the 4th of July? It's just an excuse to start a fire in the barbie and crack open a few beers - kind of like Christmas with outdoor cooking but without Santa Claus.

It's scary to think that Harvard is supposed to be the premier educational institution in our country. I used to have a coffee mug with a Gary Larson cartoon on it of a boy pushing on the door where the sign says "Pull" under another sign that says "School for the Gifted." Did Larson secretly mean Harvard? For my money, you don't need to look any further than the announcement of this study to recognize how deeply this country is in trouble.

FDR, bless his socialistic little soul, was right: "All we have to fear is fear itself." He was speaking to the power of positive thought.

If you want to start a business, if you want it to succeed, the first thing you have to do is envision it as a successful endeavor. Without that, there's little point in trying. Liberals, many of whom want America to fail so that we can join some wishful-thinking, socialistic/communistic utopian vision of a one-world order, have leveled many attacks against American values and culture. To some degree, that's part of the process of stripping away our vision of American Exceptionalism, which is essential to our success.

But, America is exceptional and far beyond the limited imagination of a minority of crackpots on the Left. America is exceptional, not because of a flawless and perfect past, but because the basic principles contained in our constitution provide the landscape where mankind has opportunity and hope.

What is opportunity? Opportunity is not a guarantee of success - it's the chance to succeed. You can't have a chance to succeed without a chance to fail. The good news, in America, is that, if you do fail, you get to try again.

Liberals think they're driving us toward a secular version of heaven on earth where John Lennon's vision of the world becomes a reality: "... no need to kill or die ... no need for greed or hunger ... And the world can live as one."  Unfortunately, none of the liberals have bothered to ask themselves, "Then what?"

I am an aspiring entrepreneur. I have a vision of a successful business. What if someone could flip a switch and make my business all I could imagine it to be? What if a wealthy investor gives me so much money that my business can't fail? Well, I'd certainly take the money, but it's not going to fulfill the motivations that drove me to start my business in the first place.

In 1992, the liberals told George HW Bush, "It's the economy, stupid." Today, we could say the same thing to Obama, as well as, "It's employment, stupid." But, whether 1992, now or any other time in history, we can rightfully point out to liberals, socialists and communists: "It's the journey, stupid."

Liberals haven't stopped to consider that there is little or no value in life if everything is handed to us without any effort. When you lie in a hospital bed for too long, or watch too many "Is he the father?" episodes on Maury Povich, your muscles atrophy. If you don't need them or use them, they dry up and die. It's the same thing with life - if you don't live it, if you don't challenge it, it shrivels and dies.

That's why it's wrong to demonize those who have achieved the American dream. They validate the goal for those with the wisdom and courage to take up the challenge. I've said it before and I'll say it again, if Obama and the liberals ultimately achieve their vision for America, they're going to want to 'eliminate' me. And they might as well. Their vision for America is so unexceptional it offers nothing I want and I am entirely unwilling to live in it.

Of course, on the other hand, their efforts have given many of us, who enjoy 4th of July parades, more and more reasons to exercise our patriotic muscles. As for me, I'm going to a parade Monday to get a little conservative workout. I'm a little worried about those poor folks at Harvard, though. Here they are, at the 'greatest' mental fitness center and they come off like 97-pound weaklings who are kicking the sand in their own faces.