Are you finally ready for your Howard Beale moment? | Eastern North Carolina Now

    The United States of America may be be broken. Are you ready to do your part to pick up the pieces and rebuild us?

    Maybe you are if you actually care about your Republic. I, however, believe you will first have to have your own Howard Beale moment.

    Literally (and I don't often use this often misused word), you will need to go the your window, "Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, "I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!" This was Howard Beale's advice, and regardless of his state of mind, he was most sincere.

    Lately, I often question my own state of mind, which is one of abject frustration. My frustration is not only with our current Federal Government, but moreover, with the folks who put them there, my fellow Americans. If you despise how your Federal Government works, and moreover, does not work in the last four years, go to the mirror and take a look. Chances are, you may be looking at the responsible party.

    Your are responsible if your voted for these idiots that do not understand that we are all under the groaning weight of the twin terrors of a sluggish economy, and overwhelming debt. Political flakes, who cannot realize that you should not cut the economic engine by taking from the productive, only to reward others who will not produce - just because these slackers are your loyal constituents. Furthermore, wise elected officials fully understand that one should never dig themselves into further Federal debt, without real long term revenues. When a wise man finds himself in a hole, and he wishes to get out of it, the first thing he does, he stops digging.

    The sophistic, unwise obstructionists in congress, and President Barack Hussein Obama just keep digging.

    As I remember so well, Jimmy Carter was equally adept at this incessant digging thing. In fact, I have talked to some older dudes - even older than my 56 years - and they swear that the Barack is the worst President of their collective lifetimes, but to lend some perspective of accuracy to the situation - this President is no worse than Jimmy Carter was ... yet.

    Regardless, as to how totally devoid of any real leadership qualities that are so lacking in President Obama, he still has not: given away the Panama Canal, or set up the taking of 56 hostages from the American consulate in a country like Iran, and leave them to languish in captivity for 356 days, or preside over an economy of total abject stagflation of his making, and then tell America “we have a crisis in confidence - a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will." It was to become known as the "Malaise Speech."

    No, Barack Obama has not sunk as low as Jimmy Carter, but there is still time. What he has done, however, is even more reprehensible.

    What President Barack Obama has done is to initiate and then wage a war that pits one group of Americans against another - his war of the classes. This President is very comfortable with this Class Warfare of his making. He thinks it will get him reelected, if he proffers it, sells it to his people in his never ending campaign. Obviously, this of job of campaign for office, coupled with his attacks against all non socialists that might stand in his way is all consuming for this President.

    To think this nation can operate without a budget, while President Obama constantly campaigns for a job he could never master is a travesty, and will ultimately become a national tragedy. The man still speaks to the inane that resides in those, who will never be smart enough to know the difference between truth and fiction. They depend on his lies to understand a complex world that would otherwise be beyond their comprehension.

    In this Republic, our government represents the will of those people as well. The obstructionists in congress, who obviously can't think their way our of wet paper bag, do represent that segment of our Republic. If they are derelict in their duties, as they surely have proven, then they represent those people who appreciate those qualities in their representative and keep voting them into office, as they will also vote to reelect this incompetent President. If you are inured in that whole hope / change thing, then you may well be happy with this President that is now routinely compared with one of the most incompetent American Presidents over the last 120 years - Jimmy Carter. As an American voter, he represents what is within you - who you are.

    On the other hand, I have always been an optimist, and I do hold out hope that the entire American electorate will one day learn to pay attention to how America works in the reflection of how it has always worked. I have always wished deep in my heart that Americans will learn to think on their own, irrespective of what they will be promised to be given in this Liberal fantasy of transference of wealth, or quite possibly, learn political discourse well beyond the chant of such a trite expression as the "BUSH LIED, KIDS DIED" rant, which was recently the sum of their understanding of the War on Terror.

    In my interminable dalliance with optimism, I do believe that one day, my dream will be fulfilled, and I will live in an America of inquisitive, intelligent fellow countrymen, who strive to understand how capitalism works as it always has, rather than those who would remake it to support their socialist's needs, as President Barack Hussein, and the obstructionists in congress, are promised to assuage.

    Then again, I could be wrong. Howard Beale was also wrong in the end.