“A Republic if you can keep it.” So said Ben Franklin. That is what the Founding Fathers gave us. In 2025 there is a growing chance we may not keep it. The greatest risk to our Country is from within.
Too many Americans have embraced a political extreme. Too many see America first as only positive, when it actually lowers our standing in a big very integrated, interdependent world and puts us at risk.
Too many Americans have developed an arrogant attitude when it comes to the rest of the world, including our allies.
As isolationism creeps in, the risk to the United Stares and the world increases. Distrust grows. Those who would do us and others harm are encouraged.
Too many Americans have been propagandized into distrusting their own government and the people who run it and give little thought to what may come next.
The Germans, the Italians, the Spanish and many citizens of Central and South American countries learned the hard way about giving too much power to one person, to a demagogue and his followers who embrace fascist ideas.
Too many Americans are uniformed about the three branches of government, the economics of our Country and the impact on us of the world economy.
Too many Americans are misinformed about important things like the national deficit and debt, Social Security, Medicare and health care in general, even social safety nets.
Too many of us think the government has money to give us.
Too many Americans accept the simplistic idea that Americans can do better if they were able to keep more of their money instead of paying taxes. The evidence is clear that is not true.
Too many Americans believe a so-called meritocracy on its own can be fair to every diverse individual in our society. That has never been true.
Too many Americans see taxes as too high when the opposite is true for the things we want and expect from government.
Too many Americans seek to eliminate property taxes, taxes on Social Security, tips, overtime with no idea or concern what services this taxes provide – like schools, roads, parks, fire and police or how to replace the lost revenue.
Too many Americans see immigration as negative when demographics show we need more immigrants and a rational method to accept them.
Perhaps what puts us most at risk is the acceptance of lies and misinformation with no effort to verify the truth. Even worse, passing it along and spreading misinformation leading to acceptance of undermining propaganda.
Congress did not steal any social Security money, Congress does not get free health care, AOC is not worth $29 million, DOGE is not “saving” billions and trillions of dollars, there will not be a $5,000 check.
Russia did attack Ukraine without cause. Illegal immigrants are not mostly criminals and drug dealers. We cannot afford tax cuts. Illegal immigrants are not eligible for Social Security or other benefits. God did not send Donald Trump to save us. Poor people who use SNAP, CHIPS and other assistance are not lazy bums, or “parasites” as Musk calls them, who could be working, but choose live as they do at the economic bottom.
The United States was not a failing nation in decline before 2025.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
“Look up the data on taxes by country and then for fun look up the rating of public schools in lowest taxed and highest taxed states.”
I suspect the highest tax states include California, New York and Illinois. Tell me, how well are the public schools performing in Los Angeles, New York City and Chicago?
There is no direct correlation between spend per capita and student performance that will hold across all demographics – and all forms of K-12 education and delivery systems (public, private, charter).
New York spend $32,000+ per pupil per year, while Iowa spends $16,000+ per pupil per year. Care to argue that K-12 education in New York is twice as good as K-12 education in Iowa?
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Stop it Jack you are making too much sense for brother Quinn.
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“The United States was not a failing nation in decline before 2025.”
Obviously, most voting Americans do not agree with that statement given the results of the election. Most Americans believed America was heading in the wrong direction and declining.
And, most still do.
In his first month in office, Trump took 110 different executive actions. Not sure any of them had any significant impact on my everyday life, or yours.
And, he seems just as much focused on adding to annual deficits and national debt as he was in his first term in office – which does not bode well for your life/retirement nor mine.
It also confirms that our federal government is just way, way too involved in too many things beyond the framers intent of a limited government of enumerated powers. So, either Congress needs to get busy and amend the Constitution to specifically confirm the expanded scope of the federal government, or, as some want to do with the Department of Education, stop most federal activity beyond the enumerated powers and return full authority to the states or to the people (10th Amendment).
I was always amused when the D’s screamed “federal sovereignty” when they controlled the beltway (Health Reform, individual mandate and Medicaid expansion, for example), but today, it is all about states’ rights (California, Maine, Illinois, etc.)
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Al Lindquist:
you really need to begin the rants with: “in my opinion” as not many have any factual basis–let’s take a quick look at just a few of your opinions:
1. most polls I see such as Gallup–CNN–FOX show Americans very open and accepting of immigrants but LEGAL immigrants–we all must follow the law–remember the corpse telling us “nobody is above the law”, unless it was Hunter and/or 6 -8 million illegals to turn red states purple and then blue.
2. I seldom see folks advocating for tax elimination–tax reductions yes–now Trump and Harris proposed tip elimination which some of us think is not responsible nor is Social Security tax elimination–seems to me once you receive what you paid in then you should be taxed–if there is a groundswell for this I have yet to see it. Property tax elimination? I think Florida is trying to revamp property taxes but replace with other taxes/fees. Heck, NJ property taxes you folks love.
3. How do you know “most Americans are uninformed about the three branches of government? Hell, when the corpse said he would work around the Supremes ruling on student loans he reminded me of what leaders did in the ’54 Brown v. Board of Ed. ruling. I suspect if ruling and edicts go your way you are just fine with it, but going against your ideology you might have issues. Was the Democrat move to seriously consider “packing the court” an example of an uninformed group of folks?
4. Of course lies and misinformation are not acceptable but I never heard you speak out against the Hunter laptop lie–the border is closed lie–the corpse is healthy and not in any way demented lie. In my opinion once we agree to call out lies/misinformation on both sides then we can reason together–and of course Russia invaded the Ukraine but I believe our demented ex-president told us a “minor incursion” would face minor consequences at a press conference 01/19/2022. thus inviting trouble.
5. If meritocracy is not fair then what should be our goal–when your wife goes to the hospital don’t you want the best surgeon–if your grandchild is in school don’t you want the best teachers in the classroom–do you want the best mechanic to work on your car–don’t our athletic teams recruit and pay for only the best in their field?
6. No doubt you are not part of any political extreme you mention in paragraph 2. You probably see yourself as above it all–you, seemingly, are nor part of the “too many Americans” as you do not write “many of us”, or “in my opinion”. I guess it is just those low IQ folks you mentioned at Thanksgiving that are the extreme folks.
Damn, if we could just get rid of those pesky MAGA folks and let the rich white folks on the east and west coast run the show we would have a great country.
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If you can’t see what is happening, what the goal is, then nothing I or anyone else can say will change. If you can’t see Trump as a demagogue and bully and egomaniac I find that very sad. If you buy into the rhetoric about our government, our country failing, the so-called fraud that too is sad IMO. I hope you do not suffer directly from the things going on.
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Al Lindquist
silly response–no facts–if folks don’t see what you see then you just feel sorry for us–of course you saw the millions pouring across the border and believed it was closed-you saw the Hunter laptop for what it was, not Russian disinformation but a way to stop Trump–you knew inflation was transitory–you knew the corpse was in great shape
maybe I am as blind as you–I try to deal in examples and facts not banalities–do I think Trump is a demagogue–bully–egomaniac ? YES!! but you know the border in just 6 weeks is being dramatically changed as far as folks crossing illegally–could have been done in 2021.
he was elected to close the border–deal with inflation–reduce the size of government and challenge some of the foolish cultural issues being fostered by the left wing loons–success??? not yet by a long shot but he tries and I hold my nose and avoid listening to him–it took but 4 years but the other folks made a massive mess especially allowing 6 to 8 million to cross over–an easily solvable problem but you have to think it is a problem.
Spending on education–let’s take 2 high tax states–NJ and California:
CALIF.–according to the WSJ looking at recently released Nation’s Report Card only 29% of the state’s 4th graders rate proficient or better in reading–go to your Google machine to pull up the Nation’s Report Card and they have a drop box with a score for all 50 states and D.C.–
NJ and CA score behind New Hampshire and Utah two low tax states–NH and Utah do better than Minn., as an example, a high tax state.
now this is where broad statements like you make leaves something to be desired–NJ and CA have a more racially diverse population than Utah and NH–in CA and NJ scores by Asian students lift the overall score–in other words one cannot say that high spending states will do better just because they spend more–Utah has a large Mormon % which is family focused which usually leads to better educational results–both NH and UT are white bread states.
the point being it is not so enlightening to make opinions sound like facts–a few example always helps and shows knowledge of the subject matter.
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Quinn, perhaps you should pack your bags and get the hell out !
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Why don’t you just tell me where what I said was wrong. Vigilance is the price of freedom.
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You are the most negative man in America. You’re more negative than the entire Democratic party. And that’s saying a lot!
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Quinn, you need to take a chill pill as some of the young folks say or use to say. You keep saying too many Americans this and too many Americans that. How do you come up with your determination of what is too many? Is your day spent wandering the sidewalks carrying a placard that says “The End is Near”?
I get that you have to have clickbait to get anyone to look at what you say but it’s wearing thin.
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If I had a dime…
Nope, he’s pretty much spot on. Several times, in the past… what, its been five weeks already? I hear/read people say, ‘we have no choice but to cut expenses’. We have an obvious choice, raise taxes.The U.S. has the highest GDP per capita of any major country, and the lowest total tax burden. I would only hope that Richard would give more thought to the inequality in the U.S., also the highest of any major country. We could be out of debt in a few years. Don’t restore the tax cuts. Trickle down never worked.
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lowest tax burden–can you show evidence? are you including federal tax //SS tax on both employer/employee/ state income tax/ property tax/excise taxes and a myriad of others like bottle taxes–sugar taxes–fees for entering certain parts of certain cities–plastic bag tax–
ever wonder why folks leave high tax states and head to low tax states–maybe it’s the weather–I mean the Utah weather is sure better than California weather
have some fun and tell us what it costs to rent a U-Haul from Miami to San Francisco and then San Fran to Miami–get your Google machine working
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Look up the data on taxes by country and then for fun look up the rating of public schools in lowest taxed and highest taxed states.
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“US taxes are low relative to those in other high-income countries (figure 1). In 2021, taxes at all levels of US government represented 27 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), compared with a weighted average of 34 percent for the other 37 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)”
https://taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/how-do-us-taxes-compare-internationally
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