Considering the Future
If you’re a regular reader, you probably have noticed a slowdown in the number of posts since the election of Barack Obama. Though I didn’t intend to slow down or stop posting, the events of November 4, 2008 have caused me to realize that the future of this website is uncertain. To be frank, I’m not sure about the direction (if any) I should take with it.
The American People have spoken, and what they said was “we choose the message of change Obama and his $600 Million in marketing has sold us.” Think about that. $600 MILLION dollars were raised and most of it spent to acquire the White House. These foolish, foolish people have elected a man no one knows that much about. It’s at times, very frightening.
But it’s done.
I’m not writing right now, because the future is getting so terribly dangerous for Americans, who are mostly asleep. But an abrupt wakeup is coming. It will probably begin not long after the first of the year, after the worst retail holiday season ever, as in the cold, harsh light of the winter of a new year, companies begin their fiscal years gutted from layoffs. In many, many companies across the country, only essential employees will remain. Layoff news stories that will begin in early January will be shocking, and mind-numbing as they roll over us like a tsunami. Chicago Mayor Richard Daly calls it “frightening.”
“We never experienced anything like this except people who came from the Depression,” Mayor Daley said. “When you have that many layoffs early – and they’re telling me this is only the beginning of their layoffs – that is very frightening.”
I believe some of the darker predictions of Kunstler, Panzer and Orlov will come to pass in 2009. I do not believe there is much we can do to stop it. For ourselves and our families, we can only prepare.
So, in that spirit, I’m spending my What Comes Next? time finishing up my special report What You Can Do to Protect Your Family and Yourself During This “Greater Depression.”
I’m also spending some time thinking about whether, as a family, we stay or we go. I’ve always rolled my eyes at those people who say “if so and so is elected, I’m leaving the country…” but this is different. It’s not so much Obama that I’m worried about (though I’m not at all comfortable with such an unknown quantity with his questionable background leading our nation), but the mentality of the people who elected him, whether its a culture of people who feel it’s time for payback of one type or another for one perceived injustice or another, or a culture of tv-fed, clueless liberal magical thinking sleepers who believe in this vague message of “change,” and may or may not soon wake up to realize they’ve brought about a change much different than the one they intended.
In short, my family may decide that it’s time to expatriate, and return to the land of my wife’s parents and my grandparents in the UK. My name will probably tip you off to exactly where that is. We’re currently evaluating the real estate situation in both Glenfinnan on the mainland and Portree on the Isle of Skye, as we consider where it would be best to continue raising our family. It’s kind of heartbreaking to be seriously researching this, rather than just fancifully discussing it as we have in the past, because we’re both proud and loyal Americans. But, day by day, I can feel the America I knew growing up changing into something very different, both structurally, politically and philosophically. It’s changing into something that increasingly, I feel I don’t understand, someplace that’s not really “home.”
Interesting post!
I see your very passionate about the topic of Obama. However, bailing and move to another country does not seem very American. The economy is not too hot in the UK either from what I hear. Honestly, if you really want things to change spread your message not all your readers are tree-hugging liberals.
Rick,
I hear you. Here’s the problem – My message is Ron Paul’s message, and you see how that played in this last election. Dr. Paul, not telegenic enough, not flashy enough and from a backwater Texas town. Ron Paul IS America, but most Americans are more interested in what looks good in 22 or 44 minutes of TV dramedy.
The truth as Dr. Paul and I know it, is simple. America must spend less than it takes in, stay free of dangerous foreign entanglements and live under the Constitution the Framers wrote.
Judges don’t create social change, they interpret and finally decide what the Constitution says.
The American culture, as Jim Kunstler points out, has become “get something for nothing.” THAT’S the American Dream now.
Why are we considering leaving? Because our family’s dream is not that anymore. Because I don’t want what I have worked hard for, confiscated to give to those who could have worked, but haven’t. Obama was elected by older people who want him to take care of them at my expense, and by younger, poorer people who want him to take care of them at my expense.
Once again, Generation Jones (among others) are being told they’re on the hook. Those who are at the peak of their earning power right now, after working hard to get there, are being told “you have to pay MORE – it’s the PATRIOTIC thing to do.” The Boomers? They want their 401Ks returned to health, and are willing to give up their freedom (which old age takes away anyway) for it.
Gen Y sees this as their chance to make their lives easier and free from risk and failure. Again, asking me to pay the bill.
No.