2013 - some personal reflections and looking beyond

2012 was a bad year for me, a lot went wrong in my personal life and in my career. 2013 turned out to be even worse in a number of ways.  I'm quite frankly glad this year is almost over.  I've always been an optimist and have always tried to see the glass half full or the silver lining on the dark cloud.  The past two years have really tested my resilience but I'm still here. I'm thankful that my loved ones and I have made it this far given the struggles over the past while (2011 was slightly on the down side of mediocre too).  I'm sure someone up there is looking out for us.  Testing us perhaps, but they certainly haven't abandon us.

Gee, that paragraph seems fairly bleak upon reflection.  I'm optimistic for 2014.  I said that about 2012 and 2013 too, but there's reasons for hope both personally and politically.  I won't get into the personal side of things, but I do want to share that I think 2014 will be good year for Republicans mainly because Obamacare will continue to be a train-wreck.  

The one good thing about that (Obamacare) is that there could be a true groundswell in November such that Republicans end up with a super-majority in the House and Senate in 2015.  I'm not saying it will happen but the potential is there.  Smart political operatives in the Republican party would be wise to focus on that rather than fending off the Tea Party.  There is so much more alignment between the GOP and Tea Party and libertarians than there are differences.  Seeking common ground is the smart thing for all concerned.  The greater issue is to defeat liberal Democrat enablers of progressivist liberalism.  United we stand and all that.

The downside of a resounding victory in 2014 is the possible backlash in 2016 and another Democrat inhabitant of the White House until 2020.  Still, if the GOP govern as they should, that isn't a guaranteed outcome.  And in either case, that presents no reason to try to maximize the election results for Republicans in 2014.  If you think that they are simply the lesser of two evils consider this - how successful would you be for example, in holding John Boehner's feet to the conservative relative to president Obama's.  Boehner might move to the right,Obama will not under any circumstances.  For that matter, an emboldened Hillary Clinton would not do so either, despite all of the talk about Bill Clinton's smaller government movement and the triangulation of voters stuff.  Hillary Clinton will govern only slightly to the right of president Obama were she to be elected president.  She's no moderate.  Don't get suckered in by the inevitable slick marketing.

As for my family and I, I can only pray that we continue to persevere and that 2014 and beyond holds much for us that the last several years have not, and doesn't hold some of the things the last couple of years have held.  Well, pray, and keep working at it myself.  I'm not merely a bystander in trying to make life better.