I was lucky enough to have been a young adult in the 1980s. Fresh out of college, I found a job in radio, my field of interest. When I tired of the on-air overnight shift, I left and got a mid-day slot at a better station. My school loan was an easy expense to handle, since I attended a state school and worked at the town radio station each semester to handle my school expenses. I was able to afford my first car, a used emerald green Pontiac Sunbird coupe, equipped with a Blaupunkt car stereo, complements of my future husband. My entry level paychecks were also able to cover medical insurance, since there was no Obamacare and the cost was negligible. The country was thriving during those Reagan years and optimism was high, a reflection of the sunny disposition of our then commander- in-chief.  

What followed was the slow, steady downslide of the country, mostly a result of tax-and-spend leaders and socialism-lite policies that chipped away our economic and cultural standards.  Now, the growing number of welfare swindlers, not the ones who truly need help, but who require the siphoning of our paychecks to fund their lifestyles, are entrenched in the system. The social welfare tank is always empty and the part of our paychecks needed to cover our own expenses is bequeathed to social engineering projects and payouts that favor a chosen subset, here and abroad. Young Democrat voters and hard- core progressives have been exploited and suckered into believing the twisted and farcical views of their side and, therefore, do not question the deception. Will they eventually see their ever-dwindling paychecks result in reality checks?  It is unfair and immoral for able-bodied people to steal from hardworking ones. Choosing socialism is choosing to be a patsy, sacrificing wealth and happiness to a growing network of corruption and criminality.

MAGA is attempting to roll back time and circumstance to the age of personal responsibility and merit. The movement is watching our backs against a growing cabal of corruption and criminality. A socialist system subsidizes the bad players, while delivering nothing but injustice to those paying for it. Young voters, and those who should know better, are caught up in a neosocialist whirlwind as the center Left dissipates. They are on the receiving end of false promises by cynical, self-serving pied pipers. They never experienced (or in some cases recognized) the sense of freedom and prosperity that comes with living under a system that values equality, optimism, and opportunity. I hope and pray their blindfolds come off sooner rather than later, and they choose the path towards the only movement that can deliver, or at least get us closer, to what was lost.