Political Turmoil
Looks more like a Vaudeville Show
Every day the headlines seem to get more and more dramatic. Sex scandals, corruption, threats of war and if that’s not enough, school shootings. Everything is divided into two ways of thinking. The Democrat way or the Republican way with no middle ground or agreement on much of anything. John McCain said, “we’re going through a period of political turmoil”. That’s one way to put it. I could also think of a few other ways to describe the current situation, one would be utter chaos.
Meanwhile, in the midst of all the chaos, our country is mired in debt and corruption. Two problems that have never ended well for a society. We no longer have a government that represents the will of the people. Politicians aren't working for the people. Have you ever had a conversation with anyone that told you the national debt was a good thing or, something they wanted? Is there one single person that thinks all the debt the government is taking on is a good thing? No. Nobody thinks that. So why does it go on? Why if the voters don't want it does it continue? If we're supposed to have a government of the people by the people why does this go on? It's like this with so many things our government does.
The people want one thing and the government does another. They've gotten so good at this game they've convinced a lot of people it's good for them. Look at the Trump tax cuts. Trump proposes tax cuts and there were a lot of people angry about it. I've never seen anything like it in my life. There are a lot of people that don't want lower taxes. Why? They've been fooled into thinking that somehow the government will do better with their money than they will. No one with a belief in American values would think that way.
Corruption is the norm, driven by temptation. It's too much. There's so much money available to politicians and it's too easy. Just too easy. This is very simple to see. Look at how politicians have grown rich while they've been in office. How can that be? How can they explain making millions of dollars on a salary of a $174,000 a year? This isn't a rare occurrence either. It happens over and over again and nobody questions it.
Greed, temptation, lack of integrity, it's all the same. Here's how it's played out. Decisions are made based on emotion and politics. Politics, fueled by lies, distractions, fabricated and out and out fake news. All done to serve one purpose, not the people but the politicians and their benefactors.
Those corrupt people, some that are completely lacking in integrity have duped us. They've fooled us. They've pit us versus them except the them is us. Black, white, Latino, Asian it doesn't matter we're all Americans. If that doesn't work they go for political affiliation, or income level. Whatever it takes. It's an age old tactic to build support, find a common enemy even if you have to make it up. And, we've been fooled into thinking that all the problems are THEM when it's US! We're all in this mess together.
In an interview in 2017 Senator John McCain said, "We're going through a period of turmoil politically." It is a period of turmoil even if I disagree with Senator McCain on the reasons why. If something doesn't change soon the country as we know is going to be gone. People are realizing that. The problems aren't new. Most of these issues have been the same issues for the last 30 years. And, that's the point. Everybody talks about the problems but nobody's talking about solutions. The funny thing is the solutions aren't hard to find.
How's anyone supposed to feel good about the future of this country? The stock market's up then it's down. Same thing with home prices. Even when the economy is good nobody feels too good about it. How can you? After taxes and health care costs what's left?
That's the middle class. There's a whole other massive part of the population. The working poor and the welfare class. They don't pay taxes and if they have health care it's subsidized. Go to Baltimore or Chicago, Oakland, Cincinnati, Memphis or just about any other big city. You'll see miles, as far as you can see, people with no hope.
I don't know how anyone could argue things have changed. Things always change. When I grew up in the 70's it seemed like a simpler time, but I suppose every generation says that. Either way things were different. Communication, information and even clothes were different but those aren’t the things I’m talking about.
In the last ten years there has been a dramatic shift in thinking. Values have changed. The way people think has changed. This isn't a party thing. I'm talking about common sense. Take the debt. It's the biggest threat to our country. Fifteen years ago, everyone agreed it was a problem. Now, nobody talks about it. We're twenty trillion dollars in debt. Sixty seven thousand dollars for every man woman and child in the country and RISING! Nobody talks about it. It defies logic.
We're getting robbed. Really it's the next generation that's getting robbed. It amounts to modern day slavery. What else can you call it? How can you be free when your carrying around the debt of a previous generation? I don't see how there can be freedom with mountains of debt. It's the single biggest threat to our way of life. Our individual liberty is at stake and nobody is talking about it.
You'll hear people talk about how millennials feel entitled. Ask yourself why would that be? I don't know maybe it's because the previous generations ran to the government every time they needed something without ever considering how it was going to get paid for.
The country’s bankrupt and the biggest headlines are sex scandals, transgender rights and rights for illegal immigrants. None of that's going to matter much because soon there isn't going to be a country.
In the 70's the constitution was still valued. Today it's under attack. Why? How have those basic principles been lost? In the 70's there were little cartoon commercials about government played on TV. We don't have that any more. The point is we have a generation that hasn't been taught constitutional values and why it's important. Add to that millions of illegal immigrants who've never learned the constitution. What's the value of a constitution if no one knows what it means?
As I look back, the problems we see today were well planted forty years ago. The country was coming off an ugly war, Vietnam. People were concerned about the debt even though it was a pittance compared to today. The Nixon scandal was still fresh in everyone's mind. Confidence in government was low.
There was also a big social shift going on. People were leaving cities and farms for suburban living. The church was less relevant, and divorce was growing. The divorce rate more than doubled between 1965 and when it peaked in 1980. Five times higher than the 1930's.
Social and political values had just begun to change in the 70's. I consider myself lucky to have a glimpse of that America. It was still considered a land of opportunity. As bad as the 70's were it was still a depression generation. A generation that knew how bad things could be. People were proud to be American and there was still a common understanding about basic things.
We're no longer a republic based on the rule of law. Basic constitutional rights and the rule of law are dead. Basic guiding principles where law, common sense, logic, and reason no longer exist. Sound judgement and wisdom no longer exist. Either the republic is dead or dying a slow painful death.
If you ask people what they think is the biggest problem facing this country today, they will tell you it's the division. People can't agree on anything, that's the problem they'll tell you. Division isn't the problem. It's the symptom of the problem. If we shared common values we could work out our differences. That's the point of this book. How do we fix this?
There’s a saying, believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see. The danger is real, very real. Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it does not exist. But, I'll say this, you can see it. If you open your eyes and ask why? Why is this happening, why does every single politician make promises then do something completely different? Why do we put up with it?
Nothing is what seems anymore and it's scary. The media lies by distortion and misrepresentation. Politicians are corrupt, lie, relabel basic facts, call it something different to conceal the truth and distract us with fake emergencies.
Remember the NFL players kneeling for the National Anthem? When fans got upset they said, it's not about the flag. Oh really, what was it about then? It's like this with so many things. The women's march, the resist and protest movement. It looks like a march for women's rights, but it wasn't. What was it about? Good luck finding a clear, available answer on that. I don't think most of the people participating in these so-called protests have a clue what their supporting. I think people realize something is wrong and they want to do something about it. They just don't know what it is.
There are real issues affecting the survival of this country, threatening our way of life. And yet, these issues are either not discussed or brushed aside as other issues are made to seem more important. There's a group of people, a large group of people that feel the fundamental values of this country are wrong. To that I say ok, what do you want to replace it with? Because that's what's happening. In simple terms, there are people that want our fundamental values replaced with something else. What is that something else? They won't tell you at least not publicly.
Intelligent people make complicated things simple. stupid people make simple things complicated. I don't think I'm any smarter than anyone else. I just think a lot of people have been fooled by people that seem to be very smart. That's why I wrote this book. To expose the issues for what they really are and to offer common sense solutions. You'll have to decide what you agree with.
"All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke
None of this is anything that isn't already well known. Everybody sees it. Our country is in big trouble. The question is, where we will end up? As I see it there's basically four paths we might go down. The first, more of the same and a slow, steady degradation of our society. I see this is as highly likely possibility mainly because people don't like change. The second path could be a massive, rather quick shift to socialism. We're already largely there. If we see programs like nationalized health care, wealth re-distribution checks and government paid college we'll know were there. All these programs are already on the Democrats agenda so it’s a very real possibility. The third path is reverting to what will be called highly conservative. If this happens it will likely lead to a further widening of the gap between rich and poor. But, I believe there's another path we could take.
"Bad storms wipe out everything. But, they also create a clear path for something new." – Unknown I guess it's one of those natural laws of the universe. Struggle comes before growth but so does death. The struggle isn't a guarantee for growth. It's the opportunity for growth. I believe we're in that period of opportunity right now. There's big problems but we also have more tools available than ever before. For one, the ability to communicate. Back in the days of the revolution, politicians would sometimes ride by horse for weeks to have a meeting. Now, we can do all that instantly. We also have the ability to include everyone who's interested. Computers and technology also give us access to more information than ever before. If we use the gift of the human mind we could find a way to create progress and a level of liberty and freedom we've never seen before. But, it has to start by restoring fiscal management. We have to have a balanced budget and we have to get rid of the debt. We can’t go on spending more than we take in. Nothing else can be built on a foundation of false hope.
