Response to Common Ground's post
No argument from me that the republicans have done little to nothing except grow gov't in the tradition of their across the isle brethren. The one difference is they were more efficent in growing the gov't at a faster pace so no wonder the dems want them out for making em' look so bad! Besides, you know something is wacked when the democrats are talking the need to balance budgets, control spending, etc. while the repubs act like horny men overdosed on Viagra with unlimited funds in a whore house.
Question now, will the dems start taking the little blue pill?
All the issues above are not just "johnny come lately" issues as they have been there for years. Here goes my take!
Energy warning signs were seen as early as the 70's and what has been done? Nothing and it wasn't just a one party foot dragging as both parties in the last 30 years has held all 3 branches of gov't at the same time and had the position to move the country forward. Did they? If they had we wouldn't be having this discussion now would we?
Security you ask. Well the threat of the Middle East has been on slow boil since the waning Carter days (some including me would argue this began as England took control of the old lands of the Ottoman empire according to the settling of WW1) and what has happened? At first, the rise to power of extreme Islamic forces in Iran were seen in a "not serious" roll once the hostages in Tehran were free and I'll give you the Cold War was a front burner issue. Our only response at the time was to back Iraq in the Iraq/Iran war thinking that our backing of the Sunni to face the Shi'a forces of Iran was enough to stall if not kill this process. A few of you here made joke of understanding the difference between Sunni and Shi'a and go ahead and make joke but you'll never understand the political chessgame of the region if you don't and you'll also never understand the current civil war in Iraq. Also it was in this Iran/Iraq war period that Saddam introduced chemical weapons into this process and let me ask you something here so you might start connecting dots. Saddam prior to this had no infastructure for chemical production, this being the cold war period US presense made Soviet connections highly unlikely and on the other side of Iran you had USSR pinned down in it's own Vietnam where Osama was being trained by CIA forces to later haunt America and the world with. OK, remember the political term domino effect? There was a huge thought process that USSR would beachhead in Afghanistan and then roll west through the oil region and also remember that during this and preceeding years the Soviets were better thought of in the Islamic lands of the mideast because of US backing of Israel. Remember those chemical weapons Saddam used in battle and on the Kurds? I'd be willing to bet the farm that they were stamped "Made In USA" and "from your friends at CIA" all over them. During these times the democrats for the most part control the houses of the legislature and the White House flipped flopped between the 2 parties. Both parties have this blood on their hands.
Educational excellence? You're kidding me right? Over the last 40 years our educational system has gotten worse and worse and continues to this day to do so and the parties continue to only throw out gimmicks to try and solve it. Isn't it ironic that when the Dept. of Education was created and the Federal level began to sieze control of education away from the local jurisdictions that almost tracking the trendlines of control, the level of education in this country began to drop. Oh, that's of no consequence you say. OK, you keep believing that and let's revisit this issue in 10 more years.
The latest to my shock was under the "no child left behind" concept. Local high school has a "real" problem kid who drops out for a period and then returns so that he maintains his status for family purposes of gov't programs and benefits. I'm sure this isn't an isolated case but one that I finally came to know because of a teacher in that school. This student is currently 20 years old and when I learned this I just said when he walks out don't let him back in. No can do I was told. Under the "no child left behind" he can't be barred until he hits 21 years old. At least this approaches with due haste. Talk about stupid. Back in the day, once you pasted 18 your option for education was called "Night School" with other adults. There was no going back and in some cases once you left, night school was your only option no matter what age you were. But that was the draconian local control rules and now we have a kinda, gentler, compassionate system? Where's the compassion for the 16 year olds who have to put up with this disruptive 20 year old in a so-called learning environment?
Economic prosperity. Well some good and some bad here and both parties can take some credit and some blame. This is somewhat dicey to judge because we have a mis-mash of economic principles and theories in play and how it works out is still left somewhat in play. On the one hand you have the Fascist theories of Mussolini and it's Corporatism dynamics but then you have among this some Keynesian principles influenced by greater statist controls more along the lines of more left leaning economics and then a small sprinkle of free-market mostly for the effect of maintaining the illusion that we are economically free. Sometimes taking the best of all worlds gets you the best of all worlds and then sometimes what you take actually competes and counters each other to the point that nothing works over time in a good way and only gets worse. I actually believe we are the latter rather than the former by that is JMO.
Economics is much like religion even though is considered a science by most. If you take a little Judaism, a little Islam and a little Christianity and throw em together for a single religion it might work but under one condition. The people that live by it were never jews, never muslim, never christian or never anything. They have no prior experience (no precondition at all) to prejudge so they come in with a clean slate. This is not so with economics or any other function that gov't assumes for itself with our alledged permission.
Healthcare. Truly a double edge sword and both parties built it. On the one hand our healthcare has made wonderful advances and it appears will do so into the future but starting in the last century as we started to advance, the gov't came to regulate more and more in this area and if one dare take the time to look at the happenings within the legislative body at the time these controls expanded, you'll find corp. interests in the middle of it all pushing these controls as a means not of safe guarding the public but rather to limit the potential of competition in a free and open market. In the meantime, as the process grew, gov't in order to protect it's own costs and claims window started regulating prices in the market place thus adding further pressures. At first, gov't was an open checkbook as the new program had few people involved so the ration of funds to particpate was outstanding but over time politicians began to learn the mechanism of buying votes and when distressed voters called about their problems, the politician saved the day. As this process esculated the ratio gap closed and thus began other means of controlling the payouts. If gov't issues a drop dead rate of what they pay and the true cost is greater then where do you think that cost goes too? Ever considered the Hill-Burton Act? You might as there is a real shocker buried inside it that all public hospitals hope and pray never gets out but it does and I've seen it used and yes, America does have totally free healthcare for anyone if you know the secret password.
Retirement. How many folks here feel absolutely safe and secure about their retirement future? I'll let the answers to that quetion stand on it's own and again both parties share in equal blame.
The truth is, neither party is doing what is in the best interest of this country. You know who I'd like to see run for office? A bunch of folks who stand there and to my face tell me that they don't have all the answers (because the truth is they don't) but that the first thing once in office is to knock the doors off the hinges and expose everything to the light of day. How can we have a national discussion on taxes, or healthcare or retirement or even national security when the fact of the matter as a people we are so ignorant of what has gone on in the past and how all these laws play on one another. Have you ever even wondered about our international trieaties we've signed on to and what legisaltive effect that has. Having read a few treaties and their delegated authority supported legislation you'd be shocked to learn how much of our laws are a result of this. How many times have you seen some law that you know in your gut voilates the intent and spirit of the constitution but yet is accepted by all parties and no court stands in it's way. Bet the farm there is a treaty somewhere behind it as treaties supercede all in it's force and effect.
If you want some knight in shining armor to ride in and save the day while you enjoy more wine and circus, well you may enjoy some more wine and circus for a time and mostly at the expense of someone else being denied thier's but in the end you'll be right back again staring at the same problem that has only grown worse and the gov't more powerful and you of even less significance than you were.
