Name:   MAJ USA RET - Subject:   ...and slow decline Date:   11/19/2018 5:05:51 PM

I do agree that hedonism took a great leap forward during the Hippie era.

I was pre-Woodstock.  Our parents were not advocates of “if it feels good – do it.”  Along with the time tested “reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmatic”, we were required to take civics and World, American, and State history.  We were not socially promoted.  If you did not make the grades, you were held back (as was my brother in sixth grade). We were required to take a foreign language.  My parents chose Latin for me. I learned to love and respect science.

* * * * *

The progression, about which I spoke in my essay (above), really began with FDR and the “New Deal.”  At that juncture, our government began to encourage its constituents to dependent upon it.  Until that time, indigence was un-workable without the benevolence of charities.  The sparkle of Social Security wooed many a citizen into neglecting his (or her) retirement.  I have friends and relatives who are living the nightmare of THAT reality.

The work ethic is not as common as it used to be.  The mathematics of compound interest is not fresh on the minds of as many as it should be.  Even… as nary a week goes by that the death of Social Security is not forecast… people avoid… cannot perceive their dotage.  There are cataracts over the future vision of liberals and the entitlement class.  Grasshoppers.

I quote you, “Yet, the country has survived and will continue to survive regardless of what Trump is doing or not doing.”

So… do you think that the United States has improved in its decades long progress toward becoming a nanny state (socialism)? 

I believe that President Trump… no matter how crude you (or I) might perceive him to be… is acting like the CEO of the United States and is employing the “art of the deal” to mitigate some of the excesses of the past few decades.  America was good to him.  He is returning the favor… FOR FREE. However, unless he can make this revived American Dream (and prosperity) stick to the mind(s) of her citizens… America will sink back into decline.  To make that point:  America forgot the good years of Reaganism.

I personally believe that we must turn back toward our Constitution… that we should restore our freedoms… that we should get the government out of our lives except for defense and the security of freedom.

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…”

Success is not a right.  Our government should not drag down a man’s legal endeavor… and, our country should do nothing to prop up a man who is authoring his own failure.

Our title is “We the People of the United States”… not, “we the federal beneficiaries.”

- LMF Curmudgeon