I believe taxes are high enough. In fact, I think they should be lowered across the board, with the highest rate about 30%. But President Obama wants higher rates. He wants to tax me at 35%, 39.6%, even 43.4%, and I don’t want to pay!
About a third of my tax is completely wasted on inefficiency, over-lap, corruption, waste and nonproductive and/or ill-advised programs and policies. There’s no accountability in Washington, so I must expect if I pay more, they’ll waste more. This isn’t acceptable, and I will do everything I can to reduce what I pay. I am therefore no friend of this administration or its policies, nor am I friend to the majority who voted for Obama and higher tax.
I believe it is absolutely necessary we balance the budget, and a balanced budget be passed each and every year. Many don’t believe this. To them the budget is an artifice of little consequence, a nuisance blocking their free and easy spending of our tax dollars. It must be a mandatory discipline, when trillions of dollars are being spent. It forces accountability.
With no budget, Washington can spend more than the tax I pay, run out of money, and feel justified asking for more. I have no say how they spend, since I haven’t required budgetary accountability. I am no friend to the budget busters who spend freely be- yond their means, continually asking me for more. I believe we need a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget!
There are many other things I believe that are not compatible with the current sentiment in Washington, things like the size of government, the amount of spending, crony capitalism, lobbying and the outrageous amount of entitlements that are being distributed daily. I don’t like that half of us pay no tax, or how disability/workers comp claims are skyrocketing, or how the average public sector worker gets better benefits and retires earlier than those in the private sector.
I am no friend to any of this, yet must tolerate all of it and more, if I am to be a good citizen. Our system is driven by majority. If I now find myself the minority, too bad. I must accept that’s how it works, this American political system of ours.
But should it? Can it be right that a very slim majority can wield its power in ways that violate the constitution, squander our tax dollars, bloat the size of government beyond all imaginings, ignore/escape congressional oversight, impose confiscatory taxation on a tiny few, and change the basic structure of government and society from free enterprise capitalism to socialism?
Two big reasons why this is happening: eroding checks/balances and accountability in government, and a fundamental societal shift aiding and abetting the process.
When was the last time someone was ejected/expelled from congress for conduct unbecoming, malfeasance, favoritism, bribery, color of authority, lack of disclosure or dozens of other misbehaviors warranting censure at minimum, and indictments, convictions and imprisonment in some cases?
When was somebody reprimanded, suspended or terminated for negligence, incompetence, breach of security, dereliction of duty or downright stupidity?
Recent incidents and scandals bear witness to this reality: fast & furious; White House leaks; crony bailouts; green firm bankruptcies; ACORN debacle; Planned Parenthood scandals; voter intimidation at polling places by Black Panthers; FBI Director Meuller & AG Holder not informing the president of CIA Director Petraeus’ potential breach of national security for over two months {or did they?}; Benghazi, with four dead, and serious legal questions about who knew what & when did they know it, before/during the attack, and who spun and covered up after?
All of this and much more gives proof there is little concern or effort at the top management level of government to ferret out mistakes, incompetency or negligence and assign accountability.
Congress appears increasingly unable or unwilling to demand & enforce such action. Time and again they bellow and bluster, all for nought. Truly, we exact little accountability from our politicians and top government officials. Why?
Because the people don’t demand it. They used to, but not anymore. We used to have an unbiased press and media that served as our watchdog and went after these things. Not anymore. We used to have academics and scholars who sounded the alarm if things got off track or violated the constitution. Not anymore.
We used to be a homogenous people with similar beliefs and interests, who mostly agreed in being individually responsible, getting educated, having manners, respecting our elders, speaking english, and exhibiting a strong work ethic. Not anymore. We used to feel stigma if we needed government help, couldn’t find a job, broke our marriage, had unwed pregnancies, continued relying on our parents as young adults, or got busted for DUI, possession and other minor offenses. Not anymore. There is no stigma, blame or guilt. Just reality. It is what it is.
Our own homegrown populace is sinking deeper and deeper into these behavioral propensities. Add to that the vast influx of non-homegrowns, who don’t speak our language, don’t respect our laws and culture, don’t care about asking government for help, and give little participation in mainstream society, like volunteering, donating and voting.
We have a new paradigm. Rogue managers and politicians at the top, and unconcerned, take-what-they-can-get entitlees at the bottom. Add a layer of liberal do-gooders and progressives in the middle, and we’ve got a recipe for disaster. We’re a coarsened, dumbed-down society, with more takers than producers.
Colleges, even high schools, have become propaganda mills.
Media is hopelessly left. Blacks, Hispanics, Asians and single-moms are self-interested groups caring only for themselves.
I resent all this. I’m angry and disgusted. I can’t believe the mainstream of society, which was center-right but has now moved center-left, has been victimized by this process and is about to lose the farm. Worse still, they can’t see it coming!
That middle layer of liberals are so locked up in self-righteous idealism they’re blinded to the dangers and simply trust their politicians, liberal professors, union bosses and talking heads to lead the way.
A coalition has emerged of strange bedfellows, some steeped in self-interest, some wanting payback, some for redistributing the wealth, some for crafting a humanitarian state, some for downgrading America & some for creating New World Order utopia.
None of this is American. None of it works to protect our interests, preserve our traditions or secure our livelihoods. It will do the opposite, and destroy us. More and more traditional, hard- working middle-classers are fed up. We’re reluctant within this process, growing surer and surer of its outcome and end result. We’re uncomfortable, unwilling participants who are quickly re- solving not to be party to America’s self-destruct nationcide!
I’m no friend of this agenda, this trend, or this new body politic.
I will not support it. I will fight it, and the more hopeless it becomes, the more I will fight. At some point, my personal conduct as a citizen will be called to question. If I and others like me don’t prevail, if we become lost in this sea of nonsensical, unsustainable progressivism, we will become disenfranchised citizens of a fallen, vanquished America; de facto enemies of the new state.
Recall: a small majority is making this happen. The next cycle could {hopefully} flip the other way, in which case a re-instated slim majority will work to return things back the way they were. But a raucous, persistent minority demanding change will still be present, attacking the principles and ideals of center-right politics/governance, vigorously proclaiming its presence.
This has all happened before, many times, but we’re being pulled further and further left in the repetitions. Some call it compromise, but it’s eventuating as capitulation.
Consider: this standard bearer of the left is not a garden-variety liberal, near the center. He is our first red-diaper baby president.
He was surrounded by near-communists, would-be communists and card-carrying members of the Communist Party throughout his formative years, including his mother, her parents, Kenyan father and mentor/father-surrogate during his teen years. His entire college experience at Occidental, Columbia & Harvard was one of activism, during which he acquired new friends and colleagues on the left.
He and his peers have radical views which were not acceptable in yesterday’s America. Evidently, they are today, which means we’ve moved imperceptibly, steadily left during the past two or three generations, so we now balance on a fine edge between state-driven/tolerated capitalism and flat out socialism.
We of the right must recognize the long-range tenuousness of our position. Whether we recapture government or not, the underlying trend is left. Are we already lost? Has America permanently fractured societally like a fault in the earth’s crust, never to be mended? Will traditional Americans docilely accept this fate, or fight diligently and patriotically to save our country?
Time is running out . . .
You’ve been reading Shaneview
I’m Al Shane
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