Americans have had enough of 'over there'

[babylonsister]

Americans have had enough of 'over there'

By ANN MCFEATTERS
GUEST COLUMNIST

snip//

A new poll for The Wall Street Journal and NBC News found that an astonishing 59 percent of Republicans surveyed now say they think free trade "has been bad" for the U.S. economy. It used to be a given that you scratched a Republican and got a "more free trade" reaction. More than half of Democrats, seeing the loss of jobs to workers abroad who work for pennies, oppose free-trade deals. Tainted products from overseas have bolstered that sentiment.

We're being told that Iran is a threat and might have to be dealt with militarily. (Where would we muster enough soldiers for that?) We fret about North Korea's on-again, off-again promises to dismantle its nuclear reactors. We watch TV footage of Myanmar troops shooting at monks and dragging people from their homes. We see Congress arguing over a law that let private U.S. security contractors get off scot-free for shooting Iraqi civilians.

We are worried about the solvency of Medicare and Social Security, the dilemma over how to handle illegal immigration, the unpredictable housing market, the specter of recession and the ever-present problem of 47 million uninsured Americans. Voters want presidential candidates to have detailed plans to deal with such issues.

It staggers the mind to recall that, in 2000, George W. Bush and Al Gore almost never talked about foreign policy. Then came 9/11, and we temporarily forgot about our domestic problems.

In 2004, we were fixated on whether John Kerry was maligned by those who questioned his Vietnam War credentials and whether Bush's actions made us safer from terrorists.

We know, deep down, that we cannot retreat from the world. We know that having torn Iraq apart, we have to try to put it together again. We know that Iran and North Korea should not be permitted to get a nuclear bomb, that the United Nations, weak as it is, is our best hope for trying to manage this ungainly Earth. We realize global warming is a threat that can only be lessened by countries working together and that threats from al-Qaida, attacks on computer networks and biological weaponry are not going to disappear.

But who can blame voters for being tired of other people's conflicts and others' brutal wars over religion? Who can blame voters for their resentment over being squeezed ever harder by bills for tuition, taxes, mortgages, energy, etc., while the Pentagon's budget soars to $459 billion? (And that doesn't count an additional $190 billion Bush says we must spend in Iraq and Afghanistan.)

more...

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/334704_mcfeatters09.html

[Double T]

1. The ENTIRE washington d.c. government has created our failing state.

ALL of the 'elected officials and their appointees' need to voted out of office if there is any chance for our nation's survival.