{"id":30488,"date":"2011-10-11T00:11:02","date_gmt":"2011-10-11T07:11:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=30488"},"modified":"2014-12-30T21:27:59","modified_gmt":"2014-12-31T04:27:59","slug":"before-the-pendulum-mindlessly-swings-back-to-the-gop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2011\/10\/before-the-pendulum-mindlessly-swings-back-to-the-gop.html","title":{"rendered":"Before the Pendulum Mindlessly Swings Back to the GOP"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

One thing people might consider doing is letting go of the Dem\/GOP pendulum. Here, lest people forget, is what we got in the good old days<\/a>:<\/p>\n

In 2000, the United States ran a surplus. In 2009, it ran a deficit of $1.4 trillion\u201410 percent of the economy. The 2010 deficit was almost equal, and the 2011 deficit is projected even higher. The national debt is surging to 100 percent of GDP, portending an eventual run on the dollar, a default, or Weimar inflation. The greatest creditor nation in history is now the world\u2019s greatest debtor.<\/p>\n

In the first decade of what was to be the Second American Century, a net of zero new jobs were created. Average households were earning less in real dollars at the end of the decade than at the beginning. The net worth of the American family, in stocks, bonds, savings, home values, receded 4 percent.<\/p>\n

Fifty-thousand plants and factories shut down. As a source of jobs, manufacturing fell below healthcare and education in 2001, below retail sales in 2002, below local government in 2006, below leisure and hospitality, i.e., restaurants and bars, in 2008\u2014all for the first time.<\/p>\n

In April 2010, three of every four Americans, 74 percent, said the country is weaker than a decade ago, and 57 percent said life in America will be worse for the next generation than it is today.<\/p>\n

Who did this to us? We did it to ourselves.<\/p>\n

We abandoned economic nationalism for globalism. We cast aside fiscal prudence for partisan bidding for voting blocs. We ballooned our welfare state to rival the socialist states of Europe. And we launched a crusade for democracy that has us tied down in two decade-long south Asian wars.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The party that wrought all that has not changed a bit or learned a thing, which is why the bulk of their rhetoric is not about \u201cblunders and sins we won\u2019t do again\u201d but \u201cObama sucks!\u201d (true enough, but not a remedy for our ills). Why keep voting for any of these clowns on either side of the aisle?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One thing people might consider doing is letting go of the Dem\/GOP pendulum. Here, lest people forget, is what we got in the good old days: In 2000, the United States ran a surplus. In 2009, it ran a deficit of $1.4 trillion\u201410 percent of the economy. The 2010 deficit was almost equal, and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nBefore the Pendulum Mindlessly Swings Back to the GOP<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One thing people might consider doing is letting go of the Dem\/GOP pendulum. 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