A friend told me recently I’d lived through America’s best years.

Maybe he included himself in that number. I don’t hear so well, anymore.

No doubt, we’ve lived through some of our nation’s most convenient years, i.e. electricity, telephones, television, computers, great and ever improving automobiles and that new prestige unit, the pickup truck.

(Yep, pickup trucks are the new luxury car –every option of a limousine plus the advantage of a bed to haul all your stuff around.)

It has also been the time when government elitists began their push to make people subservient to the government rather than its boss.

We think our grandfather and great-grandfather liked their lives, although one had to fight a Civil War for four years. Both of them took part in pioneering in what is now southwest Oklahoma (formerly Greer County, Texas), helping build a community out of a basically unoccupied grassland, very much like the early-day Kingfisher County settlers did in the Unassigned Lands.

They were free to make it (or lose it) based on their individual efforts.

We remember our grandfather grumbling when the government sent him a check during the depression times for his farming efforts. It disgusted him, especially when he could find no way to send it back.

He remarked that such actions marked the beginning of the loss of freedom.

We can imagine what he would say now if he heard the leftist rants for “free” everything.

A man of strong opinions, he would have been transfixed at the thought of “politically-correct” thought.

Never one to use curse words, he might have let loose a couple of expletives if someone told him he couldn’t express his opinion, openly and freely.

Although he had a Colt .38-.40 revolver, he opposed violence.

He bought the gun to take with him at night in early days when he went out to see why the horses were restless. Indian raids were not unknown in those days in that part of the country.

Asked by his grandkids if he ever shot anybody, Gram-pa replied, “No, and I never will.”

That was a little disappointing to a bunch of little kids who looked on their grandfather as sort of a mix between George Washington and Wyatt Earp.

We believe he would advise people now to hang onto your guns. They remain citizens’ defense against tyranny.

Maybe grampa was the reason we wound up in this business. He insisted his grandkids use proper grammar and pronunciation. Our English major mother did, too.

Grampa might have been a little more determined (and vocal) that no one was going to dictate what he could do or think.

Thought police of today who are determined to decide what we can say or write would blow Grampa’s mind.

He might just lead the charge to stop the current war on free speech.

Have you ever noticed that the speech police only attack those who disagree with them – conservatives? They believe only leftists should be allowed to speak and it appears many of them are only repeating words their “wonderful leaders” have taught them.

The left is determined to hold the reins on speech because their ideas are so bad that normal people won’t go along with them.

The leftists are definitely pro-censorship, hence the rules shutting conservative thought out of social media.

The left attempts to take on the label “liberal” – as false as any claim ever made. They attempt to present themselves as classical liberals: open-minded and willing to discard traditional values. Well, the second part of that is certainly true as it pertains to today’s self-proclaimed “liberals.”

The current crop roots persistently for socialism. It is no wonder they combine Democrat with their label, as in Socialist Democrat, so as to make the term more palatable.

The country is presently engaged in a war for the minds of the people, including illegal aliens who are being encouraged to enter the nation to boost the electorate who will put left-wing elitists in charge.

That’s why they want to silence conservatives, who just happen to make sense and threaten their agenda.

The leftists present socialism as a system that brings fairness, i.e. everybody makes the same salary, etc.

What socialism really boils down to is this: It is greed to get what others have worked for.

Andy Puzder, former CEO of the fast-food chain that operates Carl Jr.’s and Hardees, explained it this way:

“Socialism really focuses you on being greedy, trying to get the most for yourself, whereas capitalism takes that desire to improve your life, and focuses it outward, on the needs of other people.” Puzder grew up in a blue collar family and worked his way up by figuring out how to provide what others want and at a price they could afford.”

Puzder made the following comments in an interview with members of the Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal team:

“I think the thing that young people need to understand is that socialism is not benevolent, and capitalism is not based on greed.

If you’re in a capitalist economy, the only way you can succeed is by meeting the needs of other people. You have to meet the needs of your consumers.

“When I ran CKE, when I ran Carl’s and Hardee’s, it was trying to figure out how we could provide customers with the products they wanted, at the price that they could afford.

“We spent millions of dollars trying to figure that out. Every business does that. The better you meet the needs of other people, the more you will succeed in a capitalist society.

“And it empowers consumers, who then vote with every dollar they spend, as to which products succeed, and which fail. So, it actually empowers the masses, and focuses everybody’s energies on meeting their needs, resulting in prosperity and abundance.

“Socialism, on the other hand, focuses you inward. You’re focused on what you can get. How you can get the most for yourself from a limited supply of goods or services the government makes available, whether it’s food, or government-mandated health care, or gasoline.

“You’re standing in a line to get gas. Or you’re standing in the bread line to get food. You’re not thinking about what the people in front or behind you want. You’re thinking about what you can get at the end of that line, how you can get the most for yourself.

“The way you get the most for yourself is satisfying not the masses, not consumers, not your fellow human beings, but by satisfying the needs of the government elites. If you can satisfy the needs of the government elites, in a socialist economy, you can get more.

“So, socialism really focuses you on being greedy, trying to get the most for yourself, whereas capitalism takes that desire to improve your life, and focuses it outward, on the needs of other people.”

If enough people believe like Puzder, maybe we have even better days ahead.