The Masthead

Next Wednesday, the campaign signs will start coming down. The blizzard of campaign ads will leave the airwaves. The robo phone calls will stop, too. The media will be focused on the elections too close to call, while talking about winners, losers and that media firm’s spin on why and what it all means.

Where will the Manufactured Housing Industry stand? What direction will our country be poised to take? Will it be a direction we can truly Believe in? Will it be a direction we voted to help accomplish?

On Election Day, how should one personally vote?

It is principles that should guide us always. To share a noteworthy quotation, 

“Right is right if no one is right,

and wrong is wrong even when everyone is wrong.”

Majorities impact legislation. We may be on the majority or the minority side of an issue. But if we are consistent in working for what is right, we will, over time, advance our cause in spite of challenges or opposition. The Truth will out!

For much of our population, if ever there was a time when clear, objective thinking was needed to guide our actions, it is now.

I did early voting today, I hope you will vote, too. Think clearly. Think about principles, not posturing and positions. Are we moving in a good direction? Then you may be thinking to vote for the status quo. If you think your candidates who are up for reelection have helped the nation, you may want to vote for them again.

But if those up for re-election have passed legislation that you believe was questionable or wrong, if they have taken budgetary or legal positions you disagree with on principle, then the logical thing to do is to vote for a change in that race.

If candidates have allowed the playing field to be or stay unlevel with respect to our homes and industry, giving site built housing advantages that manufactured housing doesn’t get, well that’s wrong! If candidates have said they support us, but the status quo hasn’t improved or has worsened, should we reward them with our votes?

Why reward some politician if we don’t believe in their actions or principles?

Why reward a politician who has perhaps harmed us more than they have helped us?

Let me point to a principle, an often overlooked reality. This reality has been ignored by various members of both major parties, so think candidate and their specific record, not just party politics.

If prosperity could be voted into effect, politicians and government would have done it long ago.

A government program or law may help or harm this or that group, this or that class of the citizenry, this or that cause. But overall, nationally, prosperity is not in the government’s power to give.

A give-away program is much like a bribe, and is done for the same reasons as bribes are given. Someone has to be bribed if the substance of their actions doesn’t merit fair and honest dealing.

In the ideal, government should protect and promote its people, its citizens. Those who govern should be mindful of “we, the people,” and mindful that public officials can’t create wealth. When wealth is artificially redistributed, via the government, a series of unintended consequences occur, and most of them are not good. Many politicians hate that reality, so they try to spin their legislative efforts for their self-perceived benefit.

Wealth comes from work and investment. Advancement comes from work and investment. When work and investment are rewarded, more is done. When work or investment is penalized, a degree of work and investment will be lost. It is the law of supply and demand at work in the economic sphere.

Since government can’t create wealth, it stands to reason we should not vote for those who try to convince us or others that we can take from this group to give to that group, and somehow end up with a just society. If that is how justice was achieved, it would have been accomplished over 50 years ago. Somehow, that fairy tale keeps coming back each election cycle.

“The government big enough to give you everything you want
is also big enough to take everything away.”

This should not be taken as a blank check for uncontrolled capitalism. There is a legitimate role that government has in protecting “we, the people” from monopolistic capitalism as well as from those who would harm the public in various and sundry ways.

It is common sense that should guide our votes. Next Tuesday, please use yours wisely. Our future, the Manufactured Housing Industry’s future, our nation’s future hangs in the balance. Think now how you will feel next Wednesday morning, if you failed to vote and do so wisely. # #