I call it like I see it.

The masses rallying around the DNC are older, paying rip off prices for pharmaceuticals and healthcare, are getting gouged at the pump and are ready for the leap into the comfy arms of a socialized America - another "new deal" for the aging baby boomers who are finding it harder to beat the threes strikes of age, age discrimination and outsourcing overseas or to illegals.

One can't blame them for their anger, frustration and disappointment. However, the answer lies in strengthened anti-trust laws, removing roadblocks from foreign owned energy providers setting up shop and competing with the price-fixers we deal with daily. Competition is the real deal. Government intervention and programs only incur more expenses and somehow, and in some way, the people pay.

A socialized paradise is the lure this time around.

I wish I could believe the GOP were the "good guys" but they merely serve different masters and are generally the lesser of two evils.

Bush wantonly ignored some of the issues important to America while fixating on others. The GOP congress was incompetent and unmotivated. Both parties are inept at enacting meaningful antitrust legislation, implementing true tax reform or securing our borders, cities and hospitals from a human avalanche suffering from poverty, crime and health woes.

I am increasingly discouraged as I look at America's possible futures. My crystal ball watches as the statistics draw up grim images of a nation in decline that eventually is overwhelmed by incompetence.

All of our nations woes have several easy, straightforward fixes that are required to fix them. However each fix is opposed by millions who currently prosper in someway under the breaks that hurt others.

And then there is the self-doped group who are spending more and more time on many and varied escape mechanisms as the "real world" gets more depressing.

There was a short story called Spectator Sport written by John D. MacDonald in 1950. (ER may have read it) Very prophetic. It painted the grim future of folks whose goal in life was to be 24/7 hooked up to an interactive boob-tube. He foreshadowed video games and cable tv just as people were getting their first taste of pacification/time wasting. The cities were rundown. The parks empty and broken. The streets were crumbling and people were getting "lobe jobs" to get by. The only shiny, new looking cars were owned by World Senseways. The time taveler who arrived was lobotomized and plugged in to the grid, starring in cowboy stories.

It was originally published in Thrilling Wonder Stories in the FEB 1950 issue. A great, if depressing, read.

Now we have people hooked up in much the same way. They have their ipods so that television and music is never apart from their person. Their phones are plugged into the web and they must text eachother constantly and never be separated from the web. We have kids who put on helmets and earphones to block out the real world in favor of an artificial reality that is programmed to appeal to their fragile egos.

I'm an optimist at heart. I know humanity has the potential to emerge victorious from these challenges. But for the next while, I suspect it will be a rather grim affair for humanity.