Since this thread seems to be confined to the political thoughts of some of our more "mature" members, I'll toss my two cents worth in.......
First, I've been around since FDR's last term, and have seen presidents, good and bad, come and go.......I've lived through wars and recessions, oil embargoes and market crashes, and have arrived at a somewhat different place than some of you have.
Although many of the concerns that you raise are valid, if you study the history of our Republic, we've managed to muddle through much worse.......Americans are a unique people, and the founders created a governmental framework that has survived many trials worse than Obama, and the current crop of quasi socialists in Washington. If we look at the past century alone, we've managed to get through two complete economic depressions, and two global wars........both of these sets of events impacted our citizens to a far greater degree than current events are.......so lets put things in perspective.........
Lets select just two liberal zealots, FDR, and LBJ.......both had Obama's vision of a "socialist" America, to one degree or another, both had visions of an all-encoumpassing welfare state that provided cradle to grave entitlements for "people" (people being defined as those that could be convinced that government benefits could ensure their reliable political support in the future)......and to a very small extent they succeeded (in some cases temporarily) in moving the ball in the direction of a welfare state.........
FDR attempted much "social engineering", but in the grand scheme of things actually accomplished little, except making the overall economy worse......his only achievement that persists is Social Security, and its present condition cannot, in any rational manner be blamed on him, as very little of the original program survives.
LBJ's "Great Society" essentially died with welfare reform during Clinton's administration, and the only lasting result of this program is the complete collapse of the black family structure in America, and my evaluation of that is, if they are too collectively stupid to figure this out, they own it.......its not my problem.......it doesn't have anything to do with skin color, and everything to do with collective intellectual capacity......as MLK so aptly stated (paraphrased) I am not judging them by the color of their skin, just the content of their character.
So where does that leave us? We are in an economic downturn, like many that we have experienced before......we have a government that sees this as the first real opportunity that they have had in forty years to move the ball incrementally forward toward a "welfare state"......and they are taking their best shot......its happened before, and I'm certain that it will happen again. The American people have a collective political memory of about a year, and after that, they will forget the sins of the past, and allow the same old crap to be foisted on them again, by the same old zealots......its part of the political cycle.....
What action do I recommend? First, stop listening to clowns like Glenn Beck......or if you do, stop taking him seriously.......Beck is an "entertainer"......he has never held political office, never run a substantial business (except for his radio/TV shows), and has absolutely no economic credentials for much of the doom that he shovels. I've listened/watched him a few times, and found that much of his economic predictions are simply wrong, or baseless, and founded on little but his "emotions", but people eat it up, because he sits (at least partially) on our side of the political aisle.......wise up people.......Beck is the "Barack Obama" of the right, a charismatic clown with little depth, and a blackboard.......give me a break! You will sleep better at night......
Am I suggesting that you not prepare for the worst......no, never......always be prepared, but sitting around spouting doomsday predictions does little good......spend your lives enjoying the blessings of the years that you have......not worrying about the years that you will not have. I have grandchildren as well, and although I'm concerned about their future.....its their future.....not mine, and they will be tasked with managing what comes, just like we did.......never forgetting that OUR grandparents elected the likes of FDR (four times).......I wonder if they were thinking about us when they cast their ballots.........
doc
