Listening to the radio today there was a lot of talk about the 'stimulus' and what's happening in the country. Lately, Obama talking to D.C. sounds kind of like a cry baby threatening to take his toys elsewhere. Or when he's speaking to the media or going out to communities he sounds identical to his campaign speeches (trying to be funny, get the crowd all excited with promises his government will take care of them if they surrender themselves to it.) It's very odd, but I don't think he's being a leader or at least a good one. I'm not sure how anyone can defend or feel good about him right now. Some things were mentioned by John Gibson and Tom Sullivan I thought were interesting.

The unemployment rate is over 7 % now. That is high, I know. So Obama is going around with his new word 'catastrophe' and words like that, threatening everyone. He says the country's doing the worst since the Great Depression.
-But when Reagan was elected it was higher, some sources have it up to 13% and he got it down to 3-5%.
-When Clinton took office unemployment was up at about 7-8% and things turned around.
- how did Reagan and Clinton get out of the slump? lower taxes, less government.
-During the Great Depression, unemployment was up at about 25-30%.

-have some perspective.

Obama and dwindling supportors of running up our debt more and spending a trillion dollars to save us from destruction say 'we can't afford to do nothing.' But they want you to ignore the fact that over the past year hundreds of millions of dollars have already been spent to help banks and other problem areas in the economy. Have you seen the positive effects of that money? Is throwing more money at it going to bring different outcomes? -especially when people like Tim Geitner have been involved in the bailouts that have already failed, and are now running these new bailouts and stimuli? We heard before the first bailout that if we didn't do it there would be certain disaster. Now all that money is nowhere to be found and Obama and his buddies are back repeating the exact same thing. I know Obama is magic, but how is this going to solve anything?

Tom mentioned the quote about democracies failing when the people figure out they can vote themselves gifts. Then he shared this quote from Alexander Tyler in 1787. It is kind of scary, and basically the same as cycles seen in civilizations we know about that he doesn't mention.

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."

"The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
1. From bondage to spiritual faith; 2. From spiritual faith to great courage; 3. From courage to liberty; 4. From liberty to abundance; 5. From abundance to complacency; 6. From complacency to apathy; 7. From apathy to dependence; 8. From dependence back into bondage "

I've already written about how our country can't deal with hardship, we've grown fat. That is why the crisis we're in now IS different from times past. The people of today are accustomed to living a certain way and never dreamed of having to live otherwise. The way I see it we are in the apathy to dependence phase of the above cycle.

Thus, Obama and liberals have gained favor of this country by promising things like bigger government, universal health care and income redistribution. Artists like Shepard Farley have made themselves famous by making Communist/Socialist-propaganda-poster-type art of Obama. Chairman Mao is in cool designs of clothing or household goods, and portrayed as a great and kind caretaker of his people. Newsweek apparently has an article out saying we are official socialist now. The word that couldn't be uttered during the campaign is now proclaimed by Obama supporters. Socialism is good. Government control of our lives is good. Mao and Obama are hip and benevolent leaders we must trust and obey. It is cool and trendy to talk of such things. Capitalism is the new bad word. It failed. That's why we need change.

Is this not alarming? I don't agree with his trend. I hope it's not too late to turn back. America was not made great through such ideas. Why are they now deemed the antidote to our problems? Is Obama's encouraging apathy and increasing our dependence the answer here? Read Tyler's quote again. Does it sound nice? Are we not on that cycle? Is socialism really that sexy?