Big Lies

[Bob Butler 54]

(02-16-2017, 01:22 AM)Classic-Xer Wrote: Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. I assume that that blue mindset must have died with JFK.

JFK Wrote:Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

The blue mind set died a little later than JFK.  The GIs were incredibly hard working, optimistic, willing to sacrifice and willing to pay taxes to achieve great things.  The above two JFK quotes might be understood as expressing the heart of the era of tax and spend liberalism, of the time when America was Great.  The GIs, or many of them, were willing to wage war against poverty, communism, drugs, pollution, racial prejudice, and gender prejudice, while flying to the moon in their spare time.  They would throw money at anything and everything.  The younger generations have no clue as to the energy and effort of the old days.  No clue.

That is lost.  Ridiculously lost.  The first step was the National Malaise.  It came out of Watergate, the Fall of Saigon, the Oil Crisis, the Hostage Crisis, and Nixon's Southern Strategy.  The National Malaise was America realizing that it could not fight all out and win a half dozen battles at the same time.  America was no longer perceived of as an all powerful always successful force, but as failing and sick.  The GIs gave a lot, but even they eventually reached a level where they couldn't bear any more burdens, couldn't fight any more foes, couldn't help any more friends and didn't want to pay any more taxes.

The second step was the proposition that the government wasn't the all powerful force that could and should solve every large problem, but the government was percieved of as being the problem.  Tax and spend liberalism didn't die.  Reagan and company killed it.  Cut taxes.  Cut government efforts to solve problems.  All problems shall be solved by putting a stop to problem solving efforts.

Personally, I think the tax and spend era GIs were too energetic and willing to attack problems.  It couldn't be sustained.  In attempting to sustain it, they held onto power too long and became inefficient and corrupt.  Solving every problem by throwing all sorts of money at it worked well enough for a while, but couldn't be sustained, shouldn't have been sustained.  The philosophy was extended beyond reason and crashed for good reason.

But borrow and spend trickle down has also been extended way beyond reason.  The approach of shrinking the budget to prevent problem solving projects from being affordable can and has been overdone.

Somewhere in the middle...

I'm into cyclical history.  With the crisis comes a philosophy of working together and sacrificing for the common good.  With the unravelling comes a time for selfishness, when you ask not what you can do for your country, but instead ask for a tax cut.  We rode that roller coaster to an absurd high and are now wallowing in the depths.  Time to pull up.