This is my first President's Day in Idaho, and wasn't surprised to see an american flag planted in every yard on almost every street this morning.
Well, every yard but mine.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not unpatriotic, I'm just poor. I don't have a flag. But even if I did, would I hoist it up like the rest of the masses?
I'm not exactly sure if, based on this century so far, I am necessarily 'proud' of my country.
It seems that, over the past 10 or so years, the pride (as well as ignorance) of the US has escalated beyond belief. We truly believe, no, we KNOW we are the central hub of this Earth, and other countries look up to us.
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| The title speaks for itself |
Then again, depending on who you ask, the financial problems of the last 8-10years are all Obama's fault.
Like I said, it depends on who you ask:
I think, as a nation, we need to put down the apple pie and take a big swallow of some humble pie. Stop thinking we are the World Police, and become one of the many world leaders, instead of the self-appointed world leader.
For a country that was founded in democracy, it makes me ill when I hear so many people in grocery stores, on the radio, or just chatting in the mall saying which world leaders we should throw out, which countries are the next big threat, and then complain about our government's financial crisis. People tend to forget that wars are expensive, and our defense spending is still a MAJOR chunk of our upside-down budget.
And the budget talk around the water cooler makes me laugh even more. It shows me how many people didn't do very well in Math and Economics in school. Raising taxes is not an option, because people don't want to give the government any more of their money. Spending cuts aren't an option, because our population is growing too fast to absorb cuts in health care, social services, education, road upkeep, etc. So... what IS the option? Complaining, it seems...
I'll end on this note. The last time our country was truly booming was the Eisenhower era. Education levels were on-par with the rest of the world, we were expanding our roadways to counter the rising populations, and our hospitals, police staff, and social services were well taken care of. The income tax rate for the median household was 48.23%. Now, in the 21st century, roads are cracking. Hospitals are overcrowded. Social Security is failing. Our national debt has risen more in these past 10 years than at any other point in history. The income tax rate for the median household is about 25%.
Let it sink in a bit... Happy President's Day, my fellow Americans.
23 witty retorts:
lol get a brain morans. the one benefeit i found for the u.s. is the greater amount of college graduate jobs compared to other countries
The current state of the US makes it so hard to love our country...
Of course, Idaho is deep in the flyover country as it is. People allow themselves to feel safe and deserving. Living outside of Baltimore, maybe a couple houses have flags up, most people still have work, it really isn't much of a holiday other then for mattress sales. I just find it funny, a place like Idaho gets all upitty about Presidents Day when they never even produced a president (it's ok MD hasn't either). And without relying on coastal cities would quickly become a 3rd world hole.
"get a brain morans" lol
Hah, I laughed out loud IRL when I saw that picture.
Gotta support and follow.
Nice post, too.
That weird egocentric behavior started with Bush. We had it with Reagen too, but luckily he was actually charming so it seemed endearing. I say we bring Clinton back. He had us financially in awesome shape and he was damned entertaining. Everything goes through phases. It's weird, but I think America has become more international in recent years. I feel like more people are open to other cultures, other foods and languages and wanting to see the world. We envy music from England, fashion from Italy, sports from Australia. I try not to let small towns in the US to represent the US. Honestly, our rep's are places like NY and LA. I'm glad for that because if my fucking stupid state of AZ had to represent us, I'd crawl under a rock until the soon-coming apocalypse.
Well put, AF. The only problem is that, like lemmings, words of ignorance likes to spread, until people take them as fact. Take Obama as a Muslim, for example.
I'm with you on Clinton. He did the same black ops stuff as GW in different areas, but at a much better success rate (and with less spending). Sure, he wasn't a good role model as a husband, but he knew what the fuck he was doing as a President.
what does Clinton's role as a husband have to do with time a president? as being with someone for a while, you will get tired of them unless there is something to spark it up :)
Nice post though i fell informed.
Well we were founded as a Republic, not a Democracy. Also, we will never be debt free with the Federal Reserve because we will always owe private banks money. Quite simply, there are not enough dollars to ever pay off the debt.
There are plenty of talks to make the Chinese Yuan the international standard, so don't worry, the US Dollar will prove itself as worthless paper(remember, it's not backed by anything. JFK tried to bring back the gold standard. Whatever happened to him?) soon enough.
Eventually people will get past the facade. It's a shame really because everyone wants to blame the American people, not the people actually responsible for the American peoples' ignorance and apathy.
Blame the puppet because the master is not always in clear view.
I almost did a backflip when you said that we needed to take a huge slice of humble pie!!!!! Finally, someone who makes sense!!!!
When you're POTUS, you're scrutinized on all aspects. Are you a good husband? Good father? Good leader? Good businessman? Good at public relations? Good speaker? Any flaw is magnified these days, and he had his flaws.
And yeah swat, I'm with you. I'm a divorced daddy, and it wasn't boredom that drew us apart, but relationships tend to grow in different directions a lot of times. Divorce shouldn't be a 4-letter word anymore.
;_; sometimes I hate our culture.
It's cyclical, tasty. The people put the politicians in power spots, and the politicians are corrupt. Who is the bigger fool? The politician, or the people that voted for him? Or the people that didn't vote at all?
With Bush getting in at almost a 50/50 vote, and Obama nearly the same, the US has been divided for nearly the entire 21st century. Unfortunately, that leaves a lot of people unhappy with the current political schema.
Plenty of flags around here in California. It's disgusting - I know what country I'm in, no need to be reminded. It's silly to be proud of where you were born, you didn't choose to be born there...
great post and no worries i didn't raise a flag either but then i do live in no man's land only the deer would have seen it
I have a map like this - more detailed texts though and it just describes some places from all continents.
Lol'd! Thanks for the warm welcome back Ida, and as always, great post =P
no comment
For whatever reason, a couple provinces have 'family day' on the same day as your president's day.
Glad you can poke fun at your own country though.
as a non-American i can honestly say that most of the problems the US faces are relevant to other countries, so you shouldn't beat yourself up over it.
Even though I'm Canadian, I got the day off work because I deal with American clients exclusively. So technically, i guess I celebrated it too. Cheers!
Sigh, so bad.
Nice! You hit the nail on the head! It's time for us to stop thinking we're the best at everything when statistics say otherwise. We don't even have a sufficient broadband infrastructure as some other countries that we ignorantly consider 'third world.' We need to take care of home and stop worrying about being the World Police. If the budget is categorized as the "defense budget," then stay home and "defend" instead of being on the "offensive" in multiple countries. You just earned a follower.
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