By STAR PARKER, Scripps Howard News Service

Here's free advice for Mitt Romney.

Before bringing up the poor again, read my book, "Uncle Sam's Plantation."

The theme that President Barack Obama gave to his State of the Union address was "An America Built to Last."

But his vision would be better described as "An America Built to Be Last."

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gave good reason for celebration for the hundreds of thousands who will arrive in Washington for the 39th annual March for Life on Monday.

According to a new Pew Research Center survey, 66 percent of respondents agree that there are "very strong" or "strong" conflicts between rich and poor in America. This is up from 47 percent that agreed with this two years ago.

Rick Santorum must be racist because he thinks all people, regardless of ethnicity, should have the dignity of self-sufficiency.

At least that's how the NAACP sees it.

In the 20-plus years that I have worked as a conservative activist, I've spoken on almost 200 university campuses -- usually to Republican and conservative groups.

Over time, I have observed changes in attitude among many young Republicans -- and I believe these shifts help explain the rise of Ron Paul.

Several new polls come as a jolt as they reflect the dismal state of mind of the American people.

As USA Today's Susan Page sums up the latest USA Today/Gallup poll: the nation is "more downbeat, more dissatisfied with its political leadership and more concerned about the country's direction than at almost any point in modern times."

I am from a military family -- my father was career Air Force -- and many in my immediate and extended family have been or continue in military service.

So perhaps I carry heightened sensitivities to the unique realities and challenges of military life.

President Barack Obama laid out his vision of America Tuesday in Osawatomie, Kan.

Ours is no longer, in our president's take on things, the land of the free and the home of the brave.

America now is the land of the envious and the home of the victim.

Last year, a one-year cut in the payroll taxes that working Americans pay to finance Social Security was enacted in the name of so-called economic "stimulus."

But, like the rest of the economic stimuli that have come from Washington over the last three years, the only thing that has been stimulated is the growing hole of national debt into which we sink deeper and deeper.