by P.H. Rolen
Can I ask an honest question without arousing incredulity? What the hell is going on? I mean really! Every week I propose that we all have a serious discussion about the unprecedented nature of our current national policy. And, every week instead of a serious discussion I get the same old pedantic groveling over the new President giving him a chance. As I said in my column last week, I don’t care about the new president or the historic nature of his new presidency. Presidents come and go; it’s their policies that endure after they are gone.
Let me hit the restart button on this conversation. I feel that President Obama has a calming presence and a fantastic family. Everyone breathe easy. I, unlike many of my fellow conservatives, do not believe the President is the Anti-Christ. I have no opinion either way on the color of his skin. (As long as it isn’t some crazy shade of Fuchsia; I’m terrified of Martians) Our current policies however, are insane! Why can’t we address that? Bush’s spending policies were insane! The Democratic Party correctly lambasted Bush for those policies. Why is the American public so afraid of an intellectually honest discussion?
This year’s budget deficit is FOUR times larger than it has ever been. Isn’t that important? Since early 08 our nation has doled out trillions in supposed stimulus cash and guess what, unemployment is at record levels, the global economy keeps shrinking, and the United States is borrowing 46 cents of every dollar we spend this year from China. Now we are told that the only way we can truly fix the economy is to sign off on a national healthcare system even when the unfunded liabilities of the current Medicare and social security system reach over 10 Trillion dollars.
The great German writer Johann Wolfgang Von Gothe once said that “None are more enslaved than those who falsely believe that they are free.” Republican and Democrat, have we actually gotten to the point where we believe that superfluously using our credit card without any regard to repayment is really a revolutionary and ingenious economic policy. Was Gothe America’s prophet? Are my far right friends correct when they tell me that the spending crisis is a planned scheme to collapse the dollar and implement a North American Union? Or are my Liberal friends right when they quote John Maynard Keynes and say that proliferate spending is the only way to jumpstart a flailing economy. The cynic in me says they are both wrong and that when something blatantly audacious is going on out in front to look past the shiny objects and see what’s really going on.
But nothing is going on, right? Oh yea except the nationalization of the banking industry, the handover of the bankrupt auto industry to the workers unions (the culprit of the bankruptcy), congressional hearings on the fate of the news industry, and the unprecedented appointment of hyper-internationalists to key foreign policy posts. I completely disagree with those who say that the President is naïve and inexperienced; bumbling clueless. I think he is highly educated and understands exactly what he is doing when he says he is “Remaking America.” My question is do you know what he means? If your answer is “Yes we can,” the first lady has wonderful shoulders and biceps, and ohhhh the White House is getting a new puppy, thank a teacher’s union member and visit www.all4ed.org to see where you stack up against the rest of the world. If you don’t know, stay tuned and we’ll learn on this journey together. If you do know however, you better pick up your pen and megaphone and start fighting. History has been truly unkind to those who turn their nations over to demagogues. “A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
