America is at a crossroads, a critical turning point in our history and unfortunately the people we have put in power are making all of the wrong decisions. Back in the late 1970′s America was facing very turbulent times as we are now. The US was faced with the challenges of the oil embargo and energy crisis, double-digit inflation and an eventual hostage crisis.
At the same time these events were occurring the US was experiencing a shift in cultural attitude. Gone were the days of country, liberty, hard work and honor as the Vietnam war had forever changed the American Psyche. The Golden age of America and the idea of Camelot and the Kennedy’s were replaced with cynicism and a me first attitude. The Late seventies disco era help to user in an era of loose moral code and a “if it feels good do it” attitude.
During this crisis then President Jimmy Carter had scheduled a series of televised events with the intent of trying to restore some confidence back into the American public. The American people had expected President Carter to come on television and say “America is the best, everyone else is the worst, we will win, they will lose, keep doing what you are doing and don’t worry because everything will be fine”.
But Jimmy Carter did not do that. Instead he chastised American’s and the loss of their moral character, what they valued, the importance of family, their ideals and all of the other virtues that had made the United States a great nation. Instead of blaming other outside forces he told Americans that although not entirely, they were actually responsible for many of the problems that faced the nation. President Carter then proceeded to challenge Americans to look deep within themselves and decide what type of America they wanted.
Well, America was not ready to look inward and this was proven as Ronald Reagan won the next election in a landslide. Ronald Reagan showed confidence and strength and placed the blame squarely on everyone and everything other than America itself and that is just what America wanted to hear. This marked the beginning of the American Profligacy. America now faces huge structural problems financially, politically, environmentally and socially . I am not advocating either Jimmy Carter or Ronald Reagan and they both had both good and bad qualities. What I am pointing out is the turning point in America’s values and ideals. One can see the destruction of the U.S Family as divorce rates began to spike in the 70′s. Although some right-wing (Larry Kudlow, Art Laffer) types will say that the last two decades were the greatest 20 years of prosperity for America, I believe that prosperity was a mirage as Americans have just gone through a decade (1998-2008) with no income gains. Reagan was the first president who started America on the path of borrowing against the United States credit rating and this marked the beginning of the out of control US profligate spending that we are witnessing today.
As you can see now we have reached another crossroads in American History. What we should be doing is saving, cutting back on spending, letting bankrupt companies fail. Capitalism is the best system (When strict rules and enforcement of those rules takes place) because it rewards innovation and creativity and clears away the inefficiencies by allowing businesses to fail. This allows resources to move to more productive people and companies and allows for real growth and innovation. Socialism does not work nor has it ever worked as it rewards failure, takes from the productive and gives to the unproductive, destroys competition and keeps broken inefficient companies alive. (GM, Chrysler, AIG, CIT, Citibank, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, etc). Barak Obama thinks America believes that Capitalism has failed and by electing him that he has a mandate for a change for a country that leans more towards Socialism. He is wrong in this belief and will be proven wrong as the financial crisis intensifies. And if Americans really do believe in the path towards Socialism then they too will be incredibly disappointed once they see the true ramifications of Barak Obama’s and the Democrat’s plan (Although Republicans have contributed equally to the waste, greed and profligate spending.) We can expect the next decade (or two) in America to look very much like Japan’s has for the past 20 years with low growth, Huge deficits, profligate spending and even risk the insolvency of the United States itself.
This Blog is not intended to single out Barak Obama or the Democrats as the culprits as the Republicans are equally responsible. Both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are two grossly corrupt entities that act more like demigods than servants of the people. This is in fact one of the ways they keep America splintered, by making you choose between Democrat or Republican, Blue or Red states when the fact is they both Parties need to be dismantled. They care more for the Lobbyists of corporate America than they do the citizens of this great land. George Bush was a terrible Republican President who for the first time in the history of the U.S. sent American troops to fight in a “preemptive war”. Barak Obama likes to point out that when he was elected he inherited a one trillion-dollar deficit, yet the first thing he did when he got into office was add another one trillion to the deficit within the first three months of his presidency! He said this was necessary to keep America solvent. Joe Biden actually gave a speech where in some Orwellian moment said “America must keep spending in order to keep from going broke’!
The fact is that for the past 20 years America has lived beyond its means. We consume too much and produce too little. We have become a nation of consumers instead of a nation of producers and builders. We have had easy access to far too much easy credit to purchase things we do not really need. The giant credit bubble has burst and Americans must get used to a lower standard of living. We need to go back to the things that made America great and stop borrowing and printing money in a feeble attempt to keep the bubble inflated and the fraud alive. Otherwise we risk everything this great Republic has been trying to build for the last 234 years. Here is your chance to make another choice America..please choose wisely.
