And again, today I’m reminded that responsibility is the core issue for SO many things. The hole that the government has dug itself is, at its root, caused by irresponsibility – that mirrors the complete lack of responsibility its citizens feel about, well, everything.
The word “trifling” has come up a couple of times recently and I think it’s safe to say that Americans have become disturbingly trifling in the last decade. The government is increasingly expected to nanny the populace with food laws, smoking laws, stupid warnings on everything and more. And the populace is demanding more, more, more. More entitlements, more laws “for safety”, more invasive behaviour monitoring. It never stops!
The populace elected a young, inexperienced man because he looks good, is black and can talk some good shit. ADMIT IT, he was elected for his skin colour and his pandering promises that have just about all evaporated – but the populace doesn’t want to hear that. No, way! It’s just the Evil Republicans messing everything up. And if Omama was a Republican, it’d be the Evil Democrats messing everything up. Americans have come to the sad place where there is no middle and it’s always someone else’s fault. It’s Evil Right or Evil Left. It is because that irresponsibility is easier than being responsible citizens and READING UP on what these asshats are actually doing on Capital Hill.
Which is nothing. Your elected officials do as little as is humanly possible with as much shit talking as possible to make it SEEM like something is happening. Sheeple buy it every time. Hence our current circumstance.
I’ll tell you what’s happening: you are living in a country during its decline. It has happened to other Western empires and now it’s the United States’ turn. Our economy is gutted by the shiney, happy promises of a lame duck president and the bickering of ineffective politicians who don’t really give a shit since they are already independently wealthy and have all those FAT government perks like free medical, free dental, free transportation and lifelong paychecks – guaranteed. Must be nice!
These same assholes who’ve run this country into the ground keep getting reelected by a populace who either doesn’t give a shit or can’t figure out that the problem is the assholes in charge – which, btw, includes our illustrious POTUS.
While everyone in Washington DC points fingers to the other party to blame for the mess this country is in, the populace frets that they won’t get their “free” money from the gubmint every month. That’s all they care about, well besides Glee or America’s Got Talent.
Listen, something MUST give. Reasonable adjustments to the formulae for Social Security and federal retirees would not significantly affect their budgets*. Taxes and and entitlement reform must happen in a balanced way. Getting the budget under control can be done, but that means change. Tax loopholes must be closed that unfairly favour the rich but temper that with lowering the tax rates at the top to stimulate investment and growth**. Why? Because the rich people control most of the investment money, stupid. [NOTE: I have since changed my stance on taxing the rich. After doing some reading about the tax rates on the rich in the first half of the 20th century (very high), I think the rich should pay their share. I think the capital gains taxes should be MUCH MUCH higher. The rich cache most of their earnings under “capital gains”, which gives them huge tax breaks. That shit needs to stop. I still don’t think handouts are the answer, but making the rich pay the taxes they owe and trying to raise the minimum wage are good goals. They won’t happen, but they are nice goals to have. -A Aug 2015]
All this change to save our republic requires politicians to choose to be responsible and do the dirty work. It requires the populace to participate and make the hard choices about who leads this country and what they should be doing. Is your representative really representing you? Mine is not (Hank Johnson (GA D) I’m lookin’ at YOU), but I am a minority in my district. At least I know he’s not representing me and I vote against him every time. He remains in office because he espouses the entitlement mentality of my area, sadly. [NOTE: We’ve since moved to a whiter district, but the rabid Christian Republicans don’t represent us, either. We can’t win. :( -A Aug 2015]
It requires a sense of responsibility to do the dirty work and make the hard choices.
When all I see are people who are too trifling to take care of the street they live on (microcosm), it leaves me with the cold knowledge that it just might be too late for the USA (macrocosm) to survive as a dominant country.
We may have already slipped past the point of no return and it’s just a matter of time. Fortunately for me, I’m at midlife and I probably won’t see the bitter end, but many of my younger friends probably will. And I’ll bet the majority of them will whine and moan about it as they stand by and watch our republic burn, wondering why someone (else) doesn’t do something about it.
*AJC, Aug 5 2011, Jim Wooten: “Self-reliance is not a bad policy”.
**AJC, Aug 5 2011, Charles Krauthammer (from Washington Post): “Three steps, three months to get to ‘the grand bargain'”.