Well, so far, we have avoided complete economic collapse. I think, if McCain had won, we would already be there with all the trappings--riots, National Guard patrolling our city streets, etc. Marshall Law, would, of course, have been installed and we would not have to worry about the messy democracy we have going on now. Having avoided complete collapse of the economy is one of Obama's achievements thus far. Because he is a president and not a king or a dictator, he is somewhat limited in what he can do. The senate has become a real dragon and it is hard to get a dragon to co-operate. I still don't understand how this 60-40 majority vote to avoid filibuster came to pass. Do you know how it happened?
He needs to have Republicans quit campaigning for the next election and Democrats to find their spines and start helping him out. I'm disappointed at all these folks quitting their congressional jobs because the fight is a little bit rough. The problem getting anything done exists in the senate mainly.
I'm certainly not against a third party. I voted for Ross Perot once upon a time--mainly because he articulated common sense (mostly). He pretty much threw the election with bad decisions. I won't get into that. Hindsight being 20-20, or thereabouts, I don't think Perot would have actually gotten much done. The problem is that big money has too much power. It did back then and it does now, only more so now. And, then too, the third party has to get the existing parties to co-operate.
I do not much like what I see looming as our possible third party of the future, i.e., the teabagger types.
It is easy to understand all that anger they have, but shouting down reasonable discussion is never desirable.
I think our current president is about as good as we are going to get. The problem doesn't exist with Obama. The problem is Big Money owns the politicians
and, now that our Supreme Court has made it possible for even more Big Money to buy the elections (including foreign companies), it looks like the deal is complete. I wonder if the Supreme Court is controlled with direct bribes or exactly how Big Money gives them their pay-offs? Maybe they are controlled through intimidation? Probably a combination of intimidation and pay-offs.
Your ideas for schooling and employing our youth are good. Some youngsters need Building Trades courses and things of that nature. Not all can be college professors or engineers.
We are going through and interesting, albeit scary, time in our history, eh?

A great column...I applaud you!(and you never think I read your columns!)

Dave: I really enjoyed this column even though it is mostly a gloomy assessment of our political, economic and educational situation. As a retired educator, I agree completely that we will never improve our educational system (el-hi) by raising the bar for all students. That will only ensure that more students who are not academically inclined will fail! What we need is an individualized academic program for each student according to his/her needs, abilities and interests. This is realistically possible with the unlimited potential of computer technology. Why we haven't already had demonstration projects to explore this idea is a real puzzle to me. Where is our leadership at the national level? Finally, it also puzzles me how our college/university system is the envy of the rest of the world when our prep education leaves so much to be desired. Anyone have an answer?