Where did we fail, as a country?

I'd just like to know what we did wrong as a country.

More specifically I'd like to know why the GOP is still relevant in this time and age?



massive debt
struggling economy
the falling value of the dollar
corporate tax loopholes
rising cost of healthcare

With so many issues to focus on and to worry about, this guy decides to make a commercial about Gays serving in the military and Faith, and whether or not Kids can celebrate Christmas at school.

Are you effing kidding me?

But the saddest part is that, he made it because he knows that there's a lot of people out there that will vote for him because of those things.

It's very well documented that the Republicans have their priorities messed up. A lot of them focus on Gays, gay marriage, abortion and "faith"

So where did things go wrong?

In most European nations the Republicans wouldn't even be taken seriously.

hint; we're not allowed to talk about it here

Well the banks and other corporate fat cats run the country and the monetary system that governs it so that should make it fairly obvious.

E V E R Y W H E R E ! And it is going to be a lot worse in the future. ( Sorry for this ugly disappointment, but unfortunately this is the naked truth ).

reply to post by muse7



It was a combination of 2 extremes trying to be applied at once that pulled the country apart.


We failed as a Country when we went from a Democratic Republic to a Socialist welfare state just like the other 70+ countries that tried Socialism and failed. In those 70+ countries that tried Socialism, Socialism was tried in some form as a Government over 120+ times and every single one of them failed except for 4 tiny countries who themselves are basically welfare states off of China. It is a truth about Socialism that Socialist don't want you to know about and when you do know they then try to say well this and this country wasn't reallllly Socialist when in fact they all were in some form.( BTW this is the point they usually then try to tell you " this time it will work" after it has already been proven to fail over a 100+ times) Please scroll down to all the countries in the world that have tried Socialism as a form of Government and then count how many are actually Socialist today. Socialism is proven to be a failed form of Government. People try and play off FDR's New Deal as Socialism but it wasn't, in fact the only 2 programs of any value that exist today from the New Deal are Social Security, which isn't Socialism because the benefits you receive are based on what YOU put into it and the SEC (Security Exchange Commission)

en.wikipedia.org...


We also failed when while trying to be a welfare state,implementing extreme capitalist ideas such as the repeal of the glass-stegall act. The big depression was caused by the same thing the current depression is being caused by, stock market crashed and failed banks. The Glass- Steegall-Act was implemented to make sure it never happened again, and it didn't for 70 years until they repealed the Act which prevented banks from crashing the economy through regulation.

en.wikipedia.org...

The moral of this story is extremest forms of Government have never, and will never work weather it be Socialism in any form or pure Capitalism. What really amazes me is how many utterly stupid people out there on both sides of the spectrum think that either of these options will work when they have already both been proven failures.

If one is looking for the Root cause of the failure of the United States it would be hard to pinpoint.

John Adams ? The Alien and Sedition Act ?

Lincoln ? The suspension of Habeas Corpus ?

These presidents sacrificed lady liberty on the alter of fear.

But,

If I was to cast a vote on the death of the Republic it would be
Woodrow Wilson and the Central Bank, the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.

Now Bush Jr and Obama have Killed the Republic with the War on terrorism, as we have learned We, the Citizen are the real terrorist that the Government fears.

Rick Perry will say ANYTHING, if he is told to, especially what some focus group in his campaign thinks will “sell”.

I find it very ironic that this ad, being so homophobic is aired by a man whose bi-sexual life is common knowledge in Austin.

reply to post by muse7


The reason America has all these problems is greed.

All problems of the American economy can be traced to two reasons:

1) outsourcing. Producing things abroad means the natives do not have enough money to consume, and therefore the economy stagnates.

2) the wall street/banking bubble. Money is no longer used as a tool to trade products, it is a product itself. Unfortunately, buying and selling money does not create new value. i.e. selling a loan or selling derivatives or short-selling stocks does not create a new product or service that has some value to the people, and thus a bubble is created. This year, the bubble is 707 trillion dollars, where the global GDP is 60 trillion dollars.

In the 50s, where all products were produced domestically and there was no money bubble, value increased almost exponentially each year, creating the American Dream and making America the holy grail for everyone on Earth. America became the biggest superpower during the 50s and the 60s, when it enjoyed a huge economic growth.

Today, all the money go to the 1% percent who redistribute it between themselves, living no room for economic growth for the 99%.

reply to post by EndGovtCorruption


I agree with much of what Muse7 says. My father used to say that socialism is the next thing to communism. Communism has essentially been a failure. From an Australian perspective, Australia has had a long string of socialist governments that have given people welfare without any obligation to do anything. This has bred a lot of lazy bastards who are now work averse, who expect governments to do everything and to do nothing themselves. We import people to do menial jobs because home-grown Australians are too lazy or too stupid to do them.

Lately, we have began immigrating the wrong types of people. Our early Western and later Asian immigrants made a worthwhile contribution to our country and integrated. The latest muslim immigrants don't integrate and are actively trying to enforce their totalitarian regime in our country .. and doing quite well I might add. Because we are "nice" people (replace nice with stupid), we bend over backwards so they can shaft us. Islam is the greatest risk to our democracy and freedom and yet we are ignoring the threat as though it will just die out.

Among all this, we have become too democratic; the rights of the individual have for a long time been superior to the rights of the community. We elect governments that have their own agenda which are different from what we the people want. We only have a choice of two reasonable political parties, neither of which cuts the mustard. The rest are fringe loony parties eg, the Sex Party. Whoever we vote into government isn't much better than the one we give the flick.

Our economic model, the same as the US is based on increasing expansion and associated consumption and is therefore seriously flawed. Government taxes everything that moves and then squanders money overseas on countries that don't need aid like Palestine. It has just brought in a carbon tax with an objective to reduce atmospheric carbon by 0.04 of a percent by 2030, but in reality the tax distributes wealth from 500 or so key companies to a lot of Labor voters. The companies will move overseas to places with no carbon tax!

We get involved in wars we should have avoided assisting the immoral aspects of American expansionism, although sometimes we play the role of a good ally and remember the days when the US saved us from Japanese invasion.

Australia is still a good country, but it's going to the dogs rapidly.

Noted physicist and author Fritjof Capra wrote a book called "The Turning Point" (80s?) in which he spoke of the rise and fall of civilisations and plotted them on a bell shaped distribution curve. Ours he labelled the Fossil Fuel Age and it appeared as one of the shortest civilisations. Perhaps our civilisation is coming to an end. The question is, what's next?

reply to post by muse7


Simply, we stopped paying attention.
It is similar to buying a good car, you know the one that never had a recall and it ran solid, almost like the mechanics took extra time and care in building just this one.
Then you drive it hard and never do any maintenance, it's gonna break down.
I say we keep the drivetrain and just rebuild it.
As for the seats toss em and we'll build new ones, they stink like ***.
The radio, we need to tune to a new station as this one plays no music and only plays commercials.
The body is a bit dinged up but we can get them pounded out and a fresh coat of paint.
We also need to run on a higher octane fuel, as the one we use is making the engine ping.
We just need some mechanics is all.

reply to post by masterp


I totally agree that the root of all our problems is greed. Greed is the reason socialism won't work, and greed is the reason capitalism won't work. There are too many who try to take advantage of the system (whatever it may be) for their own gain, at the expense of everyone else.

How did we get like this? Is it inherent in man's nature? If you look at the native American Indians, they did not seem to be obsessed with materialism. They took only as much as they needed from the land, and weren't focused on accumulating wealth. The white man came and took too much, depleting our natural resources, right and left.

Where did we fail as a country?

Morals...morals which are the foundation of ethics.

Morals that tell us it is ok to run a business and make money... but I need to share some of my good fortune and some of my profits with my company and employees.

Morals that tell all of us that we need to pay REASONABLE taxes in return for services provided, and allow and trust the individual to make his or her own way.

Morals that tell each of us as citizens to strive to be the best and to do our best at every level... not just ride the clock till the whistle blows, or think that someone else will volunteer... I don't have time as my movie starts at 9.

Morals to guide us... so that when we have 15 children, it is our responsibility to feed and care for them... not government, not society... it is the responsibility of the parent.

Morals that tell us...Hey, I want to go to college but can't afford it... so I will go part time and work my way through until I graduate, so I will have to pick a college I can afford.

Morals that tell us and guide us to help our neighbor when things get tough or to donate to organizations to help needy families with 15 children.

Morals that tell us that the USA is a great country, and that there are all kinds of opportunities here, and as such, I can maintain my heritage, but I need to assimilate into the fabric of America.

Morals that tell us we don't have to agree with others, but we do have to respect their opinion.

Morals that tell us that our interpretation of morals may vary to a degree, but that we all share a solid and common foundation upon which to build and compromise.

Morals that tell us that there are consequences for breaking the moral code and common trust.

Morals... philisophically and theoretically, there are many points in which we started chipping away at morals...but I believe the 1960s would be the pivotal time in which morals became part of the old way of doing things. The traditional way of life was passe' and old fashioned... "square, man."

We made it a social crime to talk about morality, display religious faith, took the teaching of morals out of schools...NO, not prayer, but actually teaching ethics and morals....we started to see teaching civics and the Constitution as an elective instead of mandatory education and required reading.

We wanted everyone to be a winner..."We are all champions, there are no losers." Everybody got a cookie and a gold star, everybody made the team...even when they played like a brick. Suddenly, children were mislead about how society and culture...even at the simplest levels really work. As these children grew into teens...they were "nurtured" and not allowed to work...do not confuse made to work with allowed to work.... it became a crime for kids in some areas to become apprentices of a trade, to work their daddy's farm, or actually use a power saw... even when they demonstrated they could. Everybody needs to concentrate on going to college and getting a great education... and so they did.

When they got out, they had little respect for their place in life, their role in life, respect for others, they didn't understand the ideas of hardwork and suppporting yourself...they found out the hard way that life is not fair nor easy, that sometimes...even the best fail, that anything worth having requires work...hardwork.

The ones that did succeed decided to keep everything for themselves...they worked for it.. it is all mine. They felt no obligation or graciuosness to a country that helped feed them and make them successful...so to make more profit, they moved operations overseas...and tossed scraps to the classmates they left behind.

The ones that went into government fell to greed and absolute power, which corrupted absolutely. They now want to enforce their twisted world view onto everyone...so they canbecome even more powerful...governing the ones left behind...feeding on the scraps of the companies that left them behind... and all of us...you and me and everyuone living in a land of moral decay that has ripened into economic, social, and political decay.

Special Interest Groups

Profit mongering at the expense of the people

Politicians (they are like 3rd generation welfare recipients)

Loopholes in our laws that get exploited at the expense of the people

Allowing Oil to be a central point of need (without it, the middle east would be a ghost town)

Not advancing our technology on all fronts (for the sake of the status quo and profits)

Allowing corporations to matter (beyond just being a business unit)

Letting medical costs spiral out of control to the point that even a family with a solid income and insurance can still be finacially devistated because of the need of medical attention.

Thinking the President is the one to blame for our current situation.

Thinking the Dems or Repubs are the blame for our current situation (you can vote you know)

Not keeping our society's moral standards higher than individual moral standards

Removing American manufacturing from American for the sake of mediocre quality and profit.

Allowing Unions to have such a strangle hold on businesses as to keep them from being competative because the wages got so out of control that it made them non-competative in the world market (right to work, vote YES). Unions are nothing more than a political tool and a mob of gangsters.

Allowing our military to be the pitbull of the UN.

Sticking our nose in areas of the world where we do not belong. politically or militarilly.

Allowing a stong central government to exist rather than strong state government.

Thinking Reganomics would last forever.

Allowing the Kardashians to exist on any media.

As much as I would like to say "When we started using the word 'Regan-nomics'", I just don't know.

However it is my suspicion that that when 9/11 happened, and we gave in to the fear that the terrorists had implanted inside of us like a Facehugger. Though that is merely my opinion

reply to post by muse7


There is no one single event that caused this mess we're in. It was a devolution of thought, IMO.

Rick Perry is a stupid, stupid man... The GOP thinks people's individual choices should be regulated by the government... Who are these people who PREACH smaller government, all the while advocating making it bigger??? Get lost, Perry. You are not a contender in this race.

On the ad, kids CAN openly celebrate Christmas AND pray in school. They just can't force the school to do so. But this is the victim stance of those who claim a war on Christmas. They're victims because they cannot have everything their way...

Regulate them terrorists with the government!

Down with big government!

reply to post by AlreadyGone


EXCELENT !

Complacency. Contentedness. It's hard to say who's to blame. The politicians and the media definitely tried to help us become this way, but at the same time we let them do it to us, and it seems to happen to any society that becomes too successful. We get to a point where we can AFFORD to stop giving a rats ass. We can afford to care about things like hair and clothing styles, celebrity gossip, the next big movie or video game coming out, vanity, whether or not the college our child goes to is "good enough", whether our car is "good enough" etc., and we get to a point where most high school graduates up to 40+ year olds do not understand what makes our country work, or the global situation. This lack of understanding allows the wolves to descend, so to speak, and they tell us what is the important issue to focus on, and not knowing any better, we trust the well dressed, well spoken man who is such a good person that they are allowed to go on tv and speak about things they deem to be worthwhile.

If every graduate had a clear understanding of politics and understood that voting is more important than knowing the latest song of the week, then we might be in a better position right now. The most important thing to most high school graduates is being accepted by their friends, finding a girlfriend or boyfriend, making their parents proud. Most of them have no idea just how bad it has gotten. They assume that there are people taking care of things, so they don't need to worry about it.

It all starts with our youth. Every kid who doesn't know any better, becomes a graduate who doesn't know any better, becomes a cog in society who doesn't know any better, becomes a parent who doesn't know any better, and the cycle restarts, and worsens. Because this time the kid doesn't have parents who know and can guide them. But, at some point down the generational spiral, a kids natural rebellious attitude towards his parents who don't know any better and don't give a rats ass, makes the kid say no to that complacent attitude, and begins researching g with the internet to find out why the world is so messed up. And they get their parents to start caring again, too. But is it too late? That is the million dollar question! All it takes is another 9/11 and everyone will be captivated once again, and the people are focused on Making Someone Pay... No time to care about petty things....

reply to post by EndGovtCorruption


You know the funny thing about that list of "socialist" countries? The article mentions at the very beginning, "Their only common feature is using the label "socialist" for themselves, under any interpretation."

You are being dishonest, choosing data to support your argument. According to your logic, these governments should be assessed on what they call themselves, not on what they actually do.

Even though I'm not american,I don't think the US is the only country that failed.They all failed when humanity didn't realize that the systems they have chosen was never going to work on a long term.

It was probably good enough for the people then,but it certainly isn't good enough now.National isolationism cannot be supported anymore because of technological development introducing a good way of life for more people in the world,and tensions rising for lack of freedom over resources because of the restrictions put in by the monetary system.

The only thing for us to do is to turn to more sustainable system like a Resource Based Economy,otherwise I fear the hole world will be plunged into a Post Apocalyptic dark age.