Lessons Learned from Defeat

First the easy one.

The Texas Rangers were soundly defeated by the San Francisco Giants in only five games in the 2010 World Series. I was bummed out about their defeat for days!

But, there was at least one obvious lesson to be learned from their disappointing defeat on November 1, 2010. That is: Great pitching almost always beats great hitting in baseball. Always has. Probably always will. While the Rangers made significant improvements to their pitching staff in the past several years, it wasn't quite enough to actually win a World Series.

I'm still a big Rangers fan, however! I can only hope that they will take note of this and other lessons learned from defeat.

Now for the more difficult one.

The Democrats were soundly defeated by the Republicans in the 2010 mid-term elections on November 2, 2010. Being a conservative, and generally a fairly routine backer of Republicans in most elections, I was kind of happy about that. As a matter of fact, I still am.

However, I think we all (regardless of our political persuasions) need to take note of some of the lessons learned from defeat while they are still fresh.

Now, I know that I'm kind of stepping out there with this blog and taking a big risk with some of you. These are simply my humble thoughts and are based on my long-held convictions. But, I hope you will understand that these words are not written to alienate any of you or have this become an issue that divides us in the future. I really mean that.

Lesson # 1 - A "big shift" towards a certain political direction (be it left or right) in one election usually shifts back in the next election. It is really, really difficult for one political party to win election after election after election in this country. There will occasionally be big swings in our voting results to the left or the right . But, these have a way of correcting themselves the next time people are given a chance to go to the polls. In other words, winning one election doesn't mean that much. Multiple elections in a row are what is significant.

Lesson # 2 - Politicians who primarily push their political ideologies and ignore the general will of the people do so at their own peril. I'm certain that a lot of Monday-morning quarterbacking must have been going on in several political circles following the 2010 elections. "Maybe we shouldn't have pushed so fast and so hard on certain volatile issues?" "Maybe we should have listened more closely to the overall mood of our country, paying closer attention to what many of the people of this country were trying to tell us?" I think the old adage of live and learn applies here.

Lesson # 3 - Liberty and freedom matters more than "progress" and change in this country. The United States of America was founded on the principles of individual liberties and freedom from any form of governmental tyranny. We as individual citizens still don't like being categorized into various "classes," or being told by the ruling party to pay excessive taxes to support stuff we really don't agree with. Americans didn't like that infringement by the British government on their liberty and freedom 200 years ago, and we still don't like it today. Don't mess with our liberty and freedom if that's what it takes to enact "progress" and change. It won't work.

Lesson # 4 - Strong support for and defense of our Constitution with governing based on same (versus political ideologies) is what works in this country. Going forward as a nation, everything we do in the halls of Congress should be checked against the Constitution first and no laws should even make it out of committee without passing a test of Constitution-compliance first. Adherence to the United States Constitution is what has made this country great, not political ideologies. Deviation from the long-standing principles of our Constitution will be the end of this nation's greatness.

Lesson # 5 - If you don't have the money for something, don't spend what you don't have. No matter how much you might want something to change or something to be a certain way, if you do not have the means by which to pay for it, it's just not the right idea. Period. Borrowing money and going into debt is only a good idea for rare occasions. You should only borrow money if you have a reasonable plan for how you plan to pay off that debt in the future, and that needs to square with all of your other obligations as well. It is foolish to spend borrowed money when you have no credible plan to pay it back in the future.

Well, there you have it. My thoughts on lessons learned from defeat. Not sure if what I've written aligns with your thinking, or if it is completely contrary to same. At a minimum, I hope it will cause you to consider the implications of elections in this country and prepare you to be an even better citizen the next time we go to the polls in 2012.

Go Rangers!