2000-2010, the lost decade

When historians look back at the past decade, I think they will shake their heads in disbelief that we as a nation just seem to have lost our collective minds. Of course, much of that can be chalked up to the after effects of 9/11. That event seems to have rattled this country out of anything even vaguely resembling common sense. From an illegal invasion of a sovereign nation that never did anything to threaten us to Sarah Palin, airhead beauty queen candidate for the second highest office of the land and absolute dimbulb intellectually, from Glenn Beck to the Kardashian sisters and the idea that you can become famous for becoming famous (something I still can't figure out.....can ANYONE?), from the fact that television has gone from cleverly written shows to gawdawful "reality TV" because those shows do not need writers (and nearly any premise will suffice), from NeoCon politics to the TEA Party who fancy themselves returnees to our country's earliest patriots when nothing could be further from the truth, from Donald Trump to Bernie Madoff to the spectacular financial meltdown of 2008, it seems like this country went seriously astray these past ten years. About the only truly bright spot to be found in the entire wasted decade we've just ended is the historic election of Barack Obama as President of this country in 2008, and even he's turned out to be something of a dud after all, someone who seems to secretly aspire to be a Republican who can never really enter that exclusive body because, well, his skin is the wrong color. At least lately, Obama seems finally to have woken up and started going on a serious offensive instead of sitting back and letting a handful of radicals in Congress dominate the agenda and chart the way forward for our country despite the fact that they remain solidly in the minority of where our country stands politically. I just have to wonder what this next decade is going to look like. Are we going to continue trying to lock down our country, shut off our borders and go into some sort of protectionist post-9/11 isolation, or are we finally going to wake up out of our post attack stupor and move this country bravely forward into a clear bright future? Are we going to continue trying to exist on 20th century technology when we should be looking at what other nations are doing to move into the 21st century with the kind of technology that will create millions of new jobs? Are we going to take a back seat to China and let them become the new world superpower and job creator? Are we going to continue to regard anyone who doesn't look or sound like us as somehow a threat, "the other"?

I wonder just when we'll get over our post-9/11 hangover and once again become the country I remember it to be. Something tells me that our Founding Fathers would be deeply ashamed of what kind of country we have become in the past decade, practically afraid of our own collective shadows. You've got hacks like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh out there stirring up hate on talk radio and far too many people listening for comfort who actually believe what they say. You've got people like Texas Governor Rick Perry who say it's better for sick people to die rather than take care of them, and who seems to be trigger happy cowboys more than happy to condemn someone to death who has committed a crime and who also call themselves good God fearing Christians in the same breath. It's enough to make your head spin that anyone takes any of this stuff seriously, but they do. How soon people forget that we just had another trigger happy Texas cowboy in the White House who also called himself a so-called Christian, and who seemed to be led by a dark, evil spirited Vice President who has almost no faith in humanity and who condones torture as a tactic to use in order to gain information. The fact that this new swaggering cowboy Republican candidate has shot to the top of the polls as a candidate for President for his party despite having the temerity to call Social Security a Ponzi scheme is truly frightening. People seem to have collectively forgotten who was our President for most of the past lost decade and what deep and lasting damage he did to this country. It's no wonder Dubya kept such a low profile since leaving office. It's probably the smartest thing he has ever done in his life, remain a quiet private citizen and keep out of the limelight. I'm just afraid that since this new Texas cowboy has come to town that people smell blood and they have no qualms about someone like him becoming President even when it would make Dubya's time in the White House look like a walk in the park. I hope that we as a nation can finally come to our collective senses and realize that there's no place in Washington for another cowboy President who shoots first and asks questions later. I hope that we can once and for all put 9/11 behind us in this new decade and move confidently forward into a newfound sense of national purpose, to put our country back together again after a long dark night of the soul and fix what ails it both physically and psychically. I thought we'd done that when we elected Barack Obama as President, but he hasn't helped things any by leading from behind and letting Congress create the agenda and dominate the discussion. It's about time he gets back into campaign mode and goes on a serious offensive, but I hope it's not all for show and that he really means it, that look, it's time to stop playing these ridiculous games of political one upsmanship and get down to the business of governing our nation and fixing its problems. We'll see if he can get the American people to force Congress into line and get this country moving forward again. If not, we're in for another long, dark decade of self flaggelation, anger and outright frustation at anything - or anyone - at which we can collectively lash out. Don't know about you, but I've had about enough of that for one lifetime.