The Rise and Fall of the American Empire

[Foxfyre]

The following is excerpted from a longer piece available at the link:

The Rise and Fall of the American Empire

by Rabbi Steven Pruzansky​

"The most charitable way of explaining the election results of 2012 is that Americans voted for the status quo - for the incumbent President and for a divided Congress. They must enjoy gridlock, partisanship, incompetence, economic stagnation and avoidance of responsibility. And fewer people voted.

But as we awake from the nightmare, it is important to eschew the facile explanations for the Romney defeat that will prevail among the chattering classes. Romney did not lose because of the effects of Hurricane Sandy that devastated this area, nor did he lose because he ran a poor campaign, nor did he lose because the Republicans could have chosen better candidates, nor did he lose because Obama benefited from a slight uptick in the economy due to the business cycle.

Romney lost because he didn't get enough votes to win.

That might seem obvious, but not for the obvious reasons. Romney lost because the conservative virtues - the traditional American virtues – of liberty, hard work, free enterprise, private initiative and aspirations to moral greatness - no longer inspire or animate a majority of the electorate.

The simplest reason why Romney lost was because it is impossible to compete against free stuff.

Every businessman knows this; that is why the "loss leader" or the giveaway is such a powerful marketing tool. Obama's America is one in which free stuff is given away: the adults among the 47,000,000 on food stamps clearly recognized for whom they should vote, and so they did, by the tens of millions; those who - courtesy of Obama - receive two full years of unemployment benefits (which, of course, both disincentive-izes looking for work and also motivates people to work off the books while collecting their windfall) surely know for whom to vote.The lure of free stuff is irresistible.

The defining moment of the whole campaign was the revelation of the secretly-recorded video in which Romney acknowledged the difficulty of winning an election in which "47% of the people" start off against him because they pay no taxes and just receive money - "free stuff" - from the government.

Almost half of the population has no skin in the game - they don't care about high taxes, promoting business, or creating jobs, nor do they care that the money for their free stuff is being borrowed from their children and from the Chinese. They just want the free stuff that comes their way at someone else's expense. In the end, that 47% leaves very little margin for error for any Republican, and does not bode well for the future.

It is impossible to imagine a conservative candidate winning against such overwhelming odds. People do vote their pocketbooks. In essence, the people vote for a Congress who will not raise their taxes, and for a President who will give them free stuff, never mind who has to pay for it.

That engenders the second reason why Romney lost: the inescapable conclusion that the electorate is ignorant and uninformed. Indeed, it does not pay to be an informed voter, because most other voters - the clear majority – are unintelligent and easily swayed by emotion and raw populism. That is the indelicate way of saying that too many people vote with their hearts and not their heads. That is why Obama did not have to produce a second term agenda, or even defend his first-term record. He needed only to portray Mitt Romney as a rapacious capitalist who throws elderly women over a cliff, when he is not just snatching away their cancer medication, while starving the poor and cutting taxes for the rich.

During his 1956 presidential campaign, a woman called out to Adlai Stevenson: "Senator, you have the vote of every thinking person!" Stevenson called back: "That's not enough, madam, we need a majority!"

Truer words were never spoken.

snopes.com: Rabbi Steven Pruzansky -- The Decline and Fall of the American Empire

I wonder if anybody cares?

 

[HenryBHough]

Romney lost because to many looking at his dismal record in Massachusetts he seemed just slightly to the left of his opponent.

 

[Foxfyre]

Romney lost because to many looking at his dismal record in Massachusetts he seemed just slightly to the left of his opponent.

I know that's the assigned talking point, but you can't get around the fact that no president with as abyssmal record as Obama has provided in his first four years has ever been re-elected. But Obama was. So is it possible that there were dynamics at work that had nothing to do with eithe candidate except that Obama was the president promising free stuff and Romney was not?

 

[Vox]

America is NOT an empire. Never was and still is not.

 

[Foxfyre]

"Empire" is a word in an editor's headline for the piece Vox. Others for the same piece used "Why Romney Lost" or "Why Obama Won" or "We Can't Go Back." So what do you think of the Rabbi's comments?

 

[Geaux4it]

I agree that the free lunch, or it's to good to be true, played a big role in Odummers re-election. I hazard to guess that many that turned out probably haven't voted in years. But now America is paying the price for enabling the mentality of the entitled. Don't get me wrong, there are ones on this site that actually believed Obama could deliver on his promises. They go to work just like me, but somehow believed in the Robin Hood approach

But now there is no turning back. We all own this disaster called America that has come at the hands of Obama

Change indeed

-Geaux

 

[Mac1958]

.

I don't think our decline is about "free stuff". The "free stuff" thing is a symptom of a larger problem - our culture is in rapid decline and it's pulling us down with it.

Look at our popular culture - Holy shit, I was going to give examples, but anyone who actually needs examples is in such denial that I would be wasting my time.

Look at our educational system - we're now seeing the predictable result of placing a higher priority on self esteem than on ability: Confident Idiots: American Students Growing More Confident, Less Capable

We continue to lower standards, make excuses, claim victimhood. So, we're in decline, we're reaping what we've sowed. Capitalism worked too well, it made us soft.

The "free stuff"? Meh. In the big picture, it doesn't really cost that much. What's killing us is a culture in decay.

.

 

[JakeStarkey]

The statement is false: "That might seem obvious, but not for the obvious reasons. Romney lost because the conservative virtues - the traditional American virtues – of liberty, hard work, free enterprise, private initiative and aspirations to moral greatness - no longer inspire or animate a majority of the electorate."

Romney lost because the far right terrified with their rage and hate enough Americans to vote for the guy they hated.

This will be my only statement in this thread, and I will not read further. Until such as the Rabbi can honestly look at cause and effect honestly and clearly . . . no reason exists to post further. Unsubscribe.

 

[Geaux4it]

.

I don't think our decline is about "free stuff". The "free stuff" thing is a symptom of a larger problem - our culture is in rapid decline and it's pulling us down with it.

Look at our popular culture - Holy shit, I was going to give examples, but anyone who actually needs examples is in such denial that I would be wasting my time.

Look at our educational system - we're now seeing the predictable result of placing a higher priority on self esteem than on ability: Confident Idiots: American Students Growing More Confident, Less Capable

We continue to lower standards, make excuses, claim victimhood. So, we're in decline, we're reaping what we've sowed. Capitalism worked too well, it made us soft.

The "free stuff"? Meh. In the big picture, it doesn't really cost that much. What's killing us is a culture in decay.

.

Here is another one of my blogs at USA Carry which kind a addresses some of your thoughts? I go by One78Shovel at that site

-Geaux

Why I Am Losing Hope

8 Comments
by One78Shovel , 04-05-2013 at 06:04 AM (714 Views)

Because I was raised to love God & Country. My grandparents were hard working tobacco farmers for all their lives. They never ventured far from their home in Tennessee. During my youth, I spent my summers there working in the hot August fields and in the top of some bat and spider infested barns. But you know what? It felt like Utopia. The family would gather on Sundays for dinner (lunch down south) then retire to the vast fields for games of baseball until the lighting bugs blinked at sunset. America was a different place then. It was a place were a man was judged by the sweat off his brow and how he provided for his family. As grandma used to say; "I don't care if you dig a ditch for a living, just dig it to the best of your ability". They were true Americans who taught me the value and pride which comes from a hard days work.

I have tried to pass the culture to my son's. And to some extent, it is still a work in progress. It's just hard for them to see the forest through the trees. Some today get more fired up about a new release of the Ipad than it does at the prospects of employment. Sad

What would my grandparents think today of the America that turned it's back on their values? I picture the Indian with a tear in his eye (viewing litter) from the commercial years ago. The difference today is he would be reduced to a mere man on his knees viewing the cesspool society has manifested and nurtured.

The election was a referendum on the American Dream as my generation knew it. The shear fact that a little over half of us (America collectively) voted for the continued weakening of our National Sovernity is hard to stomach.

I can only hope the reason immigrants flock to America is because of the image it used to reflect, not the image of today. But as the subj: reads, I am on the slippery slope called hope and am growing more bitter by the day.

 

[Vox]

Romney lost because to many looking at his dismal record in Massachusetts he seemed just slightly to the left of his opponent.

I know that's the assigned talking point, but you can't get around the fact that no president with as abyssmal record as Obama has provided in his first four years has ever been re-elected. But Obama was. So is it possible that there were dynamics at work that had nothing to do with eithe candidate except that Obama was the president promising free stuff and Romney was not?

That is the exact reason plus falsifications that he got a second term.

 

[Contumacious]

The following is excerpted from a longer piece available at the link:

Almost half of the population has no skin in the game - they don't care about high taxes, promoting business, or creating jobs, nor do they care that the money for their free stuff is being borrowed from their children and from the Chinese. They just want the free stuff that comes their way at someone else's expense. In the end, that 47% leaves very little margin for error for any Republican, and does not bode well for the future.?

We concur.

.

 

[Foxfyre]

But don't you think the free stuff is a component of that, Mac? Even the most conservative social security recipients who depend on that social security are vulnerable when they are made to believe that an eeeeeevil Romney might take away some or all of it. They philosophically know that social security is a ponzi scheme and that it needs to be reformed, but they are unwilling to risk the pittance they are getting. And how many times in the campaign did Obama suggest that Romeny would be coming after them?

The people who get the food stamps, the scholarships, the grant money, the free phones, the fuel discounts, subsidized housing, extended unemployment, or who pay little or no federal taxes might also be conservatives who see the insanity in all that. But when it comes to possibly losing what little they are getting, it is tough to give it up on purpose. And if they're convinced that could happen if they vote for Romney, they don't vote for Romney.

But the free stuff itself is corrupting. To those giving it. To those receiving it. And I honestly do believe it is what has destroyed the best that was our culture.

 

[Vox]

"Empire" is a word in an editor's headline for the piece Vox. Others for the same piece used "Why Romney Lost" or "Why Obama Won" or "We Can't Go Back." So what do you think of the Rabbi's comments?

I agree with him

 

[Sunshine]

Romney lost because to many looking at his dismal record in Massachusetts he seemed just slightly to the left of his opponent.

I know that's the assigned talking point, but you can't get around the fact that no president with as abyssmal record as Obama has provided in his first four years has ever been re-elected. But Obama was. So is it possible that there were dynamics at work that had nothing to do with eithe candidate except that Obama was the president promising free stuff and Romney was not?

Dead on!

The list speaks for itself:

One Term Presidents - List of One Term Presidents

 

[Sunshine]

I agree that the free lunch, or it's to good to be true, played a big role in Odummers re-election. I hazard to guess that many that turned out probably haven't voted in years. But now America is paying the price for enabling the mentality of the entitled. Don't get me wrong, there are ones on this site that actually believed Obama could deliver on his promises. They go to work just like me, but somehow believed in the Robin Hood approach

But now there is no turning back. We all own this disaster called America that has come at the hands of Obama

Change indeed

-Geaux

When this mess all started 50 years ago, we knew there would be a time that those living on government handouts would outnumber the working people with their voting power. I believe we are there. And I don't know what can be done to change it. Our children will be veritable slaves to them, as many people already are.

 

[R.C. Christian]

It's dead Jim.

 

[Contumacious]

I agree that the free lunch, or it's to good to be true, played a big role in Odummers re-election. I hazard to guess that many that turned out probably haven't voted in years. But now America is paying the price for enabling the mentality of the entitled. Don't get me wrong, there are ones on this site that actually believed Obama could deliver on his promises. They go to work just like me, but somehow believed in the Robin Hood approach

But now there is no turning back. We all own this disaster called America that has come at the hands of Obama

Change indeed

-Geaux

When this mess all started 50 years ago, we knew there would be a time that those living on government handouts would outnumber the working people with their voting power. I believe we are there. And I don't know what can be done to change it. Our children will be veritable slaves to them, as many people already are.

Klayman Warns "Violent Revolt" Is Inevitable

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Monday, 12/5/2011 5:30 pm

In his latest column, Larry Klayman predicted that people will increasingly stock up on firearms because President Obama’s “dishonest, non-responsive and incompetent government” is “invading our individual and family rights and taking away our liberties,” and are just waiting “for the revolution to come.” The founder of Judicial Watch went on to argue that Americans see “no one on the horizon who can lead this nation back from Armageddon” and worries they will eventually turn to violence: “Let us pray that violent revolt will not break out before all other options are exhausted, but our Founding Fathers, faced with a similar dilemma, were forced to eventually choose this path by risking, and in many cases sacrificing, their fortunes and lives”

 

[Mac1958]

But don't you think the free stuff is a component of that, Mac? Even the most conservative social security recipients who depend on that social security are vulnerable when they are made to believe that an eeeeeevil Romney might take away some or all of it. They philosophically know that social security is a ponzi scheme and that it needs to be reformed, but they are unwilling to risk the pittance they are getting. And how many times in the campaign did Obama suggest that Romeny would be coming after them?

The people who get the food stamps, the scholarships, the grant money, the free phones, the fuel discounts, subsidized housing, extended unemployment, or who pay little or no federal taxes might also be conservatives who see the insanity in all that. But when it comes to possibly losing what little they are getting, it is tough to give it up on purpose. And if they're convinced that could happen if they vote for Romney, they don't vote for Romney.

But the free stuff itself is corrupting. To those giving it. To those receiving it. And I honestly do believe it is what has destroyed the best that was our culture.

I don't disagree, but (at least theoretically) Social Security and Medicare are not "free". But we begin to cross a line when benefits like subsidized housing, subsidized health care, free phones, whatever, are given to people who either don't know where the money is coming from or don't care.

Can you think of -- and this is rhetorical, because I think we're on the same page -- any parts of our culture and society for which we have NOT lowered standards?

At some point in our history, we decided that it was somehow better to lower everything to our lowest common denominator because we wanted to "care" than to have faith in people and inspire them to try a little fucking harder. And that, to me, is when the decay began. "Care"? Bullshit. What a horrible thing to do to people.

Is free stuff corrupting? Hell yes. But at the same time, the free stuff is going to people who more and more expect it. To me, that's cultural.

My two cents, worth every freakin' penny!

.

 

[Trajan]

The statement is false: "That might seem obvious, but not for the obvious reasons. Romney lost because the conservative virtues - the traditional American virtues – of liberty, hard work, free enterprise, private initiative and aspirations to moral greatness - no longer inspire or animate a majority of the electorate."

heres a quote I have posted before-

The form was still the same, but the animating health and vigor were fled. The industry of the people was discouraged and exhausted by a long series of oppression....

Gibbon, vol. 1 chapter 7......

this quote is nestled in what many consider the most literate explanation of why Rome was in decline and eventually fell.....the whole chapter is worth a read. Edward Gibbon - The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire Volume 1


I don't agree with the appellation of empire either and a few other nits and lice, but, the rabbi is on to something in the whole.

Romney lost because the far right terrified with their rage and hate enough Americans to vote for the guy they hated.

uhm, no, Romney lost becasue he never really articulated a reason for conservatives and enough other folks to vote for him ( I did a mea culpa here the next day there after, I never should have voted for him either, voting 'against' someone is childish) amongst other issues, plus, obama had a magnificent organization and turn out machine, his org., and team knew they needed more and new voters to replace those they would lose, and, found them...

This will be my only statement in this thread, and I will not read further. Until such as the Rabbi can honestly look at cause and effect honestly and clearly . . . no reason exists to post further. Unsubscribe.

*shrugs*

 

[Alfalfa]

Well, if the voters want free stuff the pubs better get crackin' otherwise their voters and supporters won't get any free stuff.