Posted on 03/05/2011 7:43:20 AM PST by harpu
Eminent historian Paul Johnson on Sarah Palin, the tea party, and 'baddies' from Napoleon to Gadhafi.
In his best-selling history of the 20th century, "Modern Times," British historian Paul Johnson describes "a significant turning-point in American history: the first time the Great Republic, the richest nation on earth, came up against the limits of its financial resources." Until the 1960s, he writes in a chapter titled "America's Suicide Attempt," "public finance was run in all essentials on conventional lines"—that is to say, with budgets more or less in balance outside of exceptional circumstances.
"The big change in principle came under Kennedy," Mr. Johnson writes. "In the autumn of 1962 the Administration committed itself to a new and radical principle of creating budgetary deficits even when there was no economic emergency." Removing this constraint on government spending allowed Kennedy to introduce "a new concept of 'big government': the 'problem-eliminator.' Every area of human misery could be classified as a 'problem'; then the Federal government could be armed to 'eliminate' it."
...snip...
"Of course I worry about America," he says. "The whole world depends on America ultimately, particularly Britain. And also, I love America—a marvelous country. But in a sense I don't worry about America because I think America has such huge strengths—particularly its freedom of thought and expression—that it's going to survive as a top nation for the foreseeable future. And therefore take care of the world."
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Go Sarah Go!
“Spot on. The dumbing down of America has been very well documented. It’s deliberate and it’s been going on since the 1930’s.”
So what are you doing about it?
Teaching? Mentoring? Leading by example?
Yes to all of the above.
I too agree with him. Much of the U.S. (especially the South) is infected, but recoverable. The portion that is terminally subjected to government control will either collapse or be expelled by those who wish to survive as a nation.
It is time to DownSize DC. (Eliminate entire departments and their regulation of our lives- Education, EPA, OSHA, BATF and major segments of others) That is the only path out of this mess. Will not be popular, but must happen.
Hey, here’s how we make America strong again: let’s give up, stand down and sing mournful dirges. That way, I don’t have to do my part—I can just sit back and criticize and say, “I told you it was all for nothing.”
Name one western nation in better shape than the US.
I view this grand experiment we call a Federal Republic as ours to lose. If it does go down in flames we'll have no one to blame but ourselves......
“We`re going to know whetther America is going to survive the next decade on Election Night next year. I wish = shared that optimism too.” ~ ScottinVA
Between now and then people need to be made aware of something, and actually be able to face this reality so that they can make an “INFORMED choice”:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2684125/posts?page=2#2
I agree Sarah is exactly what we need. The libersls know this, which is why they constantly attack her with lies and twisted versions of whatever she says and does.
The progressives are very afraid of her skill and connections to the American people.
It makes me proud that Paul Johnson agrees with me about the Divine Sarah!
In some weird way, I'd like to think some sane historian of the future will look on that blip of history, America, and say to himself "It was a grand experiment undone by its own freedom and tolerance." However, I don't think that's going to happen. The future will either be Chinese, or it will be Islam. And, if it is Islam, there won't be any 'history'; it will be the Koran and the entire world will be living in "Year One" perpetually.
I wish I shared your and Johnson’s outlook, but it is virtually impossible to escape the math of our economic problems. Courage like we haven’t seen since that darkest days of early WW2 will be needed - that and an overwhelming majority in Congress plus a tough-minded President - because we must cut our budget by 40% permanently (and this also necessarily means big and permanent Social Security and other entitlement spending), because if we don’t then interest on the debt will overwhelm us in 5-7 years even without rates going up. If rates go up 2% or 3% to something approaching historical norms, that’s an additional $280-$420 billion/yr. in interest within 4 years, since we have to refinance most of the debt in that time
(and this is without adding to the debt, which we’re currently doing at a $1.7 trillion/yr. clip). If we don’t get our act together in 2 years or less, I fear that the world bond market will do to us what it (properly) did to Greece: force us to pay 5% over the risk-free rate...and then we would either have to default or inflate like crazy (which is default by another name
). In either case, our standard of living will be cut by 50% or more, overnight. Imagine if oil doubled or tripled in price Monday morning - it would devastate all commerce and seriously erode our ability to produce, process and transport food. We would become Egypt overnight.
Oh, and I am well aware that cutting the budget by 40% will hurt the economy a lot. We are talking 15%-20% unemployment, even with the grossly downward-biased measure used by the lying SOB’s in DC). But we are like someone who just drank an entire bottle of vodka - we can either deal with our problem by doing some painful vomiting RIGHT NOW, or die of alcohol poisoning in an hour or two when it is too late and the poison gets into our bloodstream.
Pain is already baked into the pie, the only choice is whether we do it to ourselves in a reasonably planned way now, or let the world do it to us later and in a rush. So says the math.
I hope that the idiot leftists finally show their true colors to those Americans who have been oblivious to their extremist views. I think their toddler-like tantrums in Wisconsin are opening up the eyes of many non-politcal Americans.
90 percent of the nations in the world could solve 90 percent of their problems if their ‘’leaders’’ would allow it. Think about that awhile. Then consider that many, if not most of these Nations would be fully occupied in recovering from the last natural distaster, i.e. earthquake, volcano, and preparing for the next, instead of inventing a new horrible killing machine to attack their neighbors with.
How ever we have turned our back on Him and He has turned us over to our new god that we put our faith and trust in .
Ourselves. Man.
Men who's heart is like our own "desperately wicked" as the Word of God tells us and has been proven to be true by History.
We were warned in the seventies that our government was too big and growth was out of control.
We were warned by leaders of the past of the take over of our government by the rich both individuals and giant monopolistic corporations yet we fell for the free trade bit and let them form these giant companies which either buy or destroy anything that stands in their way to greater profits.
Now they have become so rich and powerful they have corrupted all areas of our government and our electoral system.
They have also eliminated the key price control element,needed to keep greed in check and spur research and development. That element is competition between companies in the same market.
Without competition you have a monopoly that controls that commodity's supply and price and if it is a vital one such as food, clothing, water, power/energy,medicine, or one that can affect the supply and the price of them all then the people and the country is at the mercy of greedy men who's appetite for more money and power is insatiable .
That's where we are at.
The majority of the money in the world is already in the hands of the few and they own the leaders of our government, who are on their behalf, taking more of it from the majority of the people each year to funnel into the pockets of those who own them .
It has passed the point to where the demand on the people who actually supply the ridiculous amount they demand can no longer have the things he needs for him and his family to have the things they need.
I'm from an earlier time and I no longer need so called experts to tell me what, my eyes, ears, my years, common sense,fourth grade math and my Savior Jesus Christ tells me.
This country is broke and the world is in trouble and the rich and powerful are pushing them both to the edge of rebellion and the key tool is oil .
What they hope to gain is more money and power, but based on proven history they always go too far and what they get is not what they expect, but a living nightmare of death and destruction and no off switch or undo key.
“He’s wrong. There is a rising population of idiot leftists and anti-America immigrants.”
What you say is true and his point about America’s ability to survive is also true. It survived an unfunded revolution (congress wouldn’t pay the soldiers) a civil war, attacks by two of the strongest twentieth century nations, a flood of immigration of all sorts of people including great numbers of criminals, fiscal tyranny by the Federal Resevr and itserveand its parents - it keeps assimilating all this and bouncing back. Right now it’s doing surprisingly well in a chokehold by International Communists in our government.
It's our missionary attitude.
Throughout much of our history I think that 45-48 percent of the people would give this country to anybody who said they wanted it just because they said they wanted it. That’s how close we’ve come to being just another sh-thole, banana republic.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.