My dear mother would always challenge me with, “Poor decisions limit future options. Good decisions expand future options.”
A big decision was made in an election – Decision 2016 and then again in 2020. But this was only one point in time. Our culpability rests with our career politicians who have evaded making the tough decisions for over 30 years or more, and “yesterday” was just another in a long line of choices and decisions. “If only” we had selfless statesmen and selfless stateswomen to confront the problems and crisis facing our country, even just a few years ago – oh, we had so many more options… back then.
Our country is irrevocably bankrupt and most don’t know it. We put all of our hope and energy in one election, a “savior” to make it all better, a magic wand, an instant prescription to make the pain go away. We look to politicians of both parties as our “answer”. Each is presenting a variation of their “unique” world view. One party embraces a whole lot more debt and spending while the other party embraces “just” a lot more debt and spending. We have coddled career politicians who have piled the rubble, of decades of default, onto the path of the American Dream. Living on credit, printing more money, and futile promises all were made to further personal political careers. We have exchanged our honorable heritage for a mess of political pottage.
There are no new chapters of profiles of courage written by career politicians. We will not find them as authors of integrity. The rhetorical veil of leadership only masks the hidden agenda of opportunism.
America now enters the hunker-down stage in the final phase of the erosion of our republic. As the fall-out begins, we take “incoming rounds” surrounded in a defensive position against an enemy we created. An enemy caused by failure to hold ourselves and our politicians accountable to our basic core values and traditions that made America a shining light on the hill, a beacon of authentic hope and genuine opportunity.
We’ve leveraged our past by borrowing from the future. And, the future will no longer extend any more credit, except in the printing of depreciating paper dollars. It is pay-up time, by those who hold our debt.
As our former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen stated: “Our single, biggest threat to our national security is our debt”. We, as a country, are no more and no less than old Uncle Eddie who has borrowed from every relative, has no respect, and now has nowhere to go. We are a shadow of our former self, a sunset, fading on the horizon.
And our “Wizard of Oz” politicians continue to proclaim, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain”, only to reveal themselves as “tomorrow is another day” can-kickers – but the road is a dead end. Yet we, in the persuasion of both political parties, continue to listen to the siren call of the politicians, “Elect me and I will slice the pie so everyone gets their fair share.” And as citizens, we facilitate the debate as to who will decide for us, the division of the remaining cans of water and chocolate bars on a life raft drifting in the middle of a shark infested ocean.
Reality has not sunk in. America has been offered life rafts packed full of MRE’s (meals-ready-to-eat) food stamps, first-aid boxes of health care rights, and a compass with a fixed needle that points to “vote for me, the best is yet to be”! Yes Virginia, there really is a Santa Claus, with plenty of extra FEMA trailers, just around the corner…the new American dream of owning your own home, sans white picket fence.
My friends, fellow Americans, we don’t have an economic crisis; we have a crisis of values. The economy is a symptom, not a cause. If we are ever going to rebuild after the turmoil of the tornado that is heading our way, we must look to ourselves. We must restore within each of us those core values of our parents, grandparents, and our founding fathers. To find our way out of the darkness and tragedy that will engulf us, we can look to the light on the hill. And if we look closely, we can still see a small flicker…it is the torch of liberty…to lead us out of darkness…to a new sunrise in America.
Fight the good fight.
Semper Fidelis.
John Brunner
