The End of America?

I never thought I would ever consider such an idea but I am. Maybe I should just turn off the news and press on but I am still a teenager from the 1960's.

What the hell has happened?  Why can't we seem to turn it around? Why can't those fools in Washington see it?

The reason is simple. They don't want to. They are far Left and far right and for most of us, far away. That's what bothers me. They don't see the possibility of a revolution. Yes, I think it is possible.

When you have tons of people getting assistance for doing nothing and the rest of the people paying for it and getting nowhere, there is a problem. Driven people are not interested in being driven down and out. I read an opinion story in our local paper from a tenured professor about how our city doesn't do enough for the homeless. Are you kidding?  Before you start spending more of the private sector's money, maybe the do-gooder professor types should leave a  key under the mat and write their address on a piece of cardboard and leave it downtown where the homeless hang out?

Us will eventually have enough of them and that's where the revolution will happen. People will reach a point where they are tired of working to pay off people who don't work. We have traded a work ethic for a gimme ethic and that's why we have a problem. It is easier to receive than to give.

There is no way to save the country unless we start to recognize that problem. There are people getting a free ride who are very capable of paying society back. There are people getting a free ride that are causing most of the problems because of drugs and alcohol problems. They need to deal with their CHOICES. We don't need to give them a check so they can go buy more drugs and alcohol. Enough alreay!

There are hard working people who have come here illegally. They need to be identified and a sound path developed to allow them to come and work as long as they are not breaking our laws and not putting a citizen--even a teenage citizen--out of work.

I have been battling the IRS for almost a year. I asked them for an accounting of what they think I owed them, what I have paid them, and what the bottom line is. They keep sending me a form letter that they apologize but they are researching the problem and are very busy. Do you suppose they are busy auditing the drug dealers or the homeless guys at any Wal-Mart who are making tax-free livings?

But we won't get to those main street solutions because we get nothing but political blither from our elected leaders. Most of them are lawyers who are expertly trained in how not to give a straight answer and as long as they can get all of those benefits that we know about, and all of those benefits that we don't know about, we will get what we are getting.

Unless there is a revolution. You still don't think it can happen?

How to change the country

Clearly, something has to change. But what?

You hear the Republican drum beating all day long. You hear the Conservative message all day long. You hear Lou Dobbs pushing the Independent message. But will any of these groups really change anything?

I doubt it. Once people get elected and go "there" they change. They learn how to speak a different language other than understandable, clear, English. They fall in love with TV cameras. They look for ways to steal the spotlight and if that doesn't work, they pack good bills with bad spending and name buildings and roads after themselves to remind you how great they are.

They work their way into committee positions that they think are lifetime appointments. That's the heart of Greedyville.  Committees. That's the heart of power. It doesn't matter what party you were in back home, if you are the chairman of a powerful committee you're in. Sometimes, you're in until the eventual scandal of power is going to be too much and the rest of your "friends" will have to turn you out. (Don't expect the Attorney General to do it. He is part of the team that got you there in the first place.)

The people can't do anything about those powerful committee chairmen other than vote them out. But, if this day of the 50/50 split in the electorate, that's a tough order. Plus, powerful men generate mega pork.

So what has to be done?

How about term limiting committee positions? How about a new rule that will only permit people to serve on the same committee for no longer than two terms? That would get fresh ideas in there at the least and get corruption out of there at the most.

Let's term limit committee chairmanships. Maybe that will work while we wait for the political parties to rise to the values of the people who started this country.