I’m a 52 year old conservative who happens to be a schoolteacher and a member of the NEA. There are many contradictions in that first sentence. No wonder I stay wired about what is happening in America. At my age though, I realize that everyone on both sides of the debates that confront us are all Americans and good people. I am sure the Founding Fathers felt that everyone at the time were good and the way to protect us from our individual beliefs was via the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. To protect us from using the government to advance our passions, they designed these timeless documents limiting government’s scope and power. Since the 1960’s, these documents have been assaulted by both political parties and my question is whether President Obama will be the one that loves America enough to stop the assaults. That will stop the anger.
This attack on the Founding Documents is from both sides of the aisle. The Republicans have never seen a nation they didn’t want to rebuild in my lifetime. That is far outside the government’s role to protect us. In my view, if a nation attacks, the retaliation should be swift and far above the intensity of the initial attack. In other words, America should not issue measured or equivalent responses. There should be no rebuilding effort with taxpayer dollars to reward a country that attacked us. Leave them in ruins as a message to future attacks. The Democrats on the other hand, have never seen a” moral right” that they could not use the power of the government to implement. The Founding Documents were to limit government’s power, not to implement social engineering.
Why are Americans at each others’ throats? In general terms, the Democrats feel that the Constitution is a living and flexible document that allows the government to be used to advance social engineering programs that are worthy and morally correct. The problem with that theory, is that one man’s obvious moral right may not fit another man’s definition of moral. The Founding Father’s understood that, and did not design the government to be involved in these issues. The Republicans have not been innocent in recent years in overstepping their authority. While we have struck our enemies swiftly after the attacks on 911, we have no business trying to implement democracy and rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan. They should have been left in ruins like the Twin Towers as a message to future attacks. That is harsh, but I don’t see where all this nation rebuilding has benefited America. It has caused a financial drain and the old saying is still valid, “a man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still.” Those countries still do not like the United States. But who cares?
What has happened to society and our financial well being? Well, no good deed goes unpunished, and that affects our government too. To do what was “moral or felt right”, we instituted Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the War on Poverty. Well, the War on Poverty will be longer than the 100 Years War. The other medical programs and Social Security will be responsible for the financial demise of this great country. Rather than a war from enemies from abroad, we have a financial war with those programs that could defeat the greatest nation ever created.
There is no doubt those programs are unsustainable. I have read estimates that the unfunded liabilities of those programs range from $50-130 trillion. That’s trillion! How can we ever tax the amount of dollars necessary to fund those programs and pay their future benefits? These programs are “feel good” and “morally correct” things to do. However, the Founding Fathers were not about “feel good,” they were about limiting government’s power to make those value judgments.
This could go on forever, but it would no longer be a blog but a thesis. So where does this great country go from here? First, we stop this Health Care Reform debacle to add another gigantic federal program. It is not that the government is not made up of good Americans that are good people with good intentions; the problem is that when the programs go awry, the elected officials don’t have the political courage to fix the problems. Since the 1980’s , I have heard campaigning politicians say they will fix Social Security and Medicare, yet once in office they won’t risk their political futures.
It is clear that we cannot sustain the amount of government spending and federal debt that we are incurring. We will never be able to grow out of this debt or tax our way out of it. This is causing the anger in America today. The Founding Fathers saw the risk of an overreaching government. That is why this country was formed.
President Obama campaigned as the man to bring America back together, yet so far he has continued the divisiveness to new levels. But I will state that President Bush was not a unifying leader either. My question to the President is whether he loves America enough to do the right things for America?
Here is my list of the immediate right things to do:
• Fix Social Security with structural changes, not new taxes.
• Make Medicare financially sustainable.
• Redesign Medicaid to save state budgets.
It would be great to see any President fix the programs we have already committed ourselves to before creating another massive federal program. I believe if President Obama stopped this ridiculous Health Care Reform takeover, and said he would first fix these major programs to prove government’s effectiveness, he would go down as the greatest President in America’s history. He would end much of the anger, and build trust for future government solutions. Then we could talk about Health Care Reform in a few years.
If he continues on his present course with Health Care Reform that is against the will of so many Americans, the anger may reach levels that threaten this county’s existence. The question is how much President Obama wants to show his love for America and end the anger.
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