Posted on 07/22/2012 5:56:58 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
At a California racetrack the souped-up cars that have been revving their way around the circuit stop and fall silent.
Their roar is replaced by a deeply soulful rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner as a gigantic American flag is unfurled across the course as part of 4 July celebrations.
The race commentator, Wild Wayne, gives a patriotic pep talk emphasising that Independence Day means more than an opportunity to eat hot dogs and sink a few Buds.
...
There have been a whole host of books about American decline. There is also a more general malaise, a worry that America, still the biggest economic and military power in the world, has lost its place and its way.
Such fretting is not exactly new, but there are differences between today and the Sputnik moment, or of fears of Japan's rise, or of post-Vietnam angst.
For a start, conservatives argue that President Barack Obama has embraced decline, and made America less forceful on the world stage and less successful at home.
Some of those I spoke to at the racetrack thought the country was coming back up, and going in the right direction, but they were a small minority.
More typical were these comments:
"It's going in the toilet. The economy is shot, the government sucks. I think America is still number one but it won't be if they carry on this way"
"The direction is going down, we're starting to struggle"
"I'm not really happy, I want my old America back. I think we're slowly dropping, we've lost our edge and need to be the dominant force again."
But others argue it is the right who are to blame, by allowing for no compromise, and so giving the impression that politics itself is broken and useless.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
It’s more like we’re parked in the handicapped space.
We are driving under a yellow caution, waiting for somebody to move this wreck of an administration off the track.
I want a President that doesn’t hate achievement, success and capitalism.
Reminds me of a doggie we had years ago. Toward the end of his life, he would go around in circles for at least 10 minutes and then nestle down for a couple of minutes before he would start it all over again. Would go on for most of an hour - he just couldn’t find a spot that brought him comfort and peace. The last night he was alive he repeated this about ten times and then laid down, drew a breath and died.
We’re not in the slow lane....we’re not even on the highway.
The United States economy is parked somewhere in Chicago waiting for the Obama presidency to end.
America is waiting for a leader who understands the concept of American Exceptionalism, waiting for the signal to start our economic engines.
The world is waiting too, waiting to hear the roar of US engines, the power that drives their economies too.
Conservatives KNOW that he is revels in causing the decline.
More hand wringing, this time by a foreign statist. Note the emphasis on Washington adopting pragmatism. Why does everything seem to start and end with what Washington does? I guess he thinks we’d forget to breathe if “our betters” within the beltway didn’t remind us.
As for America being in decline, this is the latest in a series of bedwetting articles. Of course parts of it are in decline. Detroit. Chicago. Etc. But that’s not true where I live and not true of a lot of places. Politics at the Federal level is an unmitigated disaster, but does it really matter? The Divorce is coming whether we much like it or not. And the future after that holds a lot of promise.
Deja vu. It certainly felt this way under Jimmy Carter in the mid-1970s. Lots of talk about America having lost its way, and how Japan would take over. Lots of books about decline. We bounced back from Jimmy Crapper, and hopefully we'll recover after kicking Obummer's sorry behind out of office. I just hope he doesn't hang around like Carter did, complaining constantly and forgetting the malaise he caused.
The tsunami of MSM adulation somehow elected an illegal alien muslim member of the Chicago political mob who has ruled exactly as we would expect.
Pray for America!
I suspect Obama is going to be even worse once he's out of office...Believe me, he isn't going to shut up once he's out.
An artist creates a sand sculpture on a beach of the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg July 18, 2012. Artists from 12 countries are taking part in the International Festival of Sand Sculpture called "Multostrov" (Island of Animation), based on popular characters from animated films. REUTERS/Alexander Demianchuk
This is the Administration of the Permanent Pit Stop.
But don’t worry, the finish line is Utopia.
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