defeated

after watching the President speak last night and witnessing the stock market finish over 600 points down, it underlines my opinion that the future of this nation if gloomy at best. Downgrading our credit rating to AA+ from AAA doesn't really mean anything to me. I'm invested in the sense that I have a 401K that isn't doing as well as I would like, but that's not my biggest beef. The biggest bummer is that the leadership in this country has been defeated by committee and political process. President Obama sounded off-kilter last night. What was oratorical inspiration during his campaign and the first 18 months or so of his presidency has fallen to a less charismatic and borderline comatose effort to rally the nation. He looked utterly defeated yesterday. He looked as if he has had enough and he might not even bother running for reelection. It was just sad. If FDR tanked speeches like Obama did, we might still be in depression. if Truman wasn't able to unite congressional leaders, we might still be at war with half the world. If Reagan didn't fire all the airline workers, we may still be held hostage by unions. What has inspired Americans to create greatness and wealth in the past has become a downtrodden effort to not piss anyone off. I know the argument that "we can't govern if we don't get elected." But what about making the efforts to create inspiration through leadership? I heard someone say once that Lincoln did what he thought was right even though it meant losing half the country. I think politicians today don't do what they know to be right if it means losing swing states' electoral votes. But this is the nation that we have created. America spent the better part of the 20th century atop the global economy. Maybe it's time we spend some time supplicating ourselves and realizing our own mortality. We're fragile. Not all of us though. This is a quote from Joe Scarborough in Politico this morning:

"I spent this past weekend driving through neighborhoods much like the type my parents took me though on Sunday mornings so long ago. But the large homes with driveways filled with Mercedes and BMWs seems like relics from a different age - much like the $1,500 shoes that The New York Times recently reported were flying off the shelves of certain Manhattan boutiques. The images of these massive homes and $100,000 cars seemed to clash with the morning headlines announcing a downgrade of the United States' credit rating and the death of 30 U.S. troops in an endless, expensive war. And while America stumbles toward default, millions of Americans are unemployed and the middle class keeps getting squeezed."

While I don't particularly like Joe, and rarely agree with him, he's got a point here. The rich are staying rich, the poor are remaining poor and the middle class (80% of Americans) are getting bent over the rail. It's not fair, but it never is. Rich people vote; the contribute money; they are the movers and the shakers in Washington. Like it or not, they are our representatives. Not our congressmen. How can we expect a congressman to respect my opinion when his war chest is filled with money from people who represent the exact opposite of my beliefs? This is the world we have created. We let the people who have money get what they want. When was the last time you heard of a billionaire who didn't get what he/she wanted? They get what they want because they can pay for it. Who the hell wouldn't want to live like that? I understand that everything is relative and that billionaires have problems and depression and heartache just like the rest of us, but I can only speak for myslef when I say that all of my problems are financial. I'm pretty sure that if I had a billion dollars, my problems would be over. And that I would hold my congressman hostage every time he/she did something I didn't like. I would be able to say things like, "I'll contribute money to your campaign if..." (fill in the blank).

What Joe doesn't mention in his column is a way to make things better for the middle class. How do we do that? Are we going to bank on the rhetoric of the mainstream media? That is where this Washington bureaucratic battle is being waged right now.

Here's my solution. Instituting the Me Party is step one. Ending the wars is step two. After that, we're on the right track for greatness again. It's just going to take a generation or so to get this done. Maybe Gracyn and Evelyn will help move this idea along.