This is going to sound familiar...

One of the 'perks' of getting older is the ability to rant and rave over politics.  These usually start... "When I was a kid..."  So:

When I was a kid (1950's) politics was the same as it is today. 

How's that so far?  What isn't the same is the degree of 'entitlement' that the public feels for itself.  It is often expressed in expectations of service (high) and demand for little or no taxation.  I'm ticked off when the roads are filled with potholes, or are lined with tall grass and weeds, or haven't been painted in a while because I have come to expect all these things to be done.  Lawyers have sued the pants off the public sector for "should have done's" or "should have known's" (no offense to lawyers intended here - it is what they do).  It is we who have changed my friends.

I buy a house with no money down and then, when the economy goes bad and I can't pay then I want to know what my representative will do to help me out.  I own a company that builds cars no one wants anymore and I turn to my representative to find out what he/she are going to do to help me out. After all I employ all kinds of people... (who are now being vilified by the press for being overweight, overpriviledged and overpaid).  A hurricane comes through and buries my city (built on a delta of a river 8 feet below sea level) in water and I want to know what my government is going to do to bail me out.

Apparently in America we believe that everyone is entitled.  This will only lead to madness.  So to play an old song... our country was built on the backs of people who worked hard, dreamed big and took responsibility for their own actions - good or bad.  It is inherant in politics to try and please the people who elect you so they will elect you again!  If that is unrestrained... you get something very similar to what we have today and that is my point exactly.  If this is going to change we, as a nation, are going to have to re-focus on that old idea that came with the founding of our country that hard work and perserverance will pay off and laziness and the expectation that someone else owes me will not.  No amount of political payoff will ever change that.

So... never dicuss politics and religion eh?  Religion must be next...

Thanks for listening.