From time to time I receive messages like "What the hell has happened to the brains of Americans?" In this case the message not only included a question for me but also a list of thoughtful examples that not only prompted the question but make it hard to provide a positive answer.
The list:
Amazing 45% BO approval, despite
Funding al Qaeda
Lois Lerner emails proof IRS involvement beyond Cincinnati
Snowden proof NSA spying
Illegal executive ObamaCare modifications
EPA new coal industry mandates with no Congress approval
Not enforcing immigration laws and fighting states that do
Lie that debt ceiling increase does not increase debt
Most new jobs part time and many current jobs downgraded to part time
ObamaCare exemptions to politically connected even disposable IRS while 99% are to accept ObamaCare
Many Americans accepting this new version of USSR like politburo the new 1%
No matter how thorough any of our understandings are re what is happening to America right before our eyes the citizenry's disregard for the type of items on the above list can still be perplexing & can cause us to pause in wonderment & disbelief on occasion. The key to understanding what is happening to America is the realization that no matter how atrocious any items are on any list BO will be approved by 45% of the people provided they get their government checks on time.
It is hard for those of us who are concerned about items like those on the above list to fully understand that America has become a single issue nation & that issue has nothing to do with the items on the list – none of which are of any concern to the majority of the citizenry let alone the majority of the electorate who elected BO twice & provided one million more total Democrat votes than total Republican votes in the House races in 2012 - although Republicans held onto control of the House thanks to Gerrymandering in 2010. Think Democrat community organizers haven't noticed this statistic & aren't planning how to capitalize on it?
I don't know one demographic trend that favors Republicans going forward. We are in the next to last stage of Death Of Democracy & by all indications far too many people favor this course.
Our problem is that our statist opposition is getting larger & more formidable every day. BO's economic policies will never turn the economy around – they will only create more government dependency – all per BO's design.
There are no quality jobs & people are accepting patching together an existence based on part time jobs, benefits from a government program or two, moving in with family, & spending down whatever wealth the family has. Along the way people are finding they enjoy the increased leisure time this type of lifestyle provides – for as long as it lasts.
Now our constitutional Republic was established with government being limited & the people being sovereign. Of course this sovereignty comes with the burden of "keeping the Republic, if we can" & I add to that paraphrase of Ben's words "& if we still want to." The price of not being involved is that the statists have taken a major part of our sovereignty from us without a whimper of resistance.
Professor Friedman said in 1996 - "America has been more than fifty percent socialist for many years & we are not getting our money's worth." Click here to hear the O'Reilly Factor memo this past Wednesday which highlights Professor Friedman's thought & the theme of countless RTE posts (please note the two parts of this post in red). Bill points out 1) that federal, state, & local governments are all collecting record amounts of tax receipts & that is why the economy is stagnate, & 2) that BO does not want Americans to accumulate wealth; BO is succeeding in taking private wealth away from those who have it and giving it to those who don't.
Bill ends his memo by saying – "Unless we the people wise up and understand what a bad deal we're getting, we'll never have a vibrant economy. It's just impossible."
In other words – it is up to us. The "wise up" part brings us back to the original question re what has happened to the brains of Americans. The problem is that far too many people have been snared - frozen in place - by BO's destructive policies. These people have no place to turn but to the ever widening government safety net & many people are liking it that way. Accordingly, there are not enough of us who are doing anything to thwart BO's fundamental transformation of America.
You are 110% correct - there are not enough of us. You can complain, but those complaints fall on government deaf ears.
ReplyDeleteWhat to do? There are many ways but they cost money to get message in front of people, advertising, putting ads on newspapers, etc - costs loads of money.
Remember, if a family gets many free, or next to free benefits from gov't. why would they elect a person that would take those benefits away from them?
Why was Al Capone from Chicago in his younger days successful in his illegal operations? WHY - HE KNEW what to do. Bribe people in high office including local judges. In case of trouble with police, they saw that those problems went away by dismissing cases in court,etc.
What he did not count on was Federal gov't. going after him for income tax evasion - and that was his undoing.
The coming elections results will be very interesting.
On a positive note this is not a recent development. If people would stop whitewashing history they would realize that it is the same old story. In short the Pareto Principle is alive and well.
ReplyDeleteThe part that has changed is what you have touched with your 45% getting their government checks. As the U.S. government has spent the last 100 years buying votes sooner or later the weight of their promises will break them.
The breaking point is near and that will be the opportunity needed as Rahm Emmanuel has stated in his "crisis is a terrible thing to waste" comment. Rhetoric about principle will simply not win the day.
The key is to be ready with answers and concrete solutions how to right the ship.
The unfortunate part is the Republican Party with its current leadership has absolutely no chance of having answers and solutions. Just see how they screwed up the ObamaCare vote and debacle. And their fellow Republicans in Washington actually kept the same leadership.
You hit the nail on the head Doug. Sadly, we know people who have patched together 2 jobs to pay the bills and these same people helped put Obama in office, waiting expectantly for the healthcare "reforms" to start, and not having a clue as to what is actually included in 2,000 pages of ObamaCare. 45% approval for BO's presidency is amazing. It seems as though all he has to do to get approval is to make another impassioned speech, and kiss another baby, and all that schtick. I personally have stopped listening to his frequent speeches (designed to up his approval ratings), especially the parts about "transparency in government". I'm glad that we are not raising a young family now!
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