“We have met the enemy, and it is us”

We humans tend to blame everyone else but ourselves when we are faced with the truth about our relationships, careers, and in this case the government. Its all governments fault …
No, it’s all our fault. We are the ones to blame, because we refuse to face the realities of the world and its problems. We are spoiled by an economy that has been running on credit and averse to making the sacrifices that we must face. In this last local election less than 23% of us bothered to vote. The last time the government asked us to sacrifice for the common good was WWII. Korea, Viet Nam, the Bush wars, have called for nothing more than a magnetic ribbon on your SUV claiming we support the troops. And as long as it wasn’t your sons or daughters, we went on our merry way, spending and supporting the politicians that gave us bread and circuses and an economy based on credit. How much longer can we live this unsustainable lifestyle? Did we change with the Oil embargo of 1973?, the dot com bubble of the 1990’s?, the terrorist attack of 9/11? Is the current economic meltdown changing us, and now the catastrophe in the gulf? These have all been based on our petroleum dependent lifestyle. It is you and I not the government. They just give us what we want, in exchange for keeping them in office, to grow rich and prosper, while we has not sustained an increase in overall wages in over 10 years. What are you doing as an “individual”, a Citizen to save our country, our planet? Think about it…
For those on the Left, no amount of government regulation will solve the problems. The government’s role is to support innovation, and create a climate of fairness for both investor and worker to thrive. Those on the Right want less government and taxes, so you better decide what services you want to give up. You can’t have both. If you don’t like healthcare, get rid of Medicare, the VA, and Social Security. We can’t complain about America until we look at ourselves and ask what we have done to change it. Talk is cheap, and driving to a Tea Party rally in an SUV is hypocritical.
Both parties and those who bothered to vote created the mess we are in. The rest of us were too busy buying on credit and expecting the housing bubble to go on for ever. Hey, I’m getting fat why should I care. My 401k is growing, why look at how Wall Street is using the banks to keep their ponzy scheme going. Both parties sent BP out to drill for us and to keep it cheap so we will be happy driving . If we have met the enemy, and it is us, then we are the ones that must change it. Don’t blame it on the government. We are the solution. If we are serious about change, then do your part. Walk or bike, turn down the air conditioner,
don’t waste gas, recycle, and vote. Get involved.
The Tea Party and every other populist movement that springs up during economic down turns are predictable. They lash out at the problem and as times improve fade away into our old unsustainable life styles. That’s why we need to solve the big problems now, not postpone them. Or pretend that when our lobby driven government gives us, lowest –common denominator solutions, their going to work. We can never go back to business as usual, because like it or not, the best days of the empire are being challenged by a global economy.
Many people think that all we have to do is live the lives of the founding fathers. The answers to all our problems can’t be solved simplistically by going backwards to 1776 when there were only 2.5 million Englishmen in America. We are a diverse nation of 350 million, with 35% of our population non European. India, China, Brazil and Russia are challenging us for economic dominance on a world stage. We can’t live the Darwinian capitalism that those on the right demand, and the care taker government that those on the left want. Both of them are going too far in keeping us in political gridlock. It is you and I in the middle who must get off the couch, lose the fat around our gut, and start the change from within. And be prepared to sacrifice to archive the best parts of the future that both the left and right aspire to. If government is the problem then we are the solution. And time is running out.