Looking Ahead

I don't know who is going to win this next election; conventional wisdom says it's too close to call. Some of the most notable pundits are predicting a Republican rout in the Congress and Senate, but that is, at best, just an educated guess.

Even if there is a complete changing of the guard in this election cycle, the American people will have to accept the fact that the building - or in this case the tearing down of Rome - did not take place in a day or a decade for that matter, and there will be no quick fix.

There's no doubt that the reckless and profligate spending of both political parties have brought us to this sorry mess and the totally insane fiscal policies of the Obama administration has pushed us to the edge, and, make no mistake, we sit barely balanced on the lip of the precipice.

But even government has its limits and can only do what we allow them to do and our apathetic, personality cult approach to national politics has elected and allowed people to remain in office who are not only incapable of running the government but have more concern for their political careers than the good of the nation they're sworn to serve and protect.

Having said that and realizing that I probably have not revealed anything to you folks that you don't already know, let's explore this a little farther.

The truth is that America is already bankrupt, the papers have just not been served yet, but if our course is not drastically altered that will happen very soon and when it does the boat will rapidly begin to sink and the people who caused it will run away and enjoy the pensions and benefits they voted themselves while the rest of America is left to swim or drown.

But even more than the disastrous fiscal mess, the foolish alliances, the wasteful foreign aid and the foreign policy goof ups, in my book, the most cruel and destructive thing we have allowed our government to do is the institution of entitlement programs that have made three generations of Americans dependent on the government for their every need.

If you want to see a microcosm of entitlement America just look back at what happened in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Next door on the Mississippi Gulf coast where the devastation was just as severe, the day after the storm passed the people were out cleaning up and preparing to rebuild while so many people in New Orleans sat back and waited for somebody to come and get them, move them to safety, feed them and relocate them.

Just look at the nightmare at the Superdome in New Orleans where thugs terrorized defenseless people and the infrastructure of the building was destroyed by people who have no regard for public property.

I know of a case of a good-hearted person who ran a business that served chicken who wanted to help feed the people who were cooped up at the dome so he took chicken sandwiches and water only to be told, "Uh, man I wanted a Big Mac and Fries"

The entitlement programs in this country encourage punks to father scores of children they'll never support, and discourages recipients from taking entry level jobs, destroying their work ethic for a lifetime.

It encourages slums, drugs, laziness, crime, teenage pregnancy, and is probably responsible for the lion's share of school dropouts.

And all so some greedy, power hungry politicians can be re-elected and We The People let it happen by giving our vote to people who smile the brightest or promise us the most goodies.

We stood by and let self serving unions, which are little more than political action committees, take control of the education of our children and watched passively as academic standards plummeted and now the chickens are coming home to roost as America falls far behind the global learning curve endangering our traditional lead in technology and science.

The rot goes much deeper than what we see on TV news everyday, it's not just the policies but the very philosophy of what our government has become, a monolithic gluttonous, corrupt, self-proliferating country club that we'll never belong to or even understand.

A "Cosa Nostra" of sorts complete with godfathers and capo regimes who will resort to the lowest of dirty tricks to hold on to power, up to and including destroying the lives of good people whose only fault was to go against them.

So America, we've known this day was coming for long time, we just weren't willing to admit it to ourselves. Push has really come to shove and we have to act if we want our children and grandchildren to have any chance at the American dream.

Now, where do we begin?

You can start by thinking for yourself, don't let somebody with a political ax to grind sway you, don't be spun, scared or coerced into doing something you don't believe in.

Try this, when you watch the presidential debates this year, the second they're over, immediately turn off your television set. Don't be influenced by partisan comment, punditry or hyperbole.

Sit there and make up your own mind about what you've just heard, sift through the superfluous language, put aside your personal prejudices and make up your own mind about which man has the best plan for America.

To be truthful, I don't really trust either political party and really don't know how much better a total change in Washington would make things.

But one thing I do know, it certainly couldn't get any worse.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops, and for our country.

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels