Unnoticed by many over this past election is what a great job Mitt Romney did of bringing up the most important issue facing America today. The twist is that he did this by accident. The single greatest problem that America faces today is the “47 percent.” I respect Romney for not completely abandoning his statements in the secretly taped speech, and I think that he did so because, ultimately, he knows that he is right about this concern in the big picture. The fact of the matter is that, presently, nearly half of Americans – 49 percent according to the Mercatus Center at George Mason University – are receiving government assistance. This number leads us to the fight that will decide the fate of our generation and all generations to come, regardless of who was elected president a week ago.

Great Americans before us have triumphed over the Civil War, Nazis and Communism. While our war may not be an armed conflict, it threatens our freedoms and future all the same. In the years to come, a decision of huge gravity will be reached on one of two paths that can be taken: whether America will abandon the ideas that our forefathers fought, died and tamed a continent for, or whether we will embrace the notion that a few elite people in government can dictate what is best for us in our own lives better than we can plan them for ourselves. I cannot help but feel that, as of last Tuesday, we took one step closer to the latter option.
Regardless of the claims made recently at the stump by President Obama about his support and admiration for capitalism, free markets and individual freedom, the policies that his administration have pursued during his first term would point to the contrary.
Any President who has supported corporate welfare, crony capitalism, government takeover of an industry and mandating the American people to purchase a service, regardless of whether they wanted to buy it, has obviously sided with the philosophy of socialism. We have embarked on a downward course similar to that of failed western European countries.

It would be foolish and naïve for any American to think that if our country continues the deficits we annually run and lavishly spend borrowed money on social programs created to insure invented rights of the left wing, the United States will not inevitably go bankrupt or have to implement drastic and painful austerity measures, as has Greece. It will soon become clear which path our country will choose. Not in terms of left or right, but in terms of up or down. Will the 49 percent soon become the 55 or 60 percent? Will President Obama and his administration continue his aggressive left wing agenda in his second term? Or will the moderates in the Democratic party put their foot down and work with Republicans to responsibly turn our country around and change the culture of growing dependency of the American people on the government?

My heart tells me that the independent spirit of the American people and their value of self-reliance will reject the out-of-touch European direction the President wishes to take the country, and, in doing so, will save the republic given to them for future generations. Although the election has shown that the nation was not ready for a new president, the exit polls revealed that a majority of voters believe that the size and scope of government is too large. I believe there is still hope.