The Price of a Cheap Thrill...

The mainstream media (MSM) prefers the myth of “everyone hates Washington” to the reality of ‘everyone needs a damn job to maintain their basic quality of life.’ Why was no one (MSM) paying attention when NAFTA was created during the elder Bush Administration, and then pushed through during Clintons Administration, culminating in the wholesale shipment of our manufacturing base overseas? We literally don’t make shit anymore; we buy everything from everyone else for a “cheaper price” not realizing that the flipside of the convenience of “Wal-Mart prices” is that your cousin doesn’t have a job to provide for his three kids. There’s no more Budd plant down on Hunting Park Ave, no more seamstress shop where you go to get your clothes made, shucks you can barely even find a butcher for a nice cut of meat.

We used to build things here in America: planes, trains and automobiles as the old saying used to go. We used to have a strong agrarian economy, now we have a HUGE farm bill and subsidies so farms don’t plant too much crop (weird right?). We built a transcontinental railroad (with cheap Chinese labor, but we won’t go there) and built the first airplanes thanks to the Wright brothers, President Eisenhower commission the national interstate highway system, and I guess this journey through history would require me mentioning landing on the moon, considering the fact we have gotten satellite technology from that advancement, I won’t begrudge it. My point is, we are no longer the great thinkers, and technologically advanced nation that we used to be, we don’t have the best and brightest minds being molded in our schools, or factories, we’ve sent ours overseas and those from overseas only come here for advanced education and then go back home. China is becoming the preeminent superpower in terms of manufacturing, engineering and soon I fear green technology. Yeah America still has the biggest and best weapons systems, but the biggest military in the world can’t plug a damn hole in the Gulf of Mexico, which to an objective person would showcase the limits of our power, but alas we believe our own hype too much to face such a reality.

The bottom line is, for America to be great again, we must build again, we must let go of the “cheap thrill” or our constant search for a cheap thrill, and face reality. Reality can be an inconvenient truth, but it’s still there and it’s still truth, we willingly pour billions into Afghanistan (nation building) while our own nation literally crumbles (insert image of Minnesota bridge that collapsed 2 yrs ago). Our kids are failing in our schools, and those that do succeed can’t find a decent job when they get out, then to add insult to injury they’re mired deeply in debt. It’s time to put our big stick down, (we can protect our village without invading others) and take the time to nation build here at home, create a counter-insurgency to combat the hopelessness and joblessness that’s plaguing large swaths of our nation. We can do it, it’s been done before, let’s do it again!!!

J. Kelly