Hard Times in the Land of Plenty... of candidates, that is.

I feels hard to be a conservative these days.

It shouldn't be - goals of encouraging more people working and fewer ending up on welfare; having a smaller, less intrusive government; religious freedom; the right for law-abiding citizens to own a gun for hunting and to protect themselves... these are all principles that make sense to me.

Examples of why these principles work can be found everywhere you look. Take this past Labor Day Weekend in Chicago, IL: where the right to legally bear arms has been stripped away, 8 were killed and 46 were wounded in gun violence. In a city so culturally rich and with so much history in shaping America as we know it, this statistic is disheartening.

Then there's the video that went viral recently of a 30-year-old woman who has found every loophole she can in our welfare system and has been receiving government money for 12 years, and who doesn't believe she should ever get a job because she gets a check regularly funded by us. Government assistance was designed to help get people back on their feet during difficult times - job loss, health & medical issues, natural disasters, etc. - and that's a good thing because we should do what we can to help others. But it was designed to be temporary, not as a way of life for the lazy and the sluggish.

And then we come to religious freedom, brought to the forefront of the 2016 Presidential election thanks to the refusal to issue gay marriage licences by a thrice-divorced philanderer who fathered children by one man while married to another. The issue isn't really gay marriage (a divisive issue unto itself), but that's what it's turned in to. The hypocrisy of this lady claiming that gays getting hitched ruins the sanctity of marriage has turned the issue into a three ring circus featuring clowns of all varieties (Republican candidate Mike Huckabee, anyone?).

This brings me to the subject line of this post. Showcasing common-sense conservative values has become almost impossible thanks to the ridiculous amount of Republicans vying for the Presidential nomination. When there are 16 or 17 folks up there, it's hard enough for we conservatives to make a choice, let alone those in the mush-ball middle who may or may not vote Republican. Two have since exited the race: I liked Texas Governor Rick Perry, but losing Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was no real loss at all to me.

The orange-tinted overgrown Oompa Loompa still leads many polls, but I question the validity of those numbers. We have a strong female candidate in Carly Fiorina, who is gaining but whose professional past is posing difficulties. Governor Jeb Bush is a viable candidate but is plagued both by his name and lack of excitement. And the list goes on and on and on...

I do like Dr. Ben Carson. He's been gaining in the polls and he has a lot of common-sense ideas. His professional reputation is impeccable and he's the embodiment of the American Dream: that despite coming from the hardest neighborhoods and having the odds stacked against them, a person can become a success if he or she is willing to work hard for what they want.

Now, is he the perfect candidate? No, and none of them are. In reality, the only people who see someone as an ideal candidate is the individual running. No candidate will likely ever stand 100% for my values unless I run for office myself. For now, though, he's the candidate for me.

MTV "Music" Video Awards, Pop Culture, and How Raising Kids is Made More Difficult

Raising kids has never been easy, I know. My grandpa was the youngest of nine and his mother died when he was around 14, and I imagine his father (who, by all accounts, was one mean old cuss) had a difficult time. Heck, I imagine his mother did, too! He grew up in the depression ("Them was hard times," Grandpa likes to remind us) and had nothing but the clothes on his back and food that he either grew or killed himself.

My mom is one of four, as is my dad. All of my grandparents were working class folks who earned their livings the hard way. My parents are working class people, too, and I'm proud of their efforts in raising me and all they did and sacrificed for my sister and I. 

My kids are 11 and 6, respectively. Our daughter is entering sixth grade and is at an extremely impressionable age, and the little guy is like a sponge who soaks up everything around him. These ages are good because, as parents who are doing their best to raise our kids to be law-abiding, moral, thoughtful contributing members of society, they're each at an age where learning comes natural and we can really begin to instill decent values in them. 

It's a struggle now, though, perhaps more so than ever. I wasn't aware of it at the time but MTV held its annual VMA show sometime in the last week. This was the host, someone that claims to be "pansexual" (whatever that is), and who wants to be a role model for young girls to look up to:

This is not sexy, it's not classy, and it's certainly not for anyone under the age of 16. It's trashy, plain & simple. This spoiled brat looks and acts like a two-dollar hooker whose level of intelligence is bested by the average gutter rat and whose outfit came from a Halloween store. This, my friends, serves as the antithesis of what I want my daughter to be. I have no doubt she will be a raging success at whatever she wants to do. She will achieve this through creativity, intelligence, and a good work ethic, not by selling her body to the highest possible bidder. 

In a world filled with Miley Cyrus, the Kardashions, Nicki Minaj, and a host of other women whose public personas are deplorable - all the while being made into "role models" by the mainstream media and some highly paid advertising agents - it's difficult to explain to kids. The best we can do as parents is not to deny that this kind of stupidity exists, but rather limit our childrens' exposure to it. We must explain to them that just because something is popular doesn't make it acceptable or good.

Thankfully, there are plenty of talented, intelligent people to serve as role models for our kids. Musicians (not the kind you'll find on MTV), athletes, scientists, entrepreneurs and small-business owners, and even the everyday person can serve as someone kids can look up to. I will use my wife as an example: she is fiercely intelligent and works in the non-fiction section of our town's library. She dedicates her entire being to her children, she's a youth group leader at our church, she's well-spoken and her values are unquestionably positive. She is the kind of person I want for my children to turn in to. 

So don't worry: if you take a moment or two to look past the sleaze and stupidity of MTV, tabloid gossip rags, and what passes for pop music today, there's still plenty of hope for our kids. I'm certain of it.