Good list.
But, then they have to energize the American people with it. I don't think they could.
I read the article posted the other day about the unlikelihood of a congressional sea change like happened with Gingrich's revolution in 94(?). The thesis was that those congressional changes were natural....the dems losing blue seats in essentially red states. The author claims that the nation is near balance at this point. There are very few red seats in blue districts, so one shouldn't expect huge congressional changes. The article had a bunch of stats that lent credibility to the author's point.
I don't disagree. America is in a period of transition and uncertainty. Most Americans understand that true socialism with complete control by the state is an unworkable way of life. A lot of people have, or are close to figuring out that limited socialism is almost as bad with the only difference being that it takes longer to go broke. But as for actually figuring out that a nation as rich as ours could go broke, you can still count the living Americans who actually know or believe that it is possible that the United States could go broke or come to an end on one or two hands at the most. The idea that our government is not better than Enron, and would deliberately conceal just how bad its true liability picture actually is, is completely alien to the natural inclination of most Americans whose natural inclination is to trust anybody and everybody until they prove they are untrustworthy.
After all, it is still true at the moment, that the government can borrow or print as much money as it currently needs. For practical purposes, it has always been that way for every living American and almost no living Americans can imagine that it could be any other way. There in lies the rub. As unthinkable as it may be, the government and everybody else are going to find out that there is a limit on both borrowing and printing. When these limits are reached, everybody is going to discover just how much government has over promised, but by then it will be too late to escape the suffering that will have to be endured because of our past mistakes.
"I read the article posted the other day about the unlikelihood of a congressional sea change like happened with Gingrich's revolution in 94(?). The thesis was that those congressional changes were natural.."
I am a bit confused about what you are trying to convey in the rest of your post. I am assuming that the implication is that the sea change that occurred in 1994 was natural and could have been predicted. That is pure unadulterated BS. With only rare exception, Democrats had controlled both houses of Congress since 1932 and almost no one really believed that it would be otherwise. Nixon's two victories showed the country might have been more conservative than some would have believed. Reagan's two landslide elections were stunning, but no one was actually sure that his victories were based on conservatism as opposed to Reagan's undisputed charisma and his good natured likeability. Newt and some of the inner circle of true conservative believers were cautiously optimistic and very hopeful about the 94 elections, especially after Hillary's healthcare fiasco, but nobody predicted or expected the Cat 5 conservative change that actually occurred.
With the right leadership and agenda, the American people would give up socialism completely. The Constitution can be restored and the Democratic Party relegated to the Ash-heap of History where it belongs. Virtually everything that Democrats believe is demonstrably wrong and almost everybody knows it; they are just not ready to admit it, even to themselves.
As I see it, the problem is now with Republicans. Congressional Republicans are becoming accustomed to power. They have forgotten they achieved power by rocking the boat. And they now believe they are better poised to retain power by keeping the status quo, in other words not rocking the boat. Republicans were afraid to run on a solidly conservative agenda. Worse, Bush and the Congressional Republican leadership now believe they won re-election in 2004 based on a mild to moderately socialistic agenda, Campaign Finance Reform and Medicare Prescription Drugs. It is human nature to resist change until it is forced on people or it becomes absolutely clear to enough people that change is necessary to avoid catastrophe.
To an extent, we are all in the same boat. Our boat is off course and it is picking up speed at what is a reckless pace. There are plenty of deck chairs on our boat, enough to accomodate the 78 million boomers relishing their relaxation and resting on their laurels. The Captain and crew are aware of the potential dangers on their course, but noboy actually believes it is every going to happen to them and besides our boat is unsinkable with lots of water tight doors and compartments that can flood without endangering the ship itself. No one has realized yet that those water tight compartment walls have shared passageways that can sequentially flood everthing below deck where the problems can't be seen until it is too late. The passengers aren't aware that too many of our jobs have been exported leaving our ship without enough lifeboats to accomodate all of the passengers. Everything will seem ok as long as the music keeps playing.
If we don't change course before 2012, there is a colision with reality in our future. And by 2016 there are going to be a lot of Americans who will begin to think about and realize just how cold the water is going to be.