Getting It Right - The Reshaping of America

10/16/08

"Our nation has been in a state of change for the past forty-five years – now we can see where we are going."
In my opinion our nation started a downward trend in the early 1960’s, and has been slowly sliding downhill since. It began with the "hippie" movement, the Viet Nam War protests of that era, and the onset of the drug culture.
Ironically, it was the Democrats under Kennedy and Johnson that bore the brunt of the blame for the lack of progress in Viet Nam and the growing clamor for withdrawal. That withdrawal was accomplished by Nixon, a Republican. That would appear to be the reversal of what is happening today in Iraq. However, one big difference is the fact that the Vietnamese had not knocked down half of New York and killed 3500 civilians in a sneak attack.
From that beginning we have seen the creation of "the Great Society" where most of today’s entitlement programs originated under a heavy Democratic majority in both houses and Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey in charge of the White House. Since then, for several generations welfare became a way of life for many instead of workfare. Taking a free check from the government was once considered disgraceful and a sign of failure….today it is something to be expected.
Socialism has steadily crept into the fabric of our society as "Big Brother" government grew the bureaucracy and they began to increasingly dictate how we live our lives, care for ourselves, care for our properties, and how we spend our money. Socialism takes away individual choices and liberties, and that has been occurring as more and more legislation is passed at every level of government.
Socialistic principles have taken over the local school systems. Local elected officials primarily are helpless "pawns" that merely follow state mandates and rules. In the process, Big Brother liberalized the educational processes, lowered the standards so that all could succeed, and facilitated unionization of the school system employees….all of which has resulted in a tragic decline in the quality of getting an education in our country.
Socialism has created an ever increasing cost burden on the family in order to support the growing bureaucracy and costly extra administration. As a result, over the last forty-five years most women that were once "housewives and mothers" have been forced to enter the labor force. This has resulted in a disastrous degeneration in the family structure. Before this occurred the husband would come home from work, supper would soon be ready, and the mother, father, and all of the children would sit down for the evening meal. Communication and loving bonding was created. Today, most mothers are too tired to prepare a meal every night, and the family grabs some fast food, and seldom do they all dine together…..that is if there is a family.
Before the liberalization of our culture under increasing socialism, it was a disgrace to have a child out of wedlock. Today, it is an accepted, even encouraged, practice. Today, over half of the children born in our "Great Society" are born out of wedlock. Many children grow up without ever knowing a father. The influence of religion on the family culture has correspondingly diminished.
The basic concept of a free enterprise capitalistic system is the incentive that "hard work will yield success". Under Socialism, all wealth is redistributed, and everyone will theoretically enjoy the same relative standard of living as income is equalized by the government through taxation of those with money, and granting of "entitlements" to those needing money. This may sound good on the surface to many, but the downfall of this concept comes when those at the top realize they can live almost as well without working or creating wealth and jobs. They too finally decide to become one of those getting a "free ride" instead of one of those "pulling the train". That is what has happened in numerous other countries where Socialism and Communism were the economic and cultural systems that their population supported. I fear that is the path of the United States of America.
The current economic disaster of our nation has been largely created through past interference in the financial systems as socialistic principles caused government to force the lending institutions to make questionable loans to questionable borrowers, or they would be given bad rankings by the government regulators. So I blame socialism and those who promote it for a large part of the current failure of our markets.
Now, in an effort to correct the problem government is stepping further into the system by buying banks and manipulating the processes….more socialism.
It appears we may be about to elect a socialistic, liberal President who will be working in concert with a liberal, socialistic congressional majority. It will be a repeat of the Johnson-Humphrey era, with socialized medicine, and increasing entitlement programs. This is coming at a time when our nation is as fragile and vulnerable as a withering flower. May God help us all as we become the Socialistic Republic of America!
Rudiments: Odds and Ends Worth Mentioning-
- I am pleased to announce that our "Take the vote to Ohio" bus trip was a big success. We had 68 voter volunteers go on the trip in the chartered bus, we were able to register and vote 822 times and those friendly ACORN workers gave our riders 44 cartons of cigarettes and $380 in cash for voting. At first they were not going to pay us since they thought we were not voting for their candidate, but we tricked them and convinced them otherwise. We hope to get another bus together for another Ohio trip prior to election day.
- I appreciate the sincere effort our County Commissioners are putting forth to develop a paving plan for the county. I feel they will soon work it all out and will begin to create some new pavement in Jackson County….unless the economy really falls and they have no funds.
- Please take time to come to the Last Forum tonight (Thursday) at the Marianna High School Auditorium.
Do this and you will be "Getting It Right".
Note: The opinions stated in this column are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Hatcher Publications.