When I was in my twenties I felt differently about a great many things than I do today at 48. While I was never a liberal and never voted for a democrat, I did have some liberal ways of looking at things.

I thought the government was responsible for the drastic rise in oil prices in the late seventies when gas cracked a dollar a gallon when I was 19. Twice it's price from 1977 when I worked at the Arco in Tehachapi. Can you imagine a modern liberal blaming Jimmy Carter for manipulating oil prices? BLASPHEMY! No, I was proven wrong when a friend's Dad explained to me the way a free market economy works and how events in far away places can spur speculation on Wall Street and drive the price of just about anything up. In this case it was the Iranian Hostage Crisis, which was certainly not Carters fault even if he handled the whole thing poorly, that was causing speculation in the oil markets that OPEC would react harshly to any action they THOUGHT we may take. My liberal view of the governments ability to corner markets was forever changed.

I thought all corporations were evil and were trying to ruin our country by raising prices even in the face of lower inflation and interest rates. I even worked for one of the heartless entities. How callous and unfeeling they must be to expect us to live on the wages we received. Then I figured out that labor unions, once noble defenders of the rights of workers, had become no more than bloated, overbearing businesses intent on higher dues and bigger membership(I was president of my local for six years)making many unreasonable wage demands and forgetting who it was they were supposed to be working for(I still believe that union contract ballots are stuffed) that were having a huge effect on the prices of nearly everything made in America and driving even me to purchase a better made, more reliable, better looking and FAR cheaper car than I could get on the Ford, Chevy, etc lot. No..Corporations are not evil, they are simply businesses in a free market economy trying to make money, which is exactly what they are supposed to do. It's not their job to see to and pay for the health and welfare of the masses and it's their job to mollycoddle their employees, it's only their job to pay them for what they do at work and how well they do it. Unions have seen to it that things like incentive pay and bonuses for more productive employees are a thing of the past where they represent people. Quality is not as important as seniority. It doesn't matter if you stink at your job, as long as you have the hair to hold the job, you are safe.

I thought pot should be legalized because I was a regular toker. I had no concern for cancer patients or those suffering from glaucoma! I just wanted to get high without being hassled. It was no more dangerous than booze, I thought. It was organic so there must not be a problem with it. It didn't matter that I could also clearly and specifically remember telling myself that the only drug I would ever use was pot as I sat in my locked dope room in Tehachapi thinking of the coke, peyote, psilocybin(sp?) and barbiturates I had done in abundance before finally settling on meth as my drug of choice. There are a few more things I had a more liberal slant on, but as I matured I saw the selfish, shortsightedness of those views and opinions. They suited ME well, but were not in the interests of the vast majority of Americans.

I began to see that free market economies will have fluctuations, sometimes drastic, based on the fact that most consumers are as panicky and unpredictable as a herd of sheep in a thunder storm. They are a basically uninformed herd that will follow a leader over a cliff no matter the cost in getting there then complain about the  price once they are there, the fact there was no sign in place to tell them not to jump and about the price to fix their self inflicted owies.

I saw that legalizing pot would open a door that should remain closed. Despite what the NORML(National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws)crowd would like the uninformed and/or inexperienced folks to believe, pot is a stepping stone to more dangerous drugs to ninety percent of those who use it. I smoked pot for fifteen years. I dealt it for most of that time and I knew dozens of and met hundreds, possibly thousands, of heads over the years and not one of them used it for medicinal reasons. We all just wanted to get high..Just like the hootin' an' hollerin' potheads are doing today.

Those are just a few examples of the way my views have evolved over the years. Times change and I changed with them, Thank God! It's perfectly normal to have views that change over time. Winston Churchill once said " If you aren't a liberal at twenty, you don't have a heart. If you aren't a conservative at forty, you don't have a brain." Some people see it the opposite way, I suppose, and that too is fine, but the statement speaks to the heart of the matter, which is that we all change over time in one way or another. Those who do not will continue to rev their engines loudly while stuck in neutral or spin their wheels in the same rut forever.

Now enter political office chasers and vote mongering candidates with no real base other than the windsock of weekly polls that prompt them to decide where they stand at any given time. The classic "flip-floppers".  They may have one issue they always keep straight, but everything else is up for grabs, often going top the  highest bidder or latest crowd shouting that they're mad as hell and they're not going to take it anymore(I'm risking copyright infringement here, but it's worth it).over the cause du jour. Their views do not evolve, they change overnight, or at least over the course of a campaign for office or a bill they opposed a year ago.

Candidates on both sides do it with alarming regularity and it concerns me because as it continues too many members of the herd become desensitized to it until, at some point(like the last ten years)they simply ignore, and in many cases, defend such indefensible actions

I understand that as times change people also change. It's a necessity, but where politics is concerned the long term effects and the good of the country rather than the individual should always be the prime factor in a stance or decision, not whatever burr is under the saddle of the vocal minority or a special interest group during a particular week.

Flip-flopping is a dangerous game in any area, but especially dangerous in politics where the effects of that action can be long lasting and detrimental to the country as a whole because so many people just don't understand how important it is to stand firm even in the face of adversity. Our leaders need to take a stand and then stand by it because the panicky public herd is generally incapable of staying the course on virtually any issue. Policy should not be based on the indecision of the masses, but it often is and that makes us, as a nation, look weak, divided and undecided to the rest of the world. It is not our actions that that keep us looking foolish, it is our lack of will, which is an affliction from which our enemies do not suffer, and that lack of will comes from the flip-floppers who's mealy mouthed rhetoric breed indecision.

Politicians have become flimsy corn stalks blowing this way and that instead of showing leadership, strength and resolve and creating stable boundaries that, like children with strong, firm parents, the people actually want. They want to know someone is in charge because it makes them feel safe and creates trust, even if their views differ. They want leaders who will listen but still do the right thing; who will take a stand based on what the true majority. Who will grease all the wheels and not just the squeaky ones. Ones who can withstand the onslaught of the vocal minority and special interests and are able to withstand a strong wind in any direction.

Bush seemed to be that type of strong, firm leader, but over the last few years has begun to capitulate to the crowd as they grow restless. It shows weakness and that draws the political sharks who smell the blood of that weakness. His devotion to the party line has muddled his formerly solid conservative stance and we, the American people, are going to pay the price.

Margaret Thatcher said that "Compromise is the absence of leadership", which gets right back to flip-flopping. Either you believe in something or you don't. You can't have it both ways as it suits you every time the going gets tough, and at my age, I am firm in my stands and beliefs and no amount of shouting or namecalling is going to change that. I say that it is high time our leaders started doing the same.