The Rise of Fantasy Politics
This article includes much that ought to be sobering for those paying attention. The real budget problems are domestic spending on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. No one ever talks about these in a serious way.
While one of our greatest threats continues to be the threat of a WMD attack, in some ways, budget irresponsibility along with its looming impact on the economic growth necessary to keep America competitive globally is almost as grave. Solutions aren't being discussed. This is an indictment of the entire political system, but make no mistake, that indictment includes a citizenry that refuses to acknowledge their own responsibility to the future and to their children. Perhaps, we are not asking the right questions. The image of "pulling oneself up by your bootstraps" is dated, yet do we really believe government has the answers and that it is omniscient enough to glean them? The competition to bestow the best programs to the masses continues to run along quite well and seems almost certain to persist.
This is why for all the grand problems of foreign policy, those issues will, like the "Barbarian" invasions of Rome, only be the events that complete as oppose to begin knocking us off our pedestal as global leader. The things that initiated our slippage are happening right here in our own backyard. There has been a failure of leadership. One party lives in a fantasy land of perpetual tax cuts without the needed complement of budget discipline, the other in a fantasy land of countless programs they envision can be perfectly calibrated to achieve what are impossibly utopian goals.
Discipline, will power, initiative, a bit of humility, and an understanding of both the sublime, yet flawed nature of man are the ingredients to self awareness and wisdom. We seem to have lost all of this. It has not always been so. The Greatest Generation had each of these ingredients and rose to overcome economic depression and the evil of totalitarianism. Where did that self awareness, strength, and wisdom go?
Until we recapture the spirit that brought America to the pinnacle of strength and respect, our politics will remain floating amongst the clouds of fantasy. It is time for a leader who will make the tough decisions that no one else will make. The one who recognizes the fundamental problems, not the superficial manifestations of a deeper disorder.
"Yes, We Can" find such a leader, the question is... Will We?
While one of our greatest threats continues to be the threat of a WMD attack, in some ways, budget irresponsibility along with its looming impact on the economic growth necessary to keep America competitive globally is almost as grave. Solutions aren't being discussed. This is an indictment of the entire political system, but make no mistake, that indictment includes a citizenry that refuses to acknowledge their own responsibility to the future and to their children. Perhaps, we are not asking the right questions. The image of "pulling oneself up by your bootstraps" is dated, yet do we really believe government has the answers and that it is omniscient enough to glean them? The competition to bestow the best programs to the masses continues to run along quite well and seems almost certain to persist.
This is why for all the grand problems of foreign policy, those issues will, like the "Barbarian" invasions of Rome, only be the events that complete as oppose to begin knocking us off our pedestal as global leader. The things that initiated our slippage are happening right here in our own backyard. There has been a failure of leadership. One party lives in a fantasy land of perpetual tax cuts without the needed complement of budget discipline, the other in a fantasy land of countless programs they envision can be perfectly calibrated to achieve what are impossibly utopian goals.
Discipline, will power, initiative, a bit of humility, and an understanding of both the sublime, yet flawed nature of man are the ingredients to self awareness and wisdom. We seem to have lost all of this. It has not always been so. The Greatest Generation had each of these ingredients and rose to overcome economic depression and the evil of totalitarianism. Where did that self awareness, strength, and wisdom go?
Until we recapture the spirit that brought America to the pinnacle of strength and respect, our politics will remain floating amongst the clouds of fantasy. It is time for a leader who will make the tough decisions that no one else will make. The one who recognizes the fundamental problems, not the superficial manifestations of a deeper disorder.
"Yes, We Can" find such a leader, the question is... Will We?
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