Is America in Peril?
Kirk C. Klingler

I believe that this Great Experiment in democracy, the United States of America, is in great peril. The threat from Al Qaeda or the Taliban pales in comparison to the internal threat of ignorance and apathy. This country started out as a Representative Republic, but is becoming more like a democracy.

Sir Alexander Tytler once said: A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess of the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship (Hope that doesn't happen).

This is exactly what we see in our current Presidential Campaign. The Candidates trying to one up each other on how they are going to take money from a minority of Americans (the Evil Rich) and redistribute it to the majority of Americans that vote for these politicians. What is fair about that? Whether it is universal healthcare, a tax break for the middle class or you name it. We, as the citizens have no one to blame but ourselves. We are the ones that elected these members of Congress and Presidents that have created this mess.

Here is an example of what kind of folly we tolerate from our Government: Earmarks, current services baseline budgeting, voting for their own pay raises, a retirement package that is separate from Social Security (see why there will never be an honest solution to the Social Security liquidity problem), amnesty for illegal aliens, Fairness Doctrine, Income Taxes, Welfare, Federal Programs with no sunset and a list that is too long to continue.

Now, how are we to blame? Well, of the previous examples I stated of the folly that comes from our Government, how many of these examples can you intelligently discuss? Furthermore, if you went to most citizens could they define them? How many of our children in high school can talk intelligently about the United States and our history? Explain anything about how America fits into world history? Can name the states and their capitals? Are knowledgeable about geography? The reason the focus is on children is because they are our future. I could say the same thing about many people in their 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. When more interest is paid to American Idol, Survivor and the steroid scandal in sports than what Congress does is why I think we are in peril.

Why do I believe there is hope? Legal immigration and the young people that are engaged in what is going on are reasons to believe that all is not lost. What concerns me for their sake; is the problem too big to overcome? The National Debt we are have incurred, has to be paid by someone. Do we realize that it is our children and grandchildren that are going to have to pay it off? One of the goals for most people is to “leave the country in better condition than when we grew up”, I wonder if that will be possible in a fiscal sense.

The examples of government ineptitude are too numerous to note in this essay, but I will state, if we look to more and more government to solve our problems, the problems will only get bigger and bigger. I implore or citizens to vote for candidates that are going to scale down the size and scope of the Federal Government. Let us attempt to get back to a more Constitutional way of governance. If we don’t, we are leaving a huge debt for our children and grandchildren to pay. We could sit around and point our fingers at which party caused this problem, but it is us as the citizens that have let it continue and only we can solve the problem. I will vote for a candidate that says "we are spending too much money at the Federal level and we need to put a freeze on Government spending for at least five years and learn to live within our means just like most American families have to do. The retirement benefits that Congress has will be abolished and they too will use Social Security to live off of when they retire." If we don’t, this great country, and our current way of life, might not last too much longer.