Are the best years behind?

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

There was a time when America was pretty great. There seemed to be a time when USA was the envy of the world and with good reason. Americans all seemed happy. America projected the very essence of all that is good and right with the world. There was sweat on her brow, money in her pocket and a whistle seemed to be heard every time she went for a walk.

I think it was after you kicked kicked Nazi ass, moved out to the suburbs on the new interstates and elected a Catholic president. Maybe it was earlier, during those Huck Fynn days or when Wyatt Earp served the law. There was something magical about the USA even if it was exaggerated in rose tint. Still, if nobody sent you flowers it was only because we were shy, intimidated by your beauty and strength.

Somehow it seems to have all changed. In recent years America has seen terrorism both domestic and foriegn. It seems there's been a succession of economic downturns and market crashes. Freedoms seem eroded, and those in power seem incapable of telling the full truth. The chatter has been angry, casting blame on the left and on the right. Americans don't seem happy like they once were.

For the third time Americans have voted out the party in power. The Republicans lost the House 4 years ago and Nancy Pelosi took over. Then the Republicans lost the presidency and now the dems have lost the house again. And the sense I get from this community and other mediums is that American people are not happy and government isn't listening. I know better then to guage the country from Olberman/Maddows/O'Reilly/Beck. It's not just them. It seems everywhere.

The economy is concern #1. Unemployment is reported at 9% but in real terms I've read that it's closer to 20%, perhaps even higher. One out of five without work is absolutely ridiculous. Especially with a huge multi-trillion dollar debt 94% of the GDP and growing.

So what's the answer? Who's got the best chance of making things right? The Republicans? The tea party? The free market and entrepenuers? Further deregulation? Do you seriously believe that any of this will create economic growth and stop jobs from being shipped overseas?

On the other hand there's liberals with big government interference, bail-outs, high taxation, heavy regulation, and protectionist isolationism. Do you seriously believe that the road to recovery can simply be engineered?

Or is the situation so hopeless, so screwed up and utterly fucked that it might be time to start over and do something completely different? I mean nobody seems to have a really great answer to the big picture. Easier to lay blame. Blame the wars, blame corporate culture, blame illegal immigration, blame too much security or not enough, blame consumerism, blame government, etc. But perhaps it's the whole shebang that's to blame.

I always get the sense that Americans are much more invested in their politics then in most countries. Voter turn-out tells a different story. There's a good percentage of Americans who are apathetic to the process, or at least generally politically disinterested. When studies are trying to figure out why they have a number of answers, but I'd suggest that it's because there's not enough choice. Vote for one party or the other doesn't make a heck of a lot of difference because the corporate elites and other lobby groups have all hedged their bets. Where they might prefer one candidate over the other it doesn't matter because both will favour their interests regardless of who wins. It's Pepsi verses Coke, but still cola.

So what's the answer? A strong third party, no matter if it's Tea Party, or Green Party or anything else, might diversify things a little. But I would still think that the lobbiests would still control things behind the scenes.

I think it has to all boil down to the economy. A poor country does not have the means, the clout or the opportunies like a wealthy one. Not just in the macro scale of global relations but at very personal levels. I think the situation is a bit of a catch22. Because the economy is bad the urge Buy American and support American jobs. But because the economy is bad, less expensive imports are bought instead.

And the country cannot possibly consume itself into prosperity, even though that has been the strategy before and after the housing market bubble burst.

To maximize profits farm out the labour overseas. To maximize returns have the politicians keep the corporate tax rates low. But then talking out the other side of their mouth, the government will spent stimulus to create employment, while still allowing factories to move far away.

Everyone seems to have an answer... Democrats or Republicans or some new third way. But everyone seems angry and nobody seems very confident in their solution. It would seem the best thing to do is start with the very fundamentals. Some say to revisit them and adhere to the founding fathers intentions. Others suggest there is no regress only progress and new initiatives in Green Energy and such should be persued with vigor.

I don't know. I do know that whatever is happening right now doesn't seem to be working out so well and the predictions have a pretty dire consensus.

The Republicans/Democrats/tea party ain't gonna put you to work. They can stimulate and regulate and deregulate all they want and it'll still be beyond their control. In my opinion the economy can only be loosely steered by a government, and not very well at that. Even the most powerful goverment in the world is hampered by this butterfly effect that the economy is far too interconnected by even the most miniscule things for one part to knowingly chart the course.

Barbra Billingsly, better known as June Cleaver, died last week. Wally and the Beav seemed to have it pretty good back then. But she and Hugh Beaumont (Ward) grew up in the dirty thirties and no doubt knew how to scrimp and save and pull themselves up by the bootstraps and get it done. There's a lesson there somewhere.

So here's my answer. I know that if you can't get a job, then you better create one for yourself. Depending on others, even the government, to find/make one for you is a suckers bet. And blaming others ain't gonna get it done either. Come hell or high water, just giver. If everyone does that the future will be pretty bright indeed. Otherwise I think the best years are behind us.

Comments

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I loved America back when you could lynch a black man with impunity, keep Jews out of your country club, and bash queers for sport. Our best days are indeed behind us!

[evildevil.livejournal.com]

Nostalgic Past: Best Fiction ever written.

I rather live the present than the black and white TV past. We cant move forward if we keep looking back.

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

you're old

[silver-chipmunk.livejournal.com]

And before us uppity women could vote.

[ygrii-blop.livejournal.com]

Ah, the good ol' days! A chicken in every pot, a car in every garage, and a nigger swinging from every tree.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

And that's related to this post on the economy how?

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

And when the wave of the future was sponsored by those young, vigorous ideologies fascism and communism because decadent democracy was doomed.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

I don't think racism and homophobia are intrinsically linked to having a strong middle class.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Whoever said it's the economy, stupid, must've been a genius.
Also, great post but could we have a cut pls?

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

there is

[anadinboy.livejournal.com]

if you want to trace the begining of the end for america its easy.
Roe vs Wade

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

um, sure.
yeah, better if you still lynched abortionists, jail aborters and had children of rape/incest growing up in orphanages. Ah, the good old days.

[nikoel.livejournal.com]

W.T.F.

[silver-chipmunk.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Sure. Legalized, safe abortion is the cause of all of America's problems. Suuuuuuure it is.

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

Don't forget school prayer. And apostrophes.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Nah, it's the election of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutherford_B._Hayes

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

I'm usually rather wary of warnings about the imminent and sudden collapse of this or that civilisation... nation... economy... structure... well, thing.

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

Since all things shall pass, I assume all things will pass, just a matter of when, why and how.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

Most generations ask that question.

Some day, one of them will be right but we won't know it for another 50 years.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Actually just 2 more (http://www.gravitycontrol.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/large-hadron-collider.jpg) years.

[mijopo.livejournal.com]

Growing up in Southwestern Ontario, we'd occasionally cross into the US at Buffalo, Detroit or Niagara Falls. I distinctly remember having an impression of the US as being almost sort of third worldish -- I'd feel sorry for Americans when we'd cross over. There was a huge litter problem back then and the country really seemed to be in some state of decay. This would have been in the mid 70s - early 80s and I realize that I wasn't seeing her at her best. From my perspective the country's self image and standing in the world improved a lot since then or at least between then and 2000, I don't think it has regressed that far but neither are things looking particularly rosy at present.

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

Niagara fall Ontario verses Niagara New York
Windsor Ontario verses Detroit Michigan
etc. etc.
yes, i've always felt sorry for Americans because that's been my experience too.
USA seems to get hit with economic woes quite often and quite hard, but when Canada gets hit we always seem to weather them better, if we get hit at all.
Now the way I hear it, when the elephant rolls over, the mouse gets outta the way. But I dunno if we do that exactly. I'm not sure how we've been avoiding it all these years, but it seems we have.

An international perspective

[mrsilence.livejournal.com]

The rest of the world can only hope that the very best years for Americans, but not the good ones, are behind them.

It is generally been a good thing that America has been great and strong, particularly in the last century, but there has always been a line beyond which greatness and strength change from being something the lesser can aspire to and take comfort from, into something that crushes the weaker and is something for others to fear.

For all the good as a nation and as individuals that the United States and its people have undoubtedly done fpr the world, and for all it has been that "shining city on the hill", the United States has nonetheless crossed that line from champion to bully, from powerful to overwhelming, in its drive to succeed and to provide for its own people, many times.

I hope the United States stays strong, and even dominant in world affairs, but I will be happy to see other nations being able to viably compete with it in international and economic affairs. Monopolies is agood business for the monopoliser, but rarely good for business in general.

Re: An international perspective

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

With Great Power comes Great Douchebaggery, unfortunately. There is no state with power in a region that uses it wisely. Been that way ever since people in modern-day Peru and Iraq decided that civilization was a good idea. Unfortunately 6,000 years later the litany of horrors has never really been able to be replaced.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Yes, the best years of the United States were the years that things like the Rosewood Massacre and Tulsa Race Riot were considered banal enough people didn't even comment on it. The best years in the USA were when generals were firing on unpaid veterans in the streets of the national capital. The best years in the United States were when there was a House Un-American Activities Committee. The best years in the United States were when the United States created a military juggernaut that turned a blind eye to sending dismembered body parts as trophies to one's loved ones, to strategic bombing and atomic warfare, to sending Soviet dissidents right into the lion's mouth.

The best days of the United States were when it spent four years in the absurd situation of fighting a wannabe architect of Manifest Destiny in European Russia and Axis POWs were treated better than black GIs. The best days of the United States were when it adopted rules and regulations that prohibited Eastern European Jews even as anti-Semitism turned from banal to genocidal and kept it the whole way through the war.

Fuck nostalgia and the horse it rode in on.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

Fuck nostalgia and the horse it rode in on

daily quote!

[dwer.livejournal.com]

Barbra Billingsly, better known as June Cleaver, died last week. Wally and the Beav seemed to have it pretty good back then.

Because it was fucking made up.

Shows what I know

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

I read the OP I really enjoyed it, thought it was well written, made good points/observations, and was actually positive. Then I read the comments...I had to go read the thing again, but strangely enough I'm sticking with my original assessment.

Re: Shows what I know

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

that's part of it too, bub. There's a quick urge to jump to the worse conclusion. They never misplace their wallet/keys/glasses/etc it's always that somebody stole them. The dam Dems/Republicans

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

Americans all seemed happy.



Begs to differ...

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

As does this man:



I must say that Thurmond's seat is now held by of all things, a black Republican. XP.