Fenced In The Palin Era

Sen. Joh McCain's nomination of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential candidate in 2008 marked the end of serious politicians in Washington.  McCain, one of the longest standing politicians, exclaimed that Palin would help him shake up the "me first and country second" politics in Washington.  However, McCain's complete lapse in competent judgement caused him to bring a quack within a heartbeat of the presidency.

What's most bothersome is that Washington politicians including the President have thrown away common sense and replaced it with decisions driven by a plethora of modern political advisors who have their heads stuck in never ending Gallup polls and econometric computer analysis of meaningless datapoints.  Decisions are now based on complex models and focus groups causing politicians to lose sight of reality.  Playing Moneyball with politics just doesn't work.

Populist histeria has driven every major campaign and political decision since the end of serious politics in the Palin Era.  Now careless presidential candidates base decisions on hearsay (read Michelle Bachmann's suggestion that an HPV vaccine causes mental retardation).  Case and point is that politicians have become so self involved that at a recent Republican presidential debate not one candidate stood up for an active soldier who was booed by an ignorant audience for questioning DADT policy.  To think these candidates spend millions of dollars trying to pander to this same crowd of "voters".

What's more worrisome is the increasingly isolationist tone resonating from the candidates.  Michelle Bachmann was once again at the forefront claiming that she would put a stop on the recent charter flights between Florida and Cuba because, quite plainly, Cuba is listed (since March 1982) as a State Sponsor of Terrorism by www. state.gov.

It goes deeper.  The candidates went on further to support the construction of a Berlin Wall-like fence along the entire national border with Mexico (a member of NAFTA).

Surprisingly enough Congressman Ron Paul spoke up against the fence warning that we should be more concerned with Americans leaving the US than illegal aliens moving in to the US.

Rightly so its interesting to note that Warren Buffet's wealth declined by $6 billion in 2011 as Mexico's Carlos Slim secured his place as the World's richest man.  China doubled its number of billionaires while Moscow now has more billionaires than any other city.

American's need to wake up to the fact that our position at the top is in immediate danger.  Unscrupulous consumption and disregard for personal fiscal responsibility threatens this nation at its core.

What's most disturbing is that hedge fund managers took up 27 spots of the 400 richest Americans with George Soros making it into the Top 10 for the first time.  Hedge fund managers are replacing entrepreneurs (the engineers of American innovation) as America's richest class.