Now the real change begins

Have you noticed how much the word “crisis” is now used? Not too many decades ago, one seldom heard this word, especially in it’s morphed political connotation. Do we really have that many crises now that simply did not exist before? Or is the idea just a way for politicians doing their elected jobs, which is mostly to rule, and which to me is mostly to assign and fight for budget priorities. And at least at the federal level ideas like a crisis are a way to borrow more money without staying within budget.

Or does crisis mean our past leaders have done a poor job, from both national parties, I would add. Now all plan ahead, and some better than others.

Along the way, poor ethics and even the rule of law seem to come up more. Is saying one thing and doing another a smart political practice, or a personality defect? And do laws passed by legislatures and signed by executives and the oaths they take to enforce these laws still matter? As one of the “common masses” and the “governed” I still need to have faith in our present governments (school board, city, county, state, and federal). In turn, they still need to provide the reason for my simple faith and future vote.

One complicating problem is our hired bureacrats, which can mean many things. These mostly hard working Americans have to write rules which implement laws, or even and too often have to write the laws. And there are variations of "them". Some are at the executive level, some at the legislative level, all have their own tax payer funded gyms, and all have a great degree of influence which we do not vote on. But even they are subject to change.

Now one idea is to change the size of our USA Congress. The size of the Senate is in the Constitution, but the size of our House of Representatives is presently set by some vote and Presidential signing in the 19 teens. Another idea is to change the location of our federal capital city. Another is to term limit our legislators. After all we in the USA already made an amendement to term limit our executive.

Much friction is coming in the next decade. These present rulers, whom we have elected, are more and more having to make hard choices about budgets, a traditional reason we have politicians. Now how they decide, like to promote one group over another, honor legal contracts, etc. will affect we the “governed”. And we will respond with our votes. All this period will be full of friction, and different throughout our vast land and Country. And it will take a long time, like maybe a decade to sort out.

There are many things to worry about. Like what if our federal government can no longer borrow funds because nobody in their right mind will loan us the money. It has happened before, and many times. Then rough times will come, which will contribute to the real change that is also coming. As one way of life ends, another is coming, and to be in the New World and the USA is not a bad place to be when this change comes about. It is going to happen elsewhere, too.

Two themes course through this article. One is that change will come, no matter what any political leader tries to do to shape it their way and vision. I think of it as a human and masses imperative. The second theme is about voting, which is a way for change to happen. If voting is denied outright, or by subterfuge, or other like a dictatorship, then the change will still happen, though the process and friction will be much rougher and probably longer. But by golly, some less controlled change will happen in the end. As the old saying goes, be careful what you ask for...you might get it.

And I suspect family and children will bubble to the top. My guess is the human imperative is mostly about our kids' futures, and what we have to start to make it happen. And my guess is that we humans will keep our USA America as one nation, mostly for self interest, but also because we now have our own American culture that is worth preserving, in our self interest, of course.