our government we have nobody to blame but
ourselves. Term limits, as they have shown, will not
solve anything.
The American Way is for Americans to hold their elected
leaders accountable. The very best form of term limits are
participating and demanding citizens demanding good
government on Election Day. It is you and me - we the
people - demanding better than what we are getting now.
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Chapter Twelve
The American Way: Making America America Again
From time to time on the campaign trial I’ve referred
to our country as being once great. I take some grief
for it, too. My favorite is when I am called unpatriotic,
which is funny because, like lots of others, I served
honorably in the United States Navy and I still serve
as commander of my American Legion post and
district, plus Sons of the American Legion squadron. I
care enough about my country to want to run for
Congress. It is difficult to be more patriotic than ol’
Gaylon Kent.
But people want to feel good about themselves and
their lives, the organizations they belong to and the
country they live in, so it is not surprising I am taken
to task for saying our nation is no longer great.
But I don’t think it is.
America is no longer America.
Low taxes and free markets and allowing other
nations the dignity of conducting their affairs without
US interference, among other things, will go a long
way to making America America again, but they won’t
take us all of the way there.
I firmly believe we need a great national
endeavor to finish the task.
For my money, our nation - indeed, our species -
peaked when we put men on the moon. This is not a
surprise to regular readers of mine, who know I’ve
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been saying this for years and I firmly believe nothing
our species has done comes close to matching this
achievement.
Gene Cernan, Apollo 17’ s commander said, right
before he took our last steps on the moon:
America’s challenge of today has forged our
destiny of tomorrow.
It was a brilliant quote, as up to the momentous
challenge as Neil Armstrong’s ‘one small step’ line.
America, however, chose to take a flier on that
destiny.
In fact, the only nation to put men on the moon
can no longer put anyone into space, a circumstance
which should really cause all of us to go hang our head
in national shame. We retired the space shuttle a few
years ago and there was not a follow-up program
ready to go. When we need to send someone into
space, our astronauts have to tag along on the
spacecraft of another country.
It’s our loss, too. Had we wanted to we probably
could have had a man on Mars in the 1980’s. We didn’t
though, and America has not had a great national
endeavor since. Not only did we miss out on the
achievement itself, but we never reaped the benefits
from the innovation the project would have yielded.
Sure, right now there is a manned Martian project,
however it lacks a charismatic person to champion
the cause and has not captured the imagination of the
public. Few know about it and no one is expected to be
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on Mars until 2035, and that’s if everything goes as
planned, which it won’t, of course.
This shows how far our nation has fallen. In 1960
America went from starting a space program virtually
from scratch to landing Neil Armstrong and Buzz
Aldrin on the moon in less than a decade. Now, we
need at least a quarter century to send someone to
Mars.
I think the world needs, even wants, a great
America. The only question is, do we want a great
America?
Personally, I want a great America. I want an
America her citizens and the world can respect and be
proud of. A great national endeavor will help take us
there.
The American Way is to dare greatly, to do what hasn’t been
done and go places that haven’t been visited. When we start
doing these things again we’ll be ourselves again.
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Chapter Thirteen
The American Way and the Only Issue That Matters
We have discussed a variety of issues in this book.
Naturally, all are important to the future of our
country. All of them, however, are secondary to the
primary issue facing this country: the interest you and
me – we the people – choose to take in our
government. I believe the country we want is there for
the taking. Consider this, though:
We cannot start expecting more out of our
country until we start expecting more out of
ourselves.
For a while now we have been content with the
status quo on Election Day and the status quo has
responded by doing nothing to give us a country we
can be proud of. And they never will, either. You know
it, I know it and you know what? The incumbents
know it, too. Nothing will change until you and I – we
the people – start demanding better on Election Day.
It is not going to be easy. It is human nature to
stick with what’s familiar even when the familiar is
not serving us particularly well. We do this because, as
humans, we tend to not want to deal with the
unknown. That’s OK, it’s part of being human. So, also,
is overcoming our fears, and if we are going to have
the country we want, the country we deserve and a
nation the world can respect again, consider this:
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We must be willing to leave the comfort of
today to accept the challenges of tomorrow.
The challenges are many and they may seem
daunting but independence seemed daunting to the
Founding Fathers and we must not be fearful of
meeting them. We are entitled to everything we
discussed in this book: good government, an economy
anchored in low taxes and free markets and a country
that gives other nations the dignity of conducting its
affairs without US interference. The status quo,
however, is not going to give it to us. If they were,
they would’ve done it already. So we are going to have
to go out and get it ourselves.
It starts with you and me – we the people –
deciding to make a difference. It starts with we the
people deciding to become demanding and
participating citizens.
Without demanding and participating citizens
nothing good will happen for country.
With demanding and participating citizens,
however, nothing can stop us.
Every election we get the government we elect and
we are not going to have the great country we deserve
until we elect those who will deliver it to us. President
John F Kennedy said it very well:
Nothing is more powerful than an individual
acting out of conscience.
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Bingo. When we Americans collectively start
acting out of conscience, we will find the country we
want and deserve has been there for the taking all
along.
The American Way is for Americans to hold their leaders
accountable.The government we want is a close as Election
Day. All we have to do is go and get it.
We are the only obstacle in our path.
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Afterword
Friends, the purpose of this book was not to cover
every issue facing our country. That is simply not
possible. It was also not to take a partisan look at the
issues. That is possible, of course, but looking at an
issue solely through partisan glasses does not do
anyone any good.
Nowhere in this book were the words ‘Libertarian’,
‘Republican’ or ‘Democrat’ used because making
America America again transcends partisan politics.
I wrote this book to show that both our
government and the future of our country are in our
hands. They are not in the incumbents hands and not
in the lobbyists hands or in the media’s hands.
They are in our hands, the hands of you and me,
we the people. What we get out of our government
will always depend on the efforts that you and me put
into it on Election Day because we will always get the
government we elect.
As Americans we not only have an opportunity to
produce a country that both her citizens and the
world can be proud of, but we have a collective
obligation to do just that.
It starts with American voters demanding better.
It starts with you and it starts with me and it starts
this Election Day.
Gaylon Kent
Hayden, Colorado
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Gaylon is the 2018 Colorado Libertarian Party’s nominee for
the United States House of Representatives from the 3rd
District. He was also their nominee for this seat in 2016 and
was their United States Senate nominee in 2014.
Gaylon lives in Hayden with his wife Marian. He commands
American Legion Post 44 in Steamboat Springs, as well as
American Legion District 14 and Sons of the American
Legion Squadron 89 in Hayden.
He is originally from Los Angeles. He enjoys reading and
weightlifting and is an accomplished high school sports
official.
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