Please read this op-ed by Bob Herbert. I could not have said it better. Frankly, I think we deserve everything we are about to get but do our children and their children deserve it? If they survive and I really mean this question, they will hate us for what we did to their future by our shameful greed, neglect, ignorance and laziness.
I blame our political leaders a lot whom I think are not much better than a bunch of gangsters but we all of us (me included) are their enablers. I was misguided in thinking that Barack Obama could lead us out of the mess we are in. But he is just one more politician. Yes, better than most I guess not not willing to loose in the short term even of that means that we all loss much more in the long term. Maybe we would have been better off if McCain had won because then many of us would have been motivated to form some kind of opposition to the madness that is Washington. But then again would it have mattered much. I guess if we we want to put meat into Earth Day for instance, we have to put meat into Earth Day and have a barbecue.
Two Thirds Done 
Unfortunately, the word “sacrifice” and the concept of “long term upside” have vanished from the American vernacular. People just want what they want and they want it now. The American people don’t want to be told that an oil leak can’t be fixed tomorrow or that in order to reduce the deficit they either have to pay more taxes or do with less services. I’m no fan of Jimmy Carter, but today’s politicians learned from him what happens when you ask the American people to turn down their thermostats. Obama may not be the “one” but at least I think there’s someone in charge who understands the reality and the complexity of what needs to be done.
Things feel bleak, but when you look back to American history are these times really worse than the McCarthy Era, or the years of Nixon and stagflation. I think we all have tendency to overreact to the “current crisis.”
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