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End Sweeping the U.S. Problems Under the Rug

Dr. Domenick J. Maglio, Ph.D. Neo-Traditionalist

Tax, social security and/or Medicare reform have been revisited year after year without any positive changes. Our home insurance rates have skyrocketed to bail out often-rich residents who choose to live in low lying coastal areas. Our government, like any totalitarian regime, can take away our homes by using the eminent domain clause and hand it over to private developers for personal profit. This has been done for years under the radar screen to increase government revenues with total disregard for our property rights. Our leaders did nothing over a twenty-year period to even identify the problems that would result in millions of illegal immigrants invading over every part of our nation. This was done without a peep from our leaders. We have witnessed a massive cover-up by all segments of society of the horrendous state of our educational institutions.

We elected G.W. Bush thinking he was a staunch nationalist only to realize he was a committed elite global economic internationalist. His true colors were shown through his not vetoing any expenditure bill, the Dubai deal and his immigrant “guest worker” amnesty program.

The Duke Cunningham, Enron, local and county government, school board and judicial scandals throughout the country confirm that whatever party is in power is more motivated by personal greed than promoting the interests of the people. Special interest money talks the loudest in making decisions rather than what is best for the citizens. Politicians give more and more large corporate welfare, which shrinks the small businessman’s margin of error while local bureaucrats increase regulations to hinder entrepreneurship.

“Washington will spend $23,760 per household in 2006-the highest inflation-adjusted total since WWII, and $6,500 more than in 2001.” Brian Riedl, How Washington Will spend your Taxes in 2006, Tampa Tribune, Monday April 17, 2006. Yet we consistently vote against increasing taxes.

Who do we have to blame? Ourselves. We allowed it to happen by not meeting our civic responsibility on every level of our daily lives. We are so involved with instant gratification by any means possible, we as a people are destroying the goose that laid the golden egg: America.

We have forgotten our responsibility to do more than care about ourselves. To stay afloat our society is dependent on each of us doing much more than seeking self-pleasure. Our families, communities and nation will only thrive when most of us make the right decisions for others as well as ourselves. Increasing short-term quarterly profits for self-promotion is deceptive when one possesses knowledge that long-term investment will result in a better outcome for everyone involved. Parents, local businessmen and political leaders must be virtuous in a republic to make it work.

Our leaders shirked making the difficult moral decisions. They have been sweeping our country’s problems under the rug instead of solving them. Just like a delinquent homeowner, who does not clean his mess, eventually it can no longer be hidden. The structure of the house may be sound but it is necessary to clean house.

Our government structure set up by out founding fathers is still strong although we are not following through with our responsibility as citizens. The real issue is we are not holding ourselves and our leaders accountable to do what’s right. We can no longer tolerate immoral behavior, special interest pandering and the politics of destruction. Doing the right thing for the people of America needs to be the litmus test for our leaders.

Our families, educational system, corporations, media, judicial institution, state and local government are not functioning on a high enough moral level to maintain our number one status in the world. Instead of playing the blame game we need to stand up and be heard. By each of us doing the little things necessary to straighten out this accumulated mess we can recapture our pride.

As long as we are making money we think we can be oblivious to our disintegrating culture. This is false, short sighted and destructive. We must do more. We can revitalize our nation by doing the following.

  1. We need to elect people who keep their word. We need to sweep out immoral/corrupt people on all levels of authority. We should demand the most from ourselves and have the same expectation for others.
  2. It is time to be judgmental. We need to demand excellence from our leaders on a personal and professional level. Anything less should be grounds for removal.
  3. We have to be honest rather than politically correct in every aspect of life. By upgrading our personal standards and demanding the same from others we can improve the moral climate of our society.
  4. On all levels of government term limits should be mandated. For state and federal government elected officials a ten year waiting period should be imposed before becoming a lobbyist.
  5. With the fact of media bias and deceptive political advertising it is our duty to discriminate between fact and fiction.
  6. Finally, think positive about moving the culture forward to a traditional moral center. Our personal moral daily behavior and optimism will regain our country’s greatness.