While it is easy to get discouraged with the current administration at the national helm (more of the same tax and spend policies that got us in this mess), the Wall Street Journal sounded an encouraging note this morning about the “downgrade uproar” in its lead editorial “A Downgrade Awakening”.

The good news, we hope, is that this difficult period-which we have not seen the bottom of— will cure young people (current and future voters) of the notion that government creates jobs, government spending stimulates the economy and that it’s OK for government to borrow to pay back debt.

That will only happen if we teach and convince our young taxpayers/voters that our freedom and prosperity comes from private property rights and private enterprise operating under a government of Limited Powers. Maybe then they will be less tempted than their parents and grandparents to trade their freedom for what has turned out to be an illusive security-or to shove the costly burden of their retirement and health care onto their children and grandchildren while fooling themselves that they have paid for it.

It is up to us to tell this story accurately and to remind all Americans of our heritage as a free, not dependent, people. Our friends on the left are poised with a moral to the story that we did not spend enough, that government just needs to do more and we can pay for it by taxing “the rich.” They run our public schools and dominate the media and universities-thus they have a lot of control over the message.

Free market enthusiasts need to bust through the left wing noise to tell the young that we have been playing a loser’s game for decades that they would be wise to reject as they take the helm early in the 21st century. Let’s start with a Re-Declaration of our Independence from the weight of our own human insecurities that fuel oppressive government laden with massive entitlements for individuals and corporations alike. Let’s Re-Declare the radical notion, proposed in 1787 in the U.S. Constitution, that our federal government is one of Limited Powers and tap our ingenuity to peel off the chains that bind us. This requires leadership from all of us.

Bring on the 2012 Elections. They cannot come soon enough.