Pride

Somewhere along the line, the idea of going to Congress to serve the country for a couple of terms has changed into going off to Congress as self serving long term career politicians. With that, politics have become increasingly polarized into left and right; conservative and liberal; with only a few middle of the road politicians representing those who see themselves as moderates. Fortunately, there are sometimes a few notable exceptions to this general rule. However, far too many recent members of Congress fall into the category of "gutless wonders", and it’s totally amazing to me that these clowns can keep getting re-elected! From what I’ve seen and read lately, there is less respect for members of Congress today than there is for lawyers or used car salesmen, because of their embarrassing antics, chronic misbehavior, elitist attitudes, and constant bowing down to what has become an imperial presidency! Still, with a little effort Congress could restore the Republic and accomplish just about anything else it set its mind to. But here the question is, will Congress ever again work as a unified political body rather than as a mob of self centered special interest supporters? After all, our political system is supposed to be about what is best for America and American citizens, and not necessarily what’s best for illegal aliens, petty South American dictators, or perhaps even Toyota!

I also find it quite disturbing that we don't seem to be making anything in North America anymore. A quick check through nearly any store will reveal that most of the products for sale are cheap made-in-China junk that self-destructs within a few weeks of purchase. Even NASA buys rocket engines from Russia, the Air Force buys tanker planes from Europe, the Marines buy armored vehicles from Canada, and the Army buys machine guns from Belgium. “Cash for Clunkers” saw a big boost in auto sales… for Toyota and Nissan. Our Electronics come from Asia, as do most of our clothes. American auto parts are… made in Mexico. Buy a steak at the grocery store, and chances are that the beef came from Argentina or Australia! There was a time when we had confidence in our society and our beliefs, which was reflected in our institutions, our manufacturing, and in our inventiveness. We were confident, strong, proud, mostly self supporting, and not afraid to say so. Yet today it seems we are ashamed of ourselves, and want to apologize to the world for who we are and what we have accomplished (I won't mention any names here), which amounts to little more that national suicide! One quite important reason to produce our own products is called "NATIONAL SECURITY", the antithesis of globalization. Sure, we have the knowledge and technical skills to do most anything, but where is the manufacturing capability? When our leadership comes back to the realities of national pride, strong borders, take no crap - give no excuses, protect our citizens, and live by the "Walk Softly and Carry A Big Stick" attitude we will be much safer as a nation. Why is it that we have the resources and the know-how to be almost completely self-sufficient, yet we steadily send our jobs and our money overseas… and import their oil? Our armed forces are ready, willing, and able to defend this nation, yet it appears that our government can’t get its national defense act together no matter what… why is that? What caused this rapid deterioration in the American national character?

There was a time when we were all “Americans”, primarily of European Celtic-Germanic-Norse stock, and that did included a hefty mix of other “races” as well. But today, with rampant illegal immigration, and of course the loony left’s politically correct “diversity”, we’ve happily become a hodge-podge of African-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Asian-Americans, Arabic-Americans, and lord only knows what else. All these hyphenated groups cling to their perceived “national identity” complete with language, social mores, mode of dress, national allegiance, and even their criminal gangs! America, and the few “American-Americans” remaining, are rapidly becoming a shrinking minority! It appears we have a poison flowing through our national character and our politics. We not only disagree with each other more than ever, but have almost come to detest one another. Politically, culturally, racially, we seem ever ready to go for each others' throats. Pat Buchanan recently asked “In what sense are we one nation and one people anymore? For what is a nation if not a people of a common ancestry, faith, culture and language, who worship the same God, revere the same heroes, cherish the same history, celebrate the same holidays, and share the same music, poetry, art and literature?” Well, Christmas and Easter once united Americans in a common celebration. Now we fight over whether they should even be mentioned in our public schools! We used to share classical, pop, country & Western and jazz music, now we have varieties tailored to specific generations, races and ethnic groups. One part of America loves her history, another reviles it as racist, imperialist and genocidal. Our old heroes like Columbus, George Washington, and Stonewall Jackson are being replaced by Che Guevara, Dr. King and Cesar Chavez. The American Left has pretty well rewritten our history books, and they are now loaded with PC garbage that makes the Founding Fathers into greedy racist slaveholders, the pioneers into a rapacious mob of outlaws and gunfighters, and of course FDR’s welfare state is turned into our ultimate social triumph. From the Puritans to the Clinton administration, everything is “explained” from a far left view, irregardless of the truth.

In quotes from letters written by fourth-graders in 1976, predicting life in the 'year 2000', there are many of the old images of life in the future as envisioned in that era. But one little girl's thoughts are evidence that the leftist propaganda was being drummed into children's brains fairly successfully by 1976. She wrote “The government will pay every person as much as they want without them having to work.” Another thought is that these children would now be in their mid-40’s. I wonder if they still believe in the government paying every person as much as they want without them working'? If they’re Democrats, I doubt they’ve changed their thinking since the fourth grade.

Are our present difficulties a result of our loss of confidence and optimism, or was it just the constant liberal cries of 'waste!' that caused us to lose interest in the future? Or perhaps the liberals among us feel guilty because we excelled at just about everything we set our hand to, and thus caused the rest of the world to feel envious and resentful? As our social spending increased throughout the seventies and afterward, one wonders what might have been, had we not been pressured into a ''war on poverty''. In retrospect, did all that spending help ''pull people up from poverty'' as promised, or result only in the demand for even more handouts? Meanwhile the kids of the 70s are now middleaged, and having been spoon-fed that leftist pap since birth, is it any wonder we've come to where we are now?