I must say to you that the state of the Union is not good: Millions of Americans are out of work. Recession and inflation are eroding the money of millions more. Prices are too high, and sales are too slow. This year's Federal deficit will be about $30 billion; next year's probably $45 billion. The national debt will rise to over $500 billion. Our plant capacity and productivity are not increasing fast enough. We depend on others for essential energy. Some people question their Government's ability to make hard decisions and stick with them; they expect Washington politics as usual.How quaint, a politician that tells it like it is. And that national debt! They had no idea how good they had it back then.
from Gerald Ford's 1975 State of the Union address
Can you imagine being nostalgic for the 1970's?
via Jurassicpork
6 comments:
Re-reading Audacity of Hope I have a feeling we'll get truth and honesty this time around.
I sure hope so, though I'm not sure Americans will know what to do with a politician who plays it straight.
I'm willing to learn.
nice projection. Be prepared to have your heart broken worse than a chronically beaten wife. Oh, that's right, it's started already...gloat over the 'win' that is not. Kiss the ass of the status quo and call it a revolutionary mandate...matbe not YOU, Dave, but you're sure sounding like it.....
I'll give you the 'hope' thing....you and yours....but reality seems to be spanking y'all like a lapdance. Looks good, sounds good, you almost get to touch it, but then the bouncer spoils the whole show....
I think Dick Holster is drunk and a sore loser, wait and see is the answer and ain't nothing wrong with hope.
I am waiting to see, and I dont think Obama's much more than a standard pol. But I also think that things have not bottomed out, economically, and that if anyone stands a chance of leading us through the crisis (should it get much, much worse), Obama's a much better choice than McCain would have been, and in fact may turn out to just what we need.
Or not.
One thing I know that I'm sick of is what I'll term "slippery slope hysteria", something which everybody engages in, but which the Right, especially the Christian Right, has made into an artform, of sorts (witness the idea that gay marriage will "destroy" the American family and lead to human-animal marriage - which is absurd). Yes, I have engaged in it myself, but in the end, the reason I voted for Obama and not McCain had everything to do with Republican performance and nothing to do with fears of a facist state.
So I'm going to wait and see. I'm sure some (many) will be disappointed, but I'll be happy if the Obama administration just follows the rules and laws already in place, let alone tries to "fix" anything.
Low expectations? "Settling"? Perhaps, but that's what I've got left.
Hope is not reality, but it can sometimes lead there.
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