UNITED OR DISUNITED AMERICA

United or Dis-United America
An open letter to my fellow Forum posters.
As one get's older, maybe a sense of wisdom or understanding, finally penetrates the cranium we call our brain. I wonder sometimes, as a Nation, have we lost our way? There seems to be so many tiny wars among ourselves, are we bringing the closing chapter to our existing as a homogenous people, ready to extinguish the light of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness?
We have the knowledge of so many others who have walked the path before us and laid a foundation of success and failure and yet we seem to choose the road of conflict. Can we be a Nation that has strived to be " a shining light on the hill and shone the path of enlightenment for others to walk" , or , will we be like Lot who could not find a few good men to save Sodom and Gomorrah from total destruction? If at the final Judgement will history say "Good job, we are glad you could keep the torch of Life, Liberty and Freedom burning" or will it be " Oh! America, what happened to you ,God gave you the " the Land of Plenty" and you rejected his gift.
Even now, we hear voices, that wish to undo all the goodness that we have accomplished by those before us. I ask, and, replace it with what? Others, having no respect for the labors of their fellow citizens , are burning down our cities as our leaders do nothing out of fear. Then there are those, with true grievances and a honest case of complaint, are being ignored and not heard. The Constitution, a Republic, written to defend the rights of the minority from the majority is being hi-jacked by small groups of minorities to thwart the will of the majority.

The wise man must remember that while he is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the future. Herbert Spencer

 

~ The future of the U.S. depends on how many Americans realize what has happened to our politicians and education system. The biggest problem is the "news" media losing all journalist ethics and standards. Much of America is duped by our own government and media. Hopefully they are in the minority.

 

The big problem with our government is the big government itself. Make it smaller. It will help us all win.

 

I think we are very divided. But I don't think the road to becoming united again is to adopt a Solomonic "they are all guilty". This will not be solved unless we point a finger specifically at those who divide us.

And it's not the press it's not the government... those are "catch all" generalizations meant to hide the real culprits. The real culprits are, and will always be individuals who do individual actions.

Pointing a finger at the guilty doesn't necessarily divide us. It's necessary to identify the problem. And we need to identify the problem, and call it by name. We are not going to solve this in the abstract. We need to be specific.

Having said that, we are most definitely not going to see a solution during an election year. So I would urge you to open this thread again a year from now.

 

How about when 19 minutes after Trump was inaugurated, the Washington Post declared the "Impeachment Campaign" has started? That wasn't Trump dividing the USA.

 

It use to be the media had a duty to present the facts and allow the citizens to decide from there. There was an editorial column, which may or may not be biased, and letters to the editor were generally not censured. At one time on television it was hard to tell if the person was liberal, conservative or both. Today investigative reporting is only done if it fits the agenda of the papers or stations agenda. IMO the biggest sin is the omission of news items that the public deserve to know. Do we as a nation really want a media controlled by our politicians? Is the FCC doing it's job? What can be done to make our news fair, factual, and unfiltered of bias but filtered of prejudice and slander?

 

This is the cycle of human nature. Liberty> prosperity> decadence> complacency> tyranny> poverty> revolution.

Theres nothing new under the sun.

 

Is it time to invoke Article V and revamp the Constitution? Can we find enough trusted wise, noble and educated men and women to be able to sit and exchange thoughts and ideas and make sound recommendations to the people? What role would the individual states play? Should not all branch's be restored and the powers given to them revamped as the founding fathers intended?

 

We are certainly not a united country and I don't see a will for that to change. Sadly, too often we see those with differing views as 'the enemy' - and with that kind of attitude, there is no unity in sight.

 

No matter who wins the election our government and the way we do business is in jeopardy. Some order needs to be restored and each branch reworked so that it functions as it was planned. At present , it doesn't work, because those we elected in the past and now have abandoned their responsibilities and let others usurp their authority. We the people are also guilty for not stepping up and demanding a better accounting of the actions of those we elected. Should we have term limits on representatives and Congressmen so that they are not attractive enough to be career positions. Should we also term limit our judiciary?

 

We are dealing now with the end of the boomers and beginning with generation X .. we have so many skelton's in our closet even the choir boys did cocaine, weed/ had unprotected sex you name it, they are hard to find. Lol that's why really no one wants the job

 

There is a lesson there. If we do nothing at the present and continue on the path we are on, then surely, we will have the same outcome as other failed governments. At present we have the longest running government, and it has come close to failing, but we have been able to right the ship as they say, and get back on course. I believe we can do it again if we really want it. If we haven't learned the lessons of history and collapse then we will become history.

 

Patriots and profiles in courage are a rare commodity .

 

We are divided by the swamp, the ruling classes, the lobbyists, subservient "fake news" media, government bureaucrats... who use the tried and true "divide and conquer" strategy to keep people at each other's throats while they keep grabbing more and more wealth and power.

Their efforts to destroy anti-swamp Trump by any means necessary (legal, illegal, coup, suppression of free speech...) is a proof beyond any doubt....

Biden/Harris 2020 because the swamp is not drainable.

 

Good OP. I think that division and anger are the greatest threats to our security. What we won't let foreign adversaries do to us we do to ourselves. If we don't allow this and vote accordingly with our wallet, our viewing habits, and our ballots we can change this. If we get caught up in our own anger, intolerance, greed and the struggle for power we will suffer as a country. Lets work on solving our problems where we can instead of blaming others for those problems.

 

IMO, at this point a super majority of Americans would vote to cut the size and power of government in half right now - if they knew the revenue saved would be transferred into their own vested personal accounts.

The next wave of smart populist candidates might want to consider that approach, or Trump might go in that direction for the 2022 election.

 

It's not that this is anything new. It is just a period when it has hit an extreme and a lot of people who should be stepping up to the plate have decided to play ostrich and hide their head in the sand. Who would have thought, just a short time ago, that a protest of a city would go on for over a 100 days strait with sporadic violence. How many American Nero's are still playing their fiddle's?

 

I believe there is a lack of understanding between Federal Authority and State Authority. Could just be a money issue. We the people collectively are a Sovereign nation that has granted power to a legislative body to protect our sovereign rights and protect us from harm externally and internally. We also have granted the States the right to protect us from any foreign intrusion and internal danger among ourselves. What are they protecting? Our inalienable rights to Life, Liberty, Property and Pursuit of Happiness.
At present we have external forces trying to undermine us and internally we have forces that are trying to change our type of government by force instead of through a orderly legislative process. IMO this cannot stand.

 

Were you alive during the '60s? What we're seeing now is child's play compared to what we experienced in the '60s. Your pessimism is unfounded. We'll be just fine.

 

I have always liked a split election. I'm a firm believer in a slow and steady approach to government. Sometimes passion ,inpatients and intolerance leads us into bad decisions in the name of convenience .

 

When Nancy Pelosi ripped up Trump's state of the union right in front of the world, showing complete disrespect for the President of the United States, that act divided us.
When we had to endure 3 years and over 30 million dollars spent on trying to prove that Trump only won because of the Russians, that act did divided us.
It was Mueller and 17 democrats doing everything in their power to prove that there was Russian Collusion, with the MSM reporting on it every day, yet Mueller came up with nothing even after fraudulently obtaining a FISA warrant to induce a fraudulent impeachment? That act wasn't Trump dividing us.

 

Agreed, but we haven't seen slow and steady since Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill. What we have now is total gridlock brought on by the intolerance you mention. I'd settle for a little pragmatism at this point; we can work out our feelings later.

 

Yes I was very much alive in the 60's.

You could be right, and yet, with a little communication and compromise we might still have a shot.

 

Who? Do you mean Crazy Nancy? And what's that? Disrespect you say?

Endure? Was it painful?

 

Those are now the good old days tippy and Ron, Newt and Bill, I remember reading even when Bill was getting impeached he would call up Newt and they would discuss how to make this nation better