At what point will the US reach the point of no return?

[Fiddytree]

At this point, the problems we're facing cannot be fixed by electing different people. They're all the same. They work for corporate hand outs. Our country is in decline. I believe we have already crossed the threshold of "no return." Especially considering the decline of the dollar as well as our declining infrastructure. It's already over. Hopefully, it'll take a while to collapse. ( My family needs more time to prepare).

Christ, no. I don't think we have to fear that anywhere near soon.

 

[joe six-pack]

I love how even in a discussion like this...its always... obamas fault...or bushs fault.

I don't think anyone said that. But every President in the last hundred years has contributed to the problem.

But to be honest.... I dont see how any of this is going to change... no matter who we elect.

It just takes electing one President with principles who will undo the failed neoconservative policies perpetuated under Presidents Bush and Obama. It would just take one person who actually has a sense of decency and urgency to restore liberty, or take us in that direction. A return to constitutional and fiscal sanity.

But then again, there is always option #2.

 

[Alyssa]

Christ, no. I don't think we have to fear that anywhere near soon.

Normalcy bias.

But I wish you were right. I hope you're right.

 

[BamaBrat]

I don't think anyone said that. But every President in the last hundred years has contributed to the problem.

It just takes electing one President with principles who will undo the failed neoconservative policies perpetuated under Presidents Bush and Obama. It would just take one person who actually has a sense of decency and urgency to restore liberty, or take us in that direction. A return to constitutional and fiscal sanity.

But then again, there is always option #2.

People go back and forth between is it bushs fault...no its obamas fault... no bushs...all over this board and all over our country. And maybe i am just jaded and so tired of the same ole political bs that i cant see straight... but I dont honestly believe that there is such a person out there. I think we are perpetually stuck with the type of folks we elect into office and who run for office, and I dont see any of them as being much better than the other. Besides all that, even if they do go in with the best and most honest intentions in the world, they get there and become just another butt to fill a seat. If they arent crooked when they go in they certainly will be when they come out. Do you honestly see any of those "principled and decent" folks out there right now???? I really wish I did.

 

[BamaBrat]

egad.... i just depressed myself reading my own post. Maybe I am just being a doubting danielle.... I dont know. But I do know this. SOMEONE has to step up and do whats right for a change, not just whats politically popular at the moment.

 

[joe six-pack]

egad.... i just depressed myself reading my own post. Maybe I am just being a doubting danielle.... I dont know. But I do know this. SOMEONE has to step up and do whats right for a change, not just whats politically popular at the moment.

Not just someone, but "everyone." Everyone who calls themselves an American needs to step up and do the right thing.

 

[cpwill]

I have no problem with this. But we also have to address our dysfunctional system of allowing ever expanding unconstitutional Presidential and congressional power, and our broken financial policies of printing debt-currency, increasing the debt limit to pay for more debt and rewarding people who fail upwards after crashing our economy.

whole-heartedly agreed; it is far past time to severely clip Washingtons' wings.

It makes me more and more open to the possibility of a Perry Presidency. though he wouldn't be the first "10th Amendment Advocate" to go to Washington and change his tune...

egad.... i just depressed myself reading my own post. Maybe I am just being a doubting danielle.... I dont know. But I do know this. SOMEONE has to step up and do whats right for a change, not just whats politically popular at the moment.

it's actually worse than you think. They are that way because we reward them for being that way, and we punish them if they stray. the American people were willing to buy the saccharine promise of something-for-nothing; and now we're going to pay the price for it.

 

[Wiseone]

That isn't meant to be partisan rant, but I'd like some rational answers.

We have serious financial issues, civil liberty issues, economic issues and political issues. If we continue this way, when do we reach the point of no return, when there is no way to regain past stability, prosperity and liberty? We aren't there yet, by any means, thankfully. But what can we do to restore the ideals of a free society, our shared American idealism and dream? Is the American Experiment going to end in a Police-State or in a Free State?

We have serious problems that our two party system has both equally contributed to. I'm not placing blame.

We have a financially irresponsible Federal government, spends considerably more than it receives, borrows on top of debt, wastes money by rewarding those who caused the last recession, hands out corporate welfare, tries to raise the debt limit to pay off debt interest and in general behaves like credit is unlimited. Unfortunate it costs you and me.

We have a government that has abandoned liberty for security, against Ben Franklin's personal warning that doing so would leave us without either Liberty or Security! We have disregarded constitutional limits on government and Presidential power, allowed the suspension of habeas corpus, spying on Americans, disregard prisoner rights and due process and generally shifted closer to a Police-State.

Why do you think the previous administration was so unpopular? Unending wars, economic and Liberty issues; a national desire to return to constitutional, economic and political stability. A transition away from those policies hasn't really materialized. This isn't limited to party or ideology, people are frustrated with the Executive and Legislative branch.

How do we resolve this like Americans?

I'm frankly not looking to return to anything, I don't want to be the nation we were 200 years ago, 100 years ago, 50 years ago, 10 years ago, 1 year ago. You talk about the point of no return as if we should want to return to something in the past, this feeling that our best days were behind us and there is nothing more to achieve, only maintain once we reachieve whatever it was in our past you liked, is very dangerous in my opinion. Personally I believe that America's best days can lie in its future, and I choose to look forward rather than behind for inspiration, I look at the present and say "What can we achieve with this?" and push forward with my goal. I don't deny these are tough times, but they are hardly as some days in the past have been, and to say "We already achieved what we should/can achieve, lets just sit there stagnant now" is not an attitude I endorse.

Time and history move forward, we can't resist that so why try?

 

[atrasicarius]

I'm frankly not looking to return to anything, I don't want to be the nation we were 200 years ago, 100 years ago, 50 years ago, 10 years ago, 1 year ago. You talk about the point of no return as if we should want to return to something in the past, this feeling that our best days were behind us and there is nothing more to achieve, only maintain once we reachieve whatever it was in our past you liked, is very dangerous in my opinion. Personally I believe that America's best days can lie in its future, and I choose to look forward rather than behind for inspiration, I look at the present and say "What can we achieve with this?" and push forward with my goal. I don't deny these are tough times, but they are hardly as some days in the past have been, and to say "We already achieved what we should/can achieve, lets just sit there stagnant now" is not an attitude I endorse.

Time and history move forward, we can't resist that so why try?

I don't see "point of no return" as meaning we need to return to something. This is kind of how I see it:

 

[joe six-pack]

I'm frankly not looking to return to anything, I don't want to be the nation we were 200 years ago, 100 years ago, 50 years ago, 10 years ago, 1 year ago. You talk about the point of no return as if we should want to return to something in the past, this feeling that our best days were behind us and there is nothing more to achieve, only maintain once we reachieve whatever it was in our past you liked, is very dangerous in my opinion. Personally I believe that America's best days can lie in its future, and I choose to look forward rather than behind for inspiration, I look at the present and say "What can we achieve with this?" and push forward with my goal. I don't deny these are tough times, but they are hardly as some days in the past have been, and to say "We already achieved what we should/can achieve, lets just sit there stagnant now" is not an attitude I endorse.

Time and history move forward, we can't resist that so why try?

I wasn't talking about restoring a "time period," I was talking about restoring the constitutional limits of government.

If you want to attribute that to a time-period, it would have been pre-Sept 11th. We didn't have the two major issues that I feel are problems, the excessive constitutional rights infringements with the massive Orwellian security apparatus and excessive debt spending issues. But I wasn't talking about a time period, I was talking about the status of our government. If a partner is in breach of contract, you can "restore" the contractual status of your business relationship without time-travel. I'm not a child and this thread wasn't about make-belive. How old are you?

The government is in breach of it's constitutional contract and not enough people are pointing that out. You're welcome.