Plenty has changed in America in recent years. A spectacular stock market advance that began in 1982 and roared into the late 1990’s, was fueled in part by an incredible Internet boom. The stock market advance and resulting skyrocketing of federal income tax revenues came to a screeching halt when the bubble burst in early 2000. During the final year of Clinton presidency and the first two months of the Bush presidency, the stock market nose-dived in sickening fashion. And after the roaring stock market cratered, confidence killing scandals rocked corporate boardrooms resulting in jail terms for a number of scoundrels. Just over nine years ago, radical Muslims brought the world to a halt when they crashed passenger jets into the World Trade Center Towers and the Pentagon. Only the heroism of American passengers on a fourth hijacked airliner prevented even greater damage and more loss of life in our nation’s capital. Eventually America regained its confidence despite the fact that ever more partisan political bickering tended to increasingly pit neighbors against neighbors and sometimes even family members against one another. In the meantime "progressives" fumed over the fact that George W. Bush acquired political strength as a direct result of 9-11. 
Even when partisan politics has been set aside, the new century has brought on a new era, wherein Americans seem to be having a difficult time sorting out the new realities. Last year’s re-escalation of U.S. troop involvement in Afghanistan by President Obama is the strongest of all indications that the terrorist intelligence reports received by the White House have not changed much despite the fact the presidency did in early 2009. These days new would-be murderers make it clear that radical Islamic terrorism will relentlessly continue to attempt to make its way inside of our borders. This is simply a cold hard reality. 
And though scary this is actually old news for people with sense. What is new news? The new news is "hope" has cascaded towards "despair" in only 22 months. In pathetic fashion newly elected officials in Washington D.C. have shown they have no clue about how they should manage the public trust. Somehow they miss the point of the 2006 elections when the nation’s voters had grown leery of George W. Bush's three and four hundred billion dollar budget deficits. Accordingly in 2006 the party in power, (the Republicans) paid the price. The GOP paid a price again in 2008. Still "progressives" cannot figure out why voters are so upset? They label the Tea Party movement extreme and "racist." Somehow they cannot seem to grasp that the "change" voters sought in 2008 was not $1.5 trillion dollar deficits along with projections of red ink and a far more powerful government for as far as the eye can see. So here we are in October of 2010. Once again the electorate is faced with trying to do problem-solving at the voting booth.
And though scary this is actually old news for people with sense. What is new news? The new news is "hope" has cascaded towards "despair" in only 22 months. In pathetic fashion newly elected officials in Washington D.C. have shown they have no clue about how they should manage the public trust. Somehow they miss the point of the 2006 elections when the nation’s voters had grown leery of George W. Bush's three and four hundred billion dollar budget deficits. Accordingly in 2006 the party in power, (the Republicans) paid the price. The GOP paid a price again in 2008. Still "progressives" cannot figure out why voters are so upset? They label the Tea Party movement extreme and "racist." Somehow they cannot seem to grasp that the "change" voters sought in 2008 was not $1.5 trillion dollar deficits along with projections of red ink and a far more powerful government for as far as the eye can see. So here we are in October of 2010. Once again the electorate is faced with trying to do problem-solving at the voting booth. 
Tracing America’s problem-solving challenges, we can easily identify at least six key historical turning points since 1776. The Civil War, WWI, The Great Depression, WWII, The Cold War, and 9-11 all stand out as pivot points. In 2010 there is once again a dire threat facing the nation. America must find a way to regain its fiscal sanity. America is already facing a second pivot point since the turn of the century. We see commonality. Each of these pivot points in history ushered in drastic changes in the attitudes of citizens and subsequently changes in the policies of our leaders.
Six years ago the 9-11 Commission released an ominous report to the public. And yesterday NPR News Analyst Juan Williams was fired for saying what anyone with a shred of common sense thinks. While most citizens learned the basic lessons of 9-11 long ago and began to worry deeply about the grave fiscal problems we face, some entities like National Public Radio shamelessly slurp at the taxpayer trough with the support of whacked out “progressives.” These poor souls still haven’t figured out why President Obama sees the same national security threats his predecessor saw, hence his escalation in Afghanistan. And in about eleven days these same poor souls are going to wonder what hit them just like we all did after 9-11.
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