What problems face America today?

[Wry Catcher]

Ah I see. Your idea of substance is to accuse me of having no history education and to jump on Gunny for presenting a 'problem' many of us agree with. Of course your one liners are loaded with substance.

But nevertheless, I'm not interested in picking a fight or derailing the thread. Knock yourself out. But if you consider nobody's remarks as pertinent other than your own and those who agree with you, I doubt the thread will yield much. Do have a nice day.

Now whose snarky? As for non sequiturs, you do very well there too. Your unwillingness or inability to offer your opinion as to the problems facing our nation is telling. If Obama is the problem, make a case for why you believe this to be true. Again substantive comments are appreciated and further ad hominem attacks, red herring, straw man, and and dogma offered as immutable truths will be ignored. Ignored by those who think, no doubt Willow Tree will thank you no matter what you post.

Your opening post repeated several times:

List the top five, then offer a somewhat comprehensive solution. Leave the cliches, glib comments and ad hominems out. If you have nothing to offer, don't post.

My initial post in Post #89:

My top five problems facing America but reserving the right to revise and amend:

1. Too little education in American history, the intent of the Constitution, and the concepts that went into it.

Solution: Get ideology and the federal governments out of the schools and make basic American History and Constitution required subjects for graduation.

2. Too little respect for basic traditional values that were once standard such as working for whatever is obtained; personal responsibility and accountability; paying debts owed and living within one's means.

Solution: Convince the people again that a government big enough to take care of all our basic needs is a government big enough to take anything from us it wants. Government functions should be handled at the lowest and most local level possible.

3. Too much power is in the hands of our elected leaders who have learned that they can take our money and use it to buy votes and allegiance and thereby increase their own power, prestige, influence, and personal fortunes.

Solution: Remove the ability of the federal government to dispense any form of charity or benevolence or special favors and handle all that at the state level only.

4. The nation is losing its spiritual underpinnings and moral center.

Solution: Reinstate the ability of all people in all settings to display or express their religious beliefs. It is not necessary that all the people be religious, but rather that the people relearn what religious freedom actually looks like.

5. Too few people are wlling to look at or discuss issues with an honest interest to learn, teach, or reach a solution. Too much energy is diverted in blame, accusations, finding fault, and demonizing those who have a different point of view.

Solution: Push for a return to civility, intellectual honesty, and personal integrity.

And when expanding on some of those points with FA and Peach and providing the rationale, you jumped on me with ad hominem and non sequitur.

Perhaps you should have been more explicit in exactly the format and sequence that would be acceptable to you in responses. When you don't follow your own guidelines, it is easy to misunderstand what you consider an appropriate post.

But anyway, defending myself and objecting to your deviance from your own specifications is only derailing the thread. Carry on.

Mea culpa. In fact I read this post but lost focus when I got to number 4. I inferred a good deal more into this bullet point then you actually wrote. I admit a bias against formal religion and the wackos who believe in spirits. Of course the world will end on May 21st, or so some say.

I agree with your point number 1, education is part of the problem and is a solution for many of the problems we face today. The problem is exacerbated by what has recently been done in Texas, where text books have been rewritten to reflect a partisan perspective - or so I've heard - and in efforts to rewrite history on blogs and in the media.

As for point #2 I infer the reference is to the poor and those who receive entitllements. The values you presupppose existed in the past didn't; it is only because avarice is no longer considered a deadly sin. See Michael Douglas in his role in the 1986 film Wall Street as an example what is wrong in America. A sense that everything is a zero sum game and winning at any cost is desireable.

#3 is a bit confused. Too much power in the hands of the power elite, those who buy votes and elected officials for their own special interests. Special interests generally in conflict with the greater good for the greatest number of Americans.

#5 is spot on.

 

[FA_Q2]

It is late but I want to address your statements.

My top five problems facing America but reserving the right to revise and amend:

1. Too little education in American history, the intent of the Constitution, and the concepts that went into it.

Solution: Get ideology and the federal governments out of the schools and make basic American History and Constitution required subjects for graduation.

2. Too little respect for basic traditional values that were once standard such as working for whatever is obtained; personal responsibility and accountability; paying debts owed and living within one's means.

Solution: Convince the people again that a government big enough to take care of all our basic needs is a government big enough to take anything from us it wants. Government functions should be handled at the lowest and most local level possible.

This is all good to say but convincing people is not something that big brother can properly do nor is it something that it should be doing. Getting many of our policies back in line in a way that supports personal responsibility over bailouts is the only way to instill that value back in Americans. The problem is that the only way to get those policies is for Americans to have those values. Kind of a catch 22. Ben Franklin said it best –
“When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic”

Today that is all the majority does. Vote Obama because he is going to pay my mortgage or vote bush because I want taxes back. No one votes on issues.

3. Too much power is in the hands of our elected leaders who have learned that they can take our money and use it to buy votes and allegiance and thereby increase their own power, prestige, influence, and personal fortunes.

Solution: Remove the ability of the federal government to dispense any form of charity or benevolence or special favors and handle all that at the state level only.

Absolutely. The question is how? Wry addressed a tangential issue earlier on election reform and requiring ALL monies to be identified. I agree with wry on the point but disagree that it makes any affect whatsoever in the outcome. If Satan were to come to earth and openly donate it would not matter. People made a big deal out of the ability to donate without identifying but the reality is that the general public does not care. The commercials will run and people will listen. I am not sure how to level the playing field there. A common pool is a possibility but then who pays? The taxpayer? And then what right does the government have limiting the ability to donate to a campaign.

As to your point, how would you remove that ability? As long as congress can write law and federal agencies can regulate business there will ALWAYS be a way to dispense a favor. I see no way of effecting this change other than the people actually getting up and watching their elected officials. Of course that is unlikely, most people cannot name the VP or identify Pelosi, Reid or Boehner let alone their own public officials. How are they supposed to vote with authority? It is one of the reasons that real issues are avoided in politics and slogans like ‘hope and change’ are so focused on.

4. The nation is losing its spiritual underpinnings and moral center.

Solution: Reinstate the ability of all people in all settings to display or express their religious beliefs. It is not necessary that all the people be religious, but rather that the people relearn what religious freedom actually looks like.

Sorry, but we have this already. There are transgressions but it is not our ‘spiritual’ lives that are lacking but our underlying moral structure. They seem connected but they are separate entities. People in general are still spiritual or as spiritual as they have ever been.

5. Too few people are wlling to look at or discuss issues with an honest interest to learn, teach, or reach a solution. Too much energy is diverted in blame, accusations, finding fault, and demonizing those who have a different point of view.

Solution: Push for a return to civility, intellectual honesty, and personal integrity.

Again – sounds nice but not a solution. How can the government do this?

 

[FA_Q2]

So what happened to the debt when the republican ran the presidency plus ALL of congress? What happened when the liberals ran the presidency plus ALL of congress? I don’t thing being a partisan hack is going to solve much…

When Republicans took control, Democrats left a surplus.

The first six years of the Bush administration was a "money orgy". The billions lost in a made up war in Iraq. The drug bill give a way. The redistribution of wealth to the top 1%.

Republicans complain about Obama's Romneycare, but that program costs nothing compared to the trillions their drug program costs.

Why is this? Because the Democratic party is a coalition party that has to discuss everything to death before they make a decision.

Republicans do what ever their leaders say because they are 90% white and mostly Christian. But there is one bright spot, many churches are beginning to rebel at the shear "meanness" of Republican Policies and their "war on the poor and unemployed" and the Ryan fiasco will hurt them in the long run.

As much a partisan hack as ever aren’t you deanie. Actually, it was a democrat president AND a republican congress that passed us that surplus. Interesting how a non unified government tends to work better than a bunch of hacks.

 

[Mr. Shaman]

List the top five, then offer a somewhat comprehensive solution. Leave the cliches, glib comments and ad hominems out. If you have nothing to offer, don't post.

I've got ONE.

The "comprehensive solution" should be.....

OBVIOU$!!!