12 AUG UPDATE - Decision 2016 - State of the Union 1988 - present

This is quite a long post. I realize that the length will likely turn off most readers who need to get their fill in a short paragraph or less. However, if you are truly interested in real change then please take the time to read and provide feedback on what I have to offer in this update.

In 2008 Americans voted the Neocons out of office. The Bush Administration gave us the war in Iraq, which many of us did not understand. Bush is a globalist and he and his family have always been moderate socialists, in fact you might consider the Bush family as Blue Dog Democrats. This ushered in the most extreme change in American history, a known communist/socialist sympathizer, Barack Obama, a community organizer with no experience in governing or economics. What was worse has been his views on national unity, harmony, and the role of government. These are the undeniable facts regardless of how the liberal media would like to cherry pick statistics:

1. Ninety-three (93) million Americans are out of work.  
2. We have unfunded liabilities to the tune of $120 Trillion.
3. Obama promised to free us from dependency on middle eastern oil by 2015 (what happened?).
4. Obama promised the most transparent administration in history (what happened?).
5. Millions more illegal immigrants continue to flow across our southern border and through our naval and airports. Millions more have stayed for decades beyond the expiration of their visas. Many of the terrorists who have attacked us on our own soil entered this country and stayed beyond the expiration of their visas due to government inefficiency, incompetency, and/or a lack of will to enforce immigration law.
6. We no longer have the ability to launch spacecraft and NASA is literally a tool of Climate Change activists.
7. Keystone Pipeline remains an unfinished economic dream.
8. Forays by Obama and the DOE into picking and choosing winners and losers in the clean energy sector has resulted in mostly losers.
9. China, Russia, and North Korea are all more dangerous than ever and the next 17 months are very frightening as it is likely that they will become even more aggressive during a weak Obama Presidency rather than wait until 2017.
10. The EPA is issuing massive regulations that is strangling the economy, especially in the energy sector. The people who will suffer most will be the poor.
11. The Obama Administration is allowing illegal immigrants access to entitlements and refuses to take action against sanctuary cities that confound the problem. His executive order on amnesty has been ruled unconstitutional by a lower court.
12. Obama's deal with Iran is going to ignite a nuclear weapons race in the middle east. Nuclear weapons in the hands of Shiite and Sunni theocracies are going to make the world a much more dangerous place.
13. Our nation may have lost a lot of respect under Bush, but Obama has doubled down on this by spying on our friends and being weak in the face of our enemies. His lack of respect for the state of Israel is especially disturbing. His threat to Assad regarding chemical weapons was a national disgrace and a signal to all of our enemies that Obama will do nothing in the face of any aggression.
14. Obama is unable, or unwilling to see Radical Islam as the root cause of terror in this world.
15. Obama has been a root cause of all division in the nation. The nation could not be more divided in terms of race, gender and politics under his administration.
16. Obama's closest advisors, such as Jarrett are troublesome.

I could go on and on, and I should but the list is simply too depressing to regurgitate.

In 2014 Americans voted to put Republicans in charge of the Congressional House and Senate. What has changed? Not much. Why? The reality is that we have had nothing but moderate to extreme socialists in charge of this country since 1988. Yes, you can find hard evidence that the Bush family are light-socialists! Senior gave us "read my lips", and Junior gave us the Medicare donut hole, a lack of CRA oversight, and of course Iraq which is a hallmark of NEOCONISM and globalism.Look at the performance of the Republicans and Democrats since 1988.  

Terrorism is still an issue and has been since 1949.  

With the exception of the 8 years of Reagan we have had nothing but a see-saw economy with little or no real growth in most sectors. The government gave us a massive housing bubble with the Community Reinvestment Act. This act set the stage for the bubble. The nation went through the dot.com bubble at the turn of the century. Certainly the banks share some of the guilt but the CRA set stage. Truth is the banks didn't have much of a choice other than to issue sub-prime mortgages as their arms were being twisted under risk of government penalty. In any case, one can look at almost any government agency or responsibility and the performance has been absolutely dismal. 

For me, I see the problem as between people who are idealists and those who are realists. The current Democratic Party and the GOP Leadership are composed of idealists. They are comprised of people who believe that every single problem known to mankind can be resolved from the top down with tax payer funding without regard to what this will do to the economy or American citizens in the short term. Our current budgeting process and governing process is based on a very short fiscal year basis with a very long term fuzzy plan that goes out 15 years, which the government calls the Future Years Program Budget (for defense it is called the FYDP, Future Years Defense Program). What this country needs is a long term governing and budgeting strategy that allows for financial stability and growth in the private sector. The country needs to have long term goals with respect to solving problems like climate change, reducing poverty, etc. We should have the amount of socialism that we can afford. We should have a federal government that is bound to the people, not the other way around. If the country borrows, one generation should not leave tons of debt to future generations. We need to live within our means. Spending a million dollars a minute and borrowing trillions of dollars has to be stopped. It is quite apparent that the Democrats won't stop it and there is no sign that the current crop of Republican leaders have the will to do so either. The bottom line is that we need idealists in this world. We would not be able to progress and solve problems without them. However, idealists should NEVER be in positions of leadership. Idealists should be in positions of consultation and support!

Much of what the federal government is doing should be at the state and local level. People talk about the debt, the amount spent on entitlements, the importance of surpluses, and the defense budget as if these things are the most important factors in our economy. The truth is that they are simply not. The most important factor in our economy is, well the economy! Our economy is over regulated, taxed too much, and is infected with artificial government involvement (picking winners and losers) across the board. Our economy has been corrupted by politicians, and our politicians have become corrupted by corporate lobbyists. If we are to recover we must firewall the federal government from our federal politicians and vice versa.  

We must limit the scope and the power of our federal government if we are to remain free and able to recover from the mess that they have made. We need constitutional amendments that limit our debt, as well as the scope, power and reach of the federal government. If we are to remain a Republic we must maintain the electoral college. The nation needs to build in long term solutions to the nation's problems and not try to simply satisfy lobbyists or voting PACs. Term limits and laws preventing politicians from lobbying must obviously be a part of any solution. The question each voter must ask We cannot trust the future to the GOP RINO Establishment or to the Democratic Party. Both have America on a track to destruction.

I see the Donald Trump situation as voters screaming their frustration at the political establishment. I love his message but not how he is delivering it. Donald Trump is not going to win the presidency with his approach. What we need to do is look at candidates like Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina. Isn't it about time that all voters reject the status quo and turn out the incumbents? Is it nearly too late to send this message and vote for real change?

The answer is up to you. I hope this reaches quite a vast audience. I love my country. I served it for 30 years in the US Navy Submarine Force. I am afraid that we are seeing the dying days of our great nation. This may be our last opportunity for the people to really take control back from the established party hacks.