Deconstructing The News

Do You Still Recognize Your Country?

Posted on 10. Aug, 2009 by Josh Ray in Random Stuff

Lately I’ve heard many people using this phrase or some variation of it “You won’t be able to recognize your country…”  I’ve heard it on talk radio, television and from my friends, neighbors and family but what exactly does it mean?  Most of the time you hear it just after someone finishes criticizing the governments latest power grab.

I gave it a lot of thought and came up with a few ideas that I’d like to throw at you and see what you think.  When you think of America there are some images that pop into your head right away, The American Flag, The Statue of Liberty, a soaring eagle, baseball, apple pie and the 4th of July are some that I first think of.  Is Obama going to outlaw apple pie?  Will the democrats find a way to condemn baseball under the guise of climate control?  Will the eagle be replaced by a more friendly bird to improve our global image?  Will he give back the Statue of Liberty as he did the Winston Churchill bust?

I don’t think any of those things will happen in the near future (not because democrats wouldn’t try it but because they’re busy destroying our economy and taking over industry).  What I do think will change and has already began changing is something more important than anything on my list above.  I see the American Dream changing right before my eyes.  I found this definition for American Dream: A philosophy that with hard work, courage and determination, anyone can prosper and achieve success.  The people of America and their pursuit of happiness are what makes America great.

In today’s society though that dream has been distorted to represent something completely different.  Here is another definition that I found on the internet- A) to sue someone for something incredibly stupid and live off the money. B) to otherwise make a lot of money for not a lot of effort, and spend the rest of your life being rich and getting plastic surgery.  There’s a huge contrast between the two and more and more people are accepting the second definition as their version of the American Dream.  The government stepped in to ’save’ the economy because they couldn’t allow businesses to fail and rather than fight this abuse of power Americans gladly accepted it because it helped protect their investments.  I’m no genius but I do read the prospectus of every stock or fund before buying it and I have yet to see one that didn’t offer a warning about market volatility and past performance not being an indicator of future success.

Since when did it become the governments responsibility to take care of my retirement for me?  I don’t want them doing that but they are trying hard to control it in addition to taking over all of my health care decisions.  Next time you hear someone mention that they don’t recognize their country stop and think about it for a minute.  Do you want the American Dream to mean you sit on your couch collecting welfare checks from the government or do you want the opportunity to succeed or fail based on your hard work and ingenuity.  As a small business owner and someone that wants more in life I’ll take my chances with freedom over security. 

I don’t want to live in a country where someone’s highest aspiration in life is to have the government take care of him.  I don’t want to live in a country where I am punished for success.  I don’t want to live in a country that rewards irresponsibility through food stamps, housing subsidies and welfare checks.  I don’t want to live in a country where the government takes over industries and businesses at will.  I don’t want to live in a country where anyone but my boss can set my pay.  I don’t want to live in a country where community organizers are given more respect than the soldiers putting their life on the line for me.  I don’t want to live in a country where the government can increase our national debt by almost 10% overnight and call it a stimulus.  I don’t want to pay for your mortgage.  I don’t want to be called a domestic terrorist for disagreeing with you.  I don’t want it!  I don’t want it! I don’t want it!

The American Dream is not and never was getting something for nothing and it is people like Obama’s supporters that are ruining it.  If he wants to reclaim the dream than he should start by talking to his constituents about accountability and personal responsibility.  That will never happen though because Mr. Obama’s version of the American Dream is even worse than that of his followers.  Castro had a dream to make everyone equal and it didn’t work out to well.  Chavez has a dream of fiscal equality and it isn’t working either.  Mao had no success with his dream and neither will Obama.  Yes, I just put him in the same category as a bunch of communists and socialists, compare his policies with theirs and then tell me that that’s wrong.