Saturday, October 1, 2011

America the soft!

I am using an editorial from today's WSJ that is short in length but long in reality and deep in perspective.  I really try to remain center of the road on articles and blog commentary to not let myself flow toward the ends of the bell curve called the fringe.  There are simply some news channels I will not watch and some media I will not read.  But to average, I read the WSJ and the New York Times, competitors, in parallel to gain a perspective before deciding to use an article. 

This article today goes to the heart of my great concern about America 2011 forward ... everybody apparently sees America as, well, soft.  Our military is not feared as it once was.  Our political machine is not respected by anyone include the politicians.  Our posture in the world is demeaned and our currency, the US dollar, continues to weaken against other currencies for all the reasons listed in the previous sentence.  And yet, we watch the rise of emerging giants like the BRICS that, consolidatedly, will fill the geopolitical leadership vacuum opened with the withdrawal of the US from the head seat and yes, I believe more and more it is a choice to withdraw; that is really, really sad to me!

Respect is founded on a solid, undeniable flooring of fear I believe. Nobody will truly respect someone unless there is a perception of fear about that person, place or thing.  Fear moves mountains and the US mountain has lost and continues to lose its status of fear in seemingly every area.  I will say as so many say, I could never have imaged in my lifetime I would see such a negative pendulum swing of America as viewed from the populace and the global village inhabitants.  But alas, we are and we are paying the price for it. That prices grows heavier daily!


The Wall Street Journal

America the Soft

President Obama's national diagnosis.


On the matter of President Obama yesterday saying that Americans "had gotten a little soft," let us first say that it could not have been the President's intention to launch zillions of tweets referencing Jimmy Carter's "malaise" speech.

By now, we've become accustomed to trying to discern the political strategy behind Mr. Obama's policies and statements. We still don't see the political logic in proposing that a country teetering on the edge of a double-dip recession should welcome a $1 trillion increase in taxes. Now the incumbent is telling the country it's become "a little soft."

On the morning of Mr. Obama's remarks, his admirers at the New York Times editorialized that it is the Republicans' plan to "wind down the government's longstanding guarantee of health care to the elderly and the poor and incinerate the Democrats' new promise to cover the uninsured." And "stop virtually all regulation" . . .

Permit us to volunteer as the voice of moderation in this discussion.
We take the President's point about some competitive softness. We'll even concede the Times's point that government really does mean well whenever it outputs one more law, such as Dodd-Frank. Is it not possible, though, that if America's competitive instincts have softened, this has something to do with its compulsively intrusive, protective national government?

We noted here recently that an oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico required environmental sign-offs from the EPA, DOT, USDA, DOI, DOE and others. Might not this dull anyone's competitive edge?

Trade is the lifeblood of the competitive instinct, but the administration still won't finalize trade deals with those two economic giants, Colombia and Panama. What of the current competitive mindset of couples with taxable income over $250,000 whom the President describes as "millionaires"?
As the risk of being accused of wishing to incinerate the government, we suspect that if Mr. Obama backed off his ever-expanding embrace of the American economy—health-care, housing, energy—Americans would, as he put it, "get back on track."

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