The United States of aMErIca

The title of this post wasn't capitalized at random; the upper case ME and I are intended to show emphasis. The old maxim, "There's no 'I' in team," is an exhortation to think of others with whom we share common purpose, and to be willing to sacrifice for the greater good rather than focusing exclusively on our own selfish desires. Unfortunately, there's not only an "I" in America, there's also a "Me". Our rejection of the team player mentality has become painfully apparent in recent years. The national ideal of "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country" can now be safely buried beneath JFK's eternal flame at Arlington.

Just as everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die, nobody likes paying taxes but everyone expects the road to be paved, and to make matters worse, Americans tend to bristle at the idea of coming together to solve our problems because in this society we celebrate rugged individualism over anything that even remotely smacks of collectivism. While individual drive contributed to our meteoric rise, self-absorption to the exclusion of all else will trigger our fall. We would have achieved only a small fraction of our success if we hadn't also made huge personal sacrifices for the greater good of the country. It's this half of the equation that's been missing from the conversation in the last thirty years. It's been given short shrift by the political left and ignored entirely by the right. Unlike prior generations, we no longer seem to understand the distinction between enlightened self-interest and petty selfishness.

It's heartbreaking to watch my country that once stood alone in greatness sliding towards the middle of the pack. It's even more painful to realize that our decline and fall is self-inflicted and brought about in large part because we can't seem distinguish between the government and the society. We talk about the government as though it were a disembodied iron fist beating us into submission rather than a mechanism through which we come together and decide what we want to do as a nation. We've become so fractured and dysfunctional as a society that we can't even have a constructive, civil conversation about what our priorities are and how we might achieve our goals and solve our problems, much less undertake the difficult task of executing the solutions.

Most of all, I'm bothered by the consummate and ill-founded arrogance of those who spend their lives wailing about how put upon they are because society asks them contribute like those who came before them and built the country we love. These malcontents are aMErIcans. These people are like the dreaded third generation ne'er-do-wells who squander what was handed to them on a silver platter. The first generation rises from rags and builds a business to be proud of. The second generation grows up watching the hard work, sacrifice and the glory of success and expands the business, generating real wealth. The third generation, growing up knowing nothing but country club life and a sense of entitlement, destroys what others worked so hard to build.

These aMErIcans think that the world should just leave them alone to work their magic, and that their success is born exclusively of their great gifts and hard work. They don't see how their lives were aided because we built an amazing society, educating our populace, building an infrastructure, devising and enforcing laws that protected people, physical and intellectual property, fighting and winning wars that allowed us to establish favorable business arrangements, and on and on. All of these things came about because prior generations gave so unselfishly for the good of the country. Because of the enlightenment and great sacrifice of those who came before, these aMErIcans were born on a mountain top, yet they act as though they summited the peak themselves without the aid of oxygen or Sherpa guides.

To those Americans who came before me and allowed me to be born into a life that most can only dream of, I lack the words to adequately express my respect and gratitude. Let me also apologize for the ungrateful, greedy, solipsistic aMErIcans who have risen to political prominence lately. They disgrace your legacy and you deserve much, much better.

All the President's Menaces

In 1776, Thomas Paine began his series of pamphlets entitled, The American Crisis with the famous words, "These are the times that try men's souls." If Paine were alive today he would express the same sentiment regarding the current American crises. We have big problems yet we can't come together enough to solve even the simple ones. We've faced tremendous challenges throughout or history, but right now whether we're talking about routine matters such as raising the debt ceiling or vexing, intractable problems such as our dismal employment situation, all struggles have been exacerbated because, among other things, Republicans have decided to cut off the country's nose to spite the president's face.

Conservative Republicans and Tea Partiers are cheering on GOP lawmakers who seek first and foremost to obstruct President Obama at every turn. If their opposition happens to mesh with a principled stand, so much the better, but in the absence of a good reason or anything resembling integrity, they'll oppose the president anyway. Of course if al-Qaeda had hatched such a plan to paralyze our national government, rendering us incapable of dealing with our pressing issues, these very same right-wingers would become hysterical and pour into the streets in a blind rage with three or four guns apiece in tow. Sadly, Republican lawmakers have been ideologically hijacked by the fringe elements of their party and, consequently, while our nation is foundering, these legislators who are well paid to be part of the solution, have become a conspicuous part of the problem.

The employment situation is still a nightmare. As I said in a previous post, we need to add at least 125,000 jobs per month just to essentially maintain the status quo. Thus, from June 1, 2000-June 30, 2011 (133 months) we needed to add over 16.6 million jobs, but we actually lost 868,000 jobs over that period, leaving us 17.5 million jobs in the hole. I don't blame President Obama for the job losses that have occurred since he took office 30 months ago any more than I would blame a pitcher for his dreadful 1-7 win loss record if four of the eight guys playing behind him have been bribed by gamblers to purposely lose ballgames. The Republican Party has made dimming President Obama's reelection prospects a top priority, and in their eyes, deliberately prolonging the agony of the American people is nothing more than acceptable collateral damage.

I know that people are upset. I understand that the Tea Party faithful could (and did) weather economic hard times with a president they kind of liked and economic good times with a president they didn't like, but hard times with a black Democratic president named Barack Obama was more than they could endure and they were sucked into a vortex of paranoia and unbridled hatred. What I don't understand is why so many people of comparatively modest means insist on throwing themselves on live grenades just so the very rich won't have to be bothered by those distracting explosion sounds.

Republicans have at every opportunity replaced the term "wealthiest Americans" with the term "job creators" and made these people sacred cows we disturb at our peril. However, our wars and other endeavors must be paid for by someone, so every dollar those at the top don't contribute must come from those below them on the economic ladder. More importantly, the notion that increasing taxes on those with the highest incomes will cost us jobs is questionable at best. In 1993 Republicans thundered the same warning as Bill Clinton raised taxes on top earners. However, what followed was the greatest expansion of jobs in our country's history. Right after that boom, George W. Bush lowered taxes on the economic elite, unleashing the worst prolonged period of job losses since the Great Depression. This would suggest two lessons about the claim that we need to cut taxes on the very rich or we'll lose jobs: First, ignoring this and doing the polar opposite can yield the best results we've ever seen and, secondly, following this advice can unleash a gut-wrenching catastrophe for all but the extremely wealthy.