“[I] inherited a nation in crisis. The worst pandemic in a century. The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.” -President Biden
1) I agree. We are a nation in crisis. Precisely because of what the government did and is still doing to try to fight COVID-19.
2) Yes, economically-speaking, we are in the worst shape we’ve ever been in. And it has much more to do with government spending and mishandling of the pandemic than anything else. YOU (I’m not singling out Biden here, but the government in general, which includes Trump, who incidentally would’ve had us open by now, as much as was in his power) made people stay home. YOU forced businesses to close, and killed hundreds of thousands of small businesses that will never recover. This is on government, not COVID and certainly not on the people.
3) I don’t even know how to respond to this. Basically every “attack on our democracy” has been worse than January 6th. Every single one. We could name hundreds. January 6th should never have happened. And yes, people died as effects of what happened — not as the goal. But it was a joke compared to actual attacks that intentionally killed people (9/11 and Pearl Harbor are just the main ones that come to mind). The Capitol has been stormed before, without much more than a side-note reference. Now January 6th is being used as evidence that White Supremacy is our biggest threat. It’s such a blatant lie, I don’t even now what to do with it.
“America is rising anew. Choosing hope over fear. Truth over lies. Light over darkness.”
This makes me so angry. No, we have embraced lies wholesale. The government is leveraging fear to gain power and influence and to control our lives. Our nation is being plunged into darkness. This makes me think about the irony of North Korea’s official name being “The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.” Names that make things seem like the exact opposite of what they actually are. This is now where we are (no, I’m not saying we are North Korea — far from it).
“I will not impose any tax increases on people making less than $400,000 a year. It’s time for corporate America and the wealthiest 1% of Americans to pay their fair share.”
Corporations don’t pay taxes. I don’t know how to explain this any more simply. Corporations transfer 100% of their taxes to their consumers. So a tax hike on corporations IS a tax hike on every American.
“I made absolutely clear that I will defend American interests across the board. America will stand up to unfair trade practices that undercut American workers and industries, like subsidies for state-owned enterprises and the theft of American technologies and intellectual property.”
No, that’s what Trump did. You’ve been killing all of that.
“I know the Republicans have their own ideas and are engaged in productive discussions with Democrats. We need to work together to find a consensus.”
No, they’re not engaged in “productive” discussion, because the Democrats have been slapping them to the side at every turn, passing things using euphemistic terms like “reconciliation,” which simply means “forcing the minority to do what we want.” Let’s not kid ourselves — the government has long ceased to even try to “work together.” Both “sides” are doing everything they can to destroy the other “side.”
“It’s time we remembered that We the People are the government.”
I get what he means by this. He’s trying to say it in the sense that it was meant — that the people are running the government. But that’s probably the biggest lie of all. “We the people” no longer have much of a say in anything that happens in government. And government is more and more encroaching on and squashing our God-given rights and liberty.
How have we strayed so far?
This was never the intent — for government to be looking after and caring for and guiding and coaching the people. The government is supposed to have a very limited — almost indiscernible presence in our lives. We have been given our freedom by God Himself, and therefore the government has no right to tell us what we can or cannot do.
It’s time for that to become reality in our nation again. It’s time for us to put the government back in shackles as it was intended.
I’m not interested in the government “making progress.” The quicker the government can move, the more alarmed we should be. And government has been moving faster with every presidency, urged on by a people who have grown so unhappy — so polarized — that we no longer care.
We need to care again. We need to take action against what is becoming an ever-present tyranny in our lives. Pressure works. But we have convinced ourselves, like the ants in “A Bug’s Life,” that we have no power against the grasshoppers. But they know the truth. If we all actually came together, bucked their divisive narrative and lived out our ideals, their power over us would be broken.
And so I will say it loud and clear, and with more conviction than ever before: “Government, get out of my life. And stay out.”
I will no longer support anyone who seeks to help me. I want people in charge who have proven that they want to simply run the basics (ie, military), shrink the power of government, get out of our lives, and who believe that we the people actually are capable of choosing our own path.
The only question is, “Are we the people still capable of that?” Or have we become so accustomed to the government running everything that we’ve lost this ability?
It’s time to wake up.
We can turn this nation around, if we still have the will.