When populist rage leads to smart policy. – Newsweek

In today’s Newseek Online we read an article entitled The Wisdom of Crowds, When populist rage leads to smart policy. Its a must read for anyone feeling uncomfortable about America.  That would be all of us.  Here is an excerpt:

“There’s something deeper at work beyond politics. We’ve witnessed an epic failure of the establishment—political, financial, business, even cultural.”

You can say that again!

Virtually everything that both the Left and the Right in American politics have considered “normal” throughout the lifetime of most Americans is now either gone, broken or in the process of breaking.  The American “middle” is growing in power perhaps for no other reason than it is willing to find a middle ground for virtually anything.   And the middle ground gets harder to find as every day goes by.

Something is wrong with our nation that is hard to define but could perhaps best be described as “loss of identity”.  We don’t know who we are anymore and without doubt we have a lost our sense of national community, our willingness to see the needs of the “other guy” before our own needs come into play.  We do not believe that “we are our brother’s keeper”.  That is never good.

A community of “me first” money grubbers is not a community at all.  It is a mob.

I think we are finally beginning to get that point.

CWO3 Tom Barnes, USCG (Ret.)