I read the Diaries and the local newspaper and the Wall Street Journal and I get the same message - the USA is a defeated nation. Prior to 9/11 we had a sound economy and a (false) sense a of security. The biggest question of the day was whether the Braves would get to the World Series again, ever.
Now we have an economy on the brink and the Fed Chairman telling us almost daily that inflation will get worse (worse than it already is?). Gas prices have more than doubled and there's not much reason to think they come down in the next few years. We have lost an American city. Over 2000 Americans have died in Iraq fighting someone who was not involved with 9/11. Our President has a popularity rating somewhere in the 30% range and Congress is even lower. But that's not the scary part. Because of changes this Congress has made, the chances of getting anyone different in office during the next three years is very remote. And this at a time when most Americans agree we are on the wrong track.
More...
When I see my GOP friends around town they are no longer swaggering and proud. My Dem friends are actually starting to look happier. But I think this perverse, because I do
not want our party to gain power simply because our nation is sliding into failure. I never want us to wish for bad times!
But (yet again), in this perverse logic, I find myself eagerly looking for bad news in Iraq and higher gas prices and new inflation warnings because I don't see any other way for the majority of the voters to run the GOP out town and start the process of making things right again.
All this is happening here in the good ole USA and, over in Bin Laden land, the "terrorists" are recruiting more soldiers for their side than ever before. I bet they have no trouble meeting their quotas! We have solid families crumbling into irrational debt while we try to fight Bin Laden in Iraq. It might seem worthwhile if we were actually winning, but the fight goes on and the results only get worse. Does anyone outside the GOP inner circle beleive we will leave Iraq feeling good about what we accomplished over there? Do you think the end of the war will bring gas prices back to $2.00? And what will it have gained us? Are we safer? Are we more prosperous? Are we happier? Are we freer? I actually think we are less of all four. If you agree, where should we place the blame? Not on Bin Laden - he was fighting the war using the weapons he thought would effectively defeat an enemy he had been fighting for several years. I think he was right, because he read our President better than we did. I think he knew W would fold under the steady pressure of an enemy who would not quit fighting. Goorge W Bush lead us over the edge of the cliff and we are following him like cattle. Shame on us if we don't do something to change the status quo.