>Economically, certainly. It all has to do with motivation. This really is the main achievement of Ronald Reagan. He gave each american back a sense of pride. Yes, you're reading this correctly, I'm making a compliment about a republican leader. Further, clinton (of course he is democrats and therefor by definition you would disagree < vbg >, really kept financial things in order and was able to book a spectacular growth in economy).
But even economically we haven't really been healthy in... I don't know how many years. Reagan's economic policies doomed us to financial ruin until Clinton taxed us out of the debt for most of his Presidency. And the only reason Clinton had such success in his second term was because no one realized just how fake the success was. It was all based on the dot com industry -- what I call the "cotton candy economy" -- and companies like Enron and World Com cooking their books. No one knew (or wanted to know) until Clinton was about to leave office just how screwed we were. Add 9/11, the Iraq war, and the ridiculous oil price-gouging we're facing, and it's not surprising we're having economic difficulties.
But it's a cycle. Someone comes up with a hare-brained scheme to create jobs. The problem is that the scheme doesn't look so hare-brained in the beginning and everything seems to work just fine for awhile so no one dares challenge it. Then, the inevitable downside to the scheme is realized and it all goes to hell. Repeat until throughly disgusted, disillusioned with the whole process.
Until we have the courage to look for new solutions that get people fed, clothed, housed, educated, and lifelong health care -- and *really* address our waste management, fuel, housing, and education issues, we're just guaranteeing the cycle will continue.
>The american people are heavily manipulated by the biased media (Free speech? and indepedent media? ... huh, don't make me laugh ...) Most americans do not know anything about foreign politics at all, never been outside of the US (or maybe Canada or mexico) any would label anything from outside of the US as inferiour. They have a strong confidence in their leaders, though they don't have any eye for corruption, mud throwing, half truths and rightout lies. Don't even expect them to even basically have a grasp on international politics and how foreigners look at their country.
Ack! Don't even get me started on our media. I only pay attention to the local, small(ish) town media. They tend to be new to the industry and are so caught up in making sure the story is relayed properly that they don't have time to focus on spin. The rest are just screaming heads.
