Just us trolls

The sun is shining and there's a hint of a warmup in the air, but I'm in a dark mood today and I'm going to deliver my one and only only political diatribe in the course of the Best Year Ever.

I'm concerned, Discerning Reader. I'm worried for us all.

I've made it a rule not to talk politics here, but this is my forum and my rules. So today I'm going to make an exception and upset a few discerning readers along the way. I apologize in advance and encourage you to flog me with your comments, but I don't think I can restrain myself any longer.

I'm sick and tired of bad economic news. At my house, our total investments still aren't worth what they were when the markets began to collapse in the fall of 2008. This is true even though our retirement nest egg has recovered somewhat and we've continued to add to our retirement accounts throughout. Our house isn't worth what it was a year ago and many Americans now owe more on their homes than the market says they are worth. I personally know too many capable people who can't find work right now, and I have several friends who have lost their businesses in the last year because of our ongoing economic downturn.

I'm an optimist by nature, but every time I think I see an economic recovery on the horizon, some new bit of ominous information points to a darker reality. The bleak bit of news floating around now has some economists predicting how a collapse of the Greek economy could spiral out of control and somehow make our own recession much worse than it already is. How did we get to the point where a small country with an economy based on olives and tourism could possibly change our lives here in the United States? The GDP of Greece is smaller than some of our bigger corporations, so how is this even possible?

Something is very wrong with that.

I'm exhausted from the health care debate and frustrated that this has been the top agenda item for our federal government for the entirety of the current administration's time in office. I voted for Mr. Obama, but I won't vote for him the next time. Hope and change? Well, after more than a year of it, I don't have a lot of hope and I don't like the change.

The Obama administration and the Democrat leadership in Congress have completely lost their way. The Republicans aren't doing much better, but since they're out of power and can only obstruct progress, they get less of the blame. Instead of focusing on jobs and the economy, our two major parties have been engaged in a bitter, partisan war over health care. This has left them preoccupied at a time when they should be focused on other things.

Health care is important and we all know our present system is an unsustainable mess, but it's not the main issue for most of us right now. In the words of the brilliant Democratic strategist James Carville, "it's the economy, stupid."

I'm frustrated that our government continues to spend wildly with no apparent positive effect. I was all for a stimulus program and dropping money out of helicopters when I thought it might prevent a total collapse of our economy. But what did the stimulus get us other than an additional pile of debt? You tell me, because I can't see it.

The feds could have spent the same amount of money by temporarily dropping taxes for everyone, thereby providing a direct stimulus to the people in society who actually produce things. They could have temporarily dropped corporate taxes to encourage companies to hire more people and make more stuff. They could have fixed the potholes, made new roads and bridges or built a bunch of new and wonderful government buildings. They could have given everyone in the country a nice new laptop and an iPhone and built a free wireless network that spans the country. That would have been cool.

But our government didn't do any of that. As far as I can tell, a whole lot of that stimulus money went to hiring new government employees who will produce little and will be a further drain on our economy for the indefinite future.

I'm worried that too many of my countrymen are too stupid to see what's happening and that they are contributing to the problem. For that, we can give thanks in part to our eroded standards of public education. Today's college students can text and network with the best of them, but not very many of them know how to think critically.

I think there's been a decline in civility in the last decade or two and this is compounding our current problems. This is especially troubling since our species wasn't all that civilized to begin with.

We live in an era where we all think we're special. Each of us thinks we belong at the front of the line regardless of when we joined the queue. The rules don't always apply to us. This is a recipe for chaos. If we're all special, then none of us are.

I see this attitude in little ways everywhere I go. There was a story in this morning's newspaper about something that happened on the interstate here yesterday. Two guys were driving like they were the only ones on the road when one cut the other off in traffic. Idiot A drives off and Idiot B gives chase. When Idiot A won't pull over, Idiot B shoots him from his moving car.

That's what I mean by a decline in civility.

We're more networked than we've ever been, but we have less of a sense of community and accountability to one another than ever before.

We're in danger of becoming a nation of selfish trolls who think they can vote themselves bread and circuses forever. That's a system that can't support itself indefinitely. Ask the Romans. Ask the Soviets.

It makes me sad to see us (me included) become more troll-like by degrees.

If I could, I'd make every person in our administration and every member of Congress read "Atlas Shrugged" if they want to see where I think we could be heading. I might also add "Animal Farm" to the list.

Here's the thing that most concerns me: We live in very troubled times and our political leaders are apparently inept. This is a recipe for disaster. When the money for bread and circuses runs out and life becomes unbearable, the trolls will wake up and grab the first charismatic savior with a quick fix they can find. Once he or she is in control, that charismatic savior may have some unpalatable ideas about how to govern his trolls. Think it can't happen? Ask the Germans what happened in 1933.

Rant over.

You like me more when I'm funny, and I'll try to be funny again tomorrow, but I had to get that out of my system.

The podium is yours. Fire away.