I’m not really fond of Bill Maher, because he almost always seems to articulate his ideas in the most inflammatory way, but I think he’s onto something with his recent article about how we (as in the US) can’t seem to manage to make anything happen any more.
Well, I hate to be a nudge, but why has America become a nation that can’t make anything bad end, like wars, farm subsidies, our oil addiction, the drug war, useless weapons programs – oh, and there’s still 60,000 troops in Germany – and can’t make anything good start, like health care reform, immigration reform, rebuilding infrastructure. Even when we address something, the plan can never start until years down the road. Congress’s climate change bill mandates a 17% cut in greenhouse gas emissions… by 2020!
We weren’t always like this. Inert. In 1965, Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare into law and 11 months later seniors were receiving benefits. During World War II, virtually overnight FDR had auto companies making tanks and planes only. In one eight year period, America went from JFK’s ridiculous dream of landing a man on the moon, to actually landing a man on the moon.
The last two paragraphs are typical Bill Maher, however, but the larger point about a population of sheep is completely valid. “Yes We Can” has been “Yes We Could, but The Bachelor is on!” for a long time.
-TPP
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/new-rule-if-america-cant_b_299383.htmlWe weren’t always like this. Inert. In 1965, Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare into law and 11 months later seniors were receiving benefits. During World War II, virtually overnight FDR had auto companies making tanks and planes only. In one eight year period, America went from JFK’s ridiculous dream of landing a man on the moon, to actually landing a man on the moon.
