America: Bent, but not broken

Oh come on America. How can we idly allow our nation to fall into an entitlement abyss where one in five depends upon government assistance?

We’re America – land of opportunity. Land of dreams and bootstraps and individual achievement and underdog successes. What happened? One in five. More than 67 million. Sixty-seven million hands reaching out to Capitol Hill for help. To Obama – socialist savior of the masses.

Where’s our strength? Our faith?

In the unemployment line, perhaps. And if that’s the case, that’s understandable, given the 8.3 percent jobless rate that actually passes for good economic news these days. But our ebb in strength should only go so far. For a temporary time. Not forever. Not even  for much longer. We’ve already stretched taxpayer pockets with extension upon extension of unemployment insurance.

Where’s our entrepreneurial spirit? Squashed by regulation, perhaps. Or by excessive taxation. By the same government overreach that’s confounded our housing market, politicized our education system, put down our greatness and symbolically second-placed our most enviable traits in kowtowing bows to leaders of other nations who are unfriendly to America’s interests.

Where’s our guts? You know – the kind that Gen. George Patton summoned? That President Ronald Reagan tapped? That Founding Fathers embraced and entreated in taking on what was supposed to be the insurmountable and undefeatable? Queasy with sickness, perhaps – at the dawning and realization that the nation’s servants have surpassed the nation’s bosses in terms of pay and benefits, and the private sector now pays its public workers a higher rate, on average.

“The federal government spent more taxpayer dollars than ever before in 2011 to subsidize Americans. The average individual who relies on Washington could receive benefits valued at $32,748, more than the nation’s average disposable personal income ($32,446),” writes a blogger for The Heritage Foundation.

This is not acceptable. This is not America. This is not how it’s supposed to be.

Perhaps we’ve forgotten. Perhaps we’ve grown tired. Perhaps we have too much to distract us – or maybe, we’ve lost too much to believe. But this is the part in the movie where the losing team rallies and wins. This is the chorus in the song that reminds of the darkness before dawn. This is the moment where George Washington bends to knee in prayer.

We are America. Land of the free. The hope of the many. The light that will not dim – that cannot dim. Obama is but a blink. His ilk is but a blot. And America will see her true nature take charge once again.