DABROGOTTAGO

Sometimes when all the news 'sound bites' start bouncing around in my head along with the insightful liberal media articles assuring more debt is good and that the conservative Tea Party and its dumb redneck members are destroying America I take a time out…. I simply sit at my computer watch the ducks on the pond or watch the squirrels burying acorns at a hurried pace. Sometimes I read or I listen to music. This morning it was music, a Woody Guthrie's album singing about the dust bowl disaster of the thirties.

I realized once again how easy it is to forget. As a percentage of the population at that time, the dust bowl was a greater natural disaster in terms of human and financial loss than Katrina or any other disaster and lasted for years.

I did a quick Google search and it seems this disaster isn't mentioned in any of our American history books used in public schools today. (The Google search could be wrong. I hope so.) I can't believe some history teacher somewhere wouldn't just slip in something about that part of our history. Who knows maybe it wasn't taught when these teachers were in school either.

The nation was in the throws of the Great Depression so most everyone to some degree was hurting. In retrospect it's difficult to know how much attention these thousands of displaced families were given. Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck follows one family's flight to California….My mother's grandfather, whose farm was outside of Muskogee, was blown away. He, his wife, and the eldest son didn't leave until the wells dried up. In today's world, how many have an inkling of what it means to a family when their well dries up?

During the thirties the banks in Mississippi foreclosed on twenty five percent of the family farms. This number may not be right on target. Foreclosures may have been some more or some less in the twenties and thirties.

During these two decades the nation was in the final throws of transition from an agricultural society to a industrial society. In the earlier part of the century over eighty percent plus made their living farming and we ended the century with less than two percent farming.

The only purpose of recanting this history is to say the American spirit has been tested and retested. Our forefather, and our nation'sw founders put down human roots in this land. Floods and tornados leveled towns, people died, trees and crops died, but the human roots were deeply buried and did not die…. and never will.

Many know and value the stock we sprang from.

In his book, From Audacity of Hope, President Obama said: "I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction." The liberal press must be right because this dumb redneck can't quite get the idea that a man, in our country, can say such a thing and still be elected president. Not only that but he could possibly be reelected. Just one more example of how out of touch I am in today's world.

Tipping times are time, of significant transition. Few realize the tipping is taking place or even that something really significant is happening. 1955 was such a tipping point and no one seemed to have a clue as to its significant when white collar workers out numbered blue collar workers for the first time. During the first Clinton campaign NAFTA was a campaign issue and finally got passed. During that campaign Ross Piero warned of the great 'sucking sound' of jobs disappearing to other countries. NAFTA was another tipping point. It took time but all of the lower skilled jobs that our less educated did simply disappeared never to be seen again. The world's greatest manufacturing nation became a non-manufacturing nation, the nation the world had relied on and was beholden to. Now a nation that is beholden to great degree on others. Everyday we shop and read labels. The reality of this change stares back at us, not understanding the full meaning of "made in some country other than here."

2007 was a tip point. This tipping point went unnoticed and it meaning is even more abstract. Simply put, more people live in cities and urban areas than in the small towns and farming communities. As cities become more expensive as well as the surrounding urban areas the poor and poorly educated are pushed out and go back to the small towns and rural communities. Communities without jobs, where the only support are social programs. And the poverty spiral bleeds into the next generation and the next.

Why am I rambling about these emerging super cities and great sprawling urban areas? Because we have elections happening. We need to elect people who can think past the next election cycle. Most of the major problems are systemic and are growing. In a few years we will look back and be amazed that we only had a few trillion of debt back in 2012.

The new leaders must have a clear vision of what is needed and the fortitude to take the steps to fix tomorrow's problems today. We are here because the good-old-boys we have reelected over and over could never set aside their personal goals. In the process of selling their votes congressional for votes the nation has suffered in incalculable damage not simply measured in dollars.

The GOP candidate seems to be Romney. That is where the money and effort is being funneled. Soon we will begin to see if the voters believe he has the backbone and skills to be president at this time in our history. Its time for Ron Paul to go back to Texas. He has served the country well and long enough. Perry may be tough enough but do we think he has the skills and experience to be president in the turning troubling times? The others are want-to-bes without any real credentials. That leaves us with just one candidate who has the skills, credentials, long vetted, short and long vision, and the courage to act. Along with, what many believe, is electability.

Today the vetting by the public begins in Iowa. Within six to eight weeks we will see which candidate voters believe can lead the nation and beat Obama in November elections. What is most needed is personal soul searching. This is, in my mind, the most important election in my life time. The future is what is at issue not what this or that candidate did or did not do in yesteryear.

After these first few primaries watch which conservative candidate the liberal media pushes and which one they ignore or attack. The one who gets attacked is the one they do not want to run against Obama. (Let me quote Barney Frank again: He said, "Romney would be the best thing that has happened for the Democrats since Barry Goldwater.") Barney said a lot in this statement and Romney is the Dems candidate of choice. Just a note: Polling companies are liberal in their heart or hearts. LA Times, NY Times, Washington Post polls always get different results than most other pollsters. Their results plays well with their liberal readers.

Mr. President, it is now 308 days, I hour, and 21 minutes till the 2012 voting begins. In 2010 we came for the good-old-boys….This time we are coming for you.

Ron
 
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