No, not an economic one. Not yet, at any rate. Although that is appearing more likely with each day that passes with inaction from Obama and the daily antics of the Democrats running wild with America’s money.
Why are so many Americans so depressed about things these days? It is perhaps not just the economy.
I think the answer is clear: all the accustomed referents, the sources of security, of knowledge and reassurance appear to be vanishing. Materially, we still enjoy a sumptuous lifestyle in comparison with past generations-and the world outside our borders. America remains the most sane and successful society on the planet.
But there is a strange foreboding, a deer-in-the-headlights look to us that we may be clueless Greeks in the age of Demosthenes, played-out Romans around AD 450, or give-up French in late 1939-with a sense it cannot go on. Why? Let us count the ways.
1) About Broke. The collective debt is simply staggering, $1.7 trillion in borrowing this year alone. $3.5 trillion is our annual budget, and by 2012 what we all owe will be well over $15-17 trillion. (No fears: the President promises to triple the Bush deficit, but by the end of his “first” term “halve” the deficit, as if tripling and then halving it is not increasing it.)
There is quite a lot more, of course. More about the coarsening of American culture, the collapse of trust. So very much to be depressed about. There’s more than depression, there is some outright despair from some folks:
My mood is not exactly depression; instead I am completely pessimistic about America’s future. For the first time in my life, I can say that with certainty.
I simply see no way out of this economic and moral disaster.
Cheer up, Fausta. All of you. Yes it is bad right now. It will get worse for a while. I remember the despair of the Carter administration as inflation roared in, the economy foundered and third world, tin-pot maniacs dared to take American diplomats hostage.
We seemed to be flailing and failing then, too.
Whatever we do, those of us in opposition have got to keep working. Keep pointing out the obvious failures, keep pointing out who is actually responsible for this mess we are in right now. We must hold to our values and show there is an alternative.
Time to get off the soapbox.
Via Memeorandum. Others: American Power, Maggie’s Farm, Powerline,
