Change in Goverment?

Show of hands. Anyone really suprised? I know I’m not. It will be business as usual in Washington DC.

Wow Richard and Legio3arty.

If I had that much hope I’d be jumping off a bridge right now. After 8 years of “the worst of the worst” and “dumbest of the dumb” leadership (I use the word loosely), why do you think it will remain status quo? There are a lot of us that have our “eggs in this Obama basket” and if he caves in and follows the same old path, this nation is done. But before I’m willing to pull the flush handle on the US, Obama needs the opportunity to try and change things and we need to help set the path. If he chooses not to listen, so be it. But you need to give him something to listen to. And remember ” if you’re not with us then you’re against us”. :rolleyes:

Kudos Bio Woodsman – I signed the petition and forwarded it to a local sustainable ag group.:)

This government took a giant leap toward total control of all business in this country. Who do you think is going to bail out this bailout mess they created?

The major thing I have to say about Obama is that he is the first intelligent, thoughtful, peaceful, forthright, disciplined, and purposeful individual to take the oath of office for decades. He may not be able to stop the ship from sinking, but he may respond to it in ways that truly help us in the long run. The truth of the matter is that he has had to play the game to some extent to get to where he is.

Based on what you said about the man, why would you not have some hope?

I don’t need to feed the world. I just want to feed my neighbors. That’s plenty enough to accomplish, in my lifetime.

And how do you define where your neighbors begin and end? Within 5 miles of your place? 100 miles? That is feeding the world – each one of us doing a little bit.

It will take the collective “us” and “we” to get something changed. It’s hard if not impossible to be part of a society if you just want to be “left alone to do your thing”.

Lack of govt. oversight is what got the country into this mess and now we’re going to worry that Obama might step up and regulate something?

don’t put it past him to bring more than most people are prepared to deal with. For example, the self-congratulatory pomp and circumstance of Tuesday, with the multinational corporate government controlled media celebrating the fact that although it has been a long and painful journey, we have finally allowed ourselves to let a black man be our president, is absolutely ignorant and undignified, and I think we may be in for some real education about the true ills of this cultural structure

Carl – what are you trying to say? He will change things or he’ll be “same crap, different day”? Pomp and circumstance IS the hallmark of American govt. From 21 gun salutes, to the star spangled banner at every sporting event down thru grade school knowledge bowl tournaments. Nothing new.

Thank you Robert. You hit the nail square on the head.

Geoff ~ My main objection to the government interfering w/ my farming – or my life in general – is simple: You can’t legislate morality, nor can government cure the ills that itself, in conjunction with multi-national corporations, created. I don’t think the fox will clean up the henhouse on it’s way out the door. What is “due” and “undue” regulation? You gave good examples of each: Regulating Monsanto’s attempts to poison us with rBST = due reguation. NAIS = undue regulation. My customers don’t need the govt. to define what is healthy or natural in regards to my food… they can just come out and see my operation & decide for themselves. It’s why I market locally, direct to the consumer – I relish the relationship – I promote my farm with “Know your farmer – know your food” and “you have a family doctor, a family dentist – why not a family farmer? I want to be your farmer”. Not pretty slogans; the way I personally believe is a sound, sustainable way of farming – which is why I post it on DAP; a forum that promotes the same concept of sustainability & accountability. I disagree that this last administration was “asleep at the wheel” I believe it knew EXACTLY what it was doing, and just didn’t give a damn about us. Also, I never said that Obama or Hilary have actually done anything against me… yet. I spoke of the government as a whole. But then, they haven’t actually done anything FOR me, either. My main point is EXACTLY that: “They” can’t solve any of my problems, nor the larger problems facing us all as a whole. “They” created the problems, and we allowed it to happen. But WE can solve them. I don’t need the government to take care of me, nor solve my society’s problems. 10,000 Geoffs plus 10,000 Carls plus 10,000 Roberts plus 10,000 Jennifers can do a lot of problem solving, don’t you think? We’ve left the hard choices & painful problem-solving in the hands of people & mega-businesses & politicians that don’t have our best interests as a priority for too long… we need to just do it ourselves. That’s all -that basic idea. By the way, Geoff; I enjoy our discussions & the fact that we disagree on some points – it makes me think, and not just depend on preconceived ideas. I admire that you are able to express your differing views with logic & deep thought on an emotionally-charged subject, while respecting me enough to allow me to voice my own. I thank you for that.

Well, this thread was certainly worth reading!

I generally stay away from political discussions in any forum, because the “my mind is made up, don’t try to confuse me with facts” mindset of much of our public drives me up the wall. I just love how people take selective events, issues or even positions on issues and “paint” the other side with disparaging labels; of course it outrages them when someone has the audacity to point out that their side of the aisle has “issues” as well!

The fact is that while both major parties have their warts and both have their good points, the overall reality is they are more alike than they are different. Take immigration for example. We all know that laws exist to prevent people from entering this or ANY other country in the world illegally. We all know there are laws against hiring illegal aliens, yet it has gone on unchecked for the past 20 or 30 years. Why? Because it served the interests of BOTH parties. The Republicans wanted to see cheap labor for industry. The Democrats wanted to turn them into potential new voters. So the reality is BOTH parties were willing to turn their backs on enforcing the laws as they exist. Why? Again, because IT SERVED THEIR RESPECTIVE INTERESTS.

Interestingly enough the current downturn, depression or whatever you want to label it has done more to send illegals back home than anything either party has EVER done. No jobs = no $$$, no $$$ = no reason to be here. People do what you give them an economic incentive to do. Give them a reason to break laws to work here and they will. Give them a reason to steal and they will, give them a reason to mooch off the public and they will. (I’m talking about ALL people here, not immigrants only) Give them a reason to be productive and guess what? They will do that, too.

Will Barrack Obama be a good President? I don’t have a clue, and in fact no one else does either. There are just too many unknowns. I know this much regardless of how much anyone tries to run him down or how much anyone else tries to gloss over his failures (yes, he is bound to have at least some) his record will speak for itself. Let’s get back together in 3 or 4 years and discuss this again, and I’ll bet some peoples views (if they are honest) will have changed. If we were to check in again in another 15 or 20 years after that we would probably get a truer picture of who he was and what he did or didn’t do that made a difference.

He will probaly NOT turn out to be as bad as Rush Limbaugh and others have tried to paint him and he will probably NOT turn out as great as MSNBC, CNN and the Hollywood elites have tried to paint him. He will probably fall somewhere in the middle, which is probably to be expected.

Either way, if any of you are putting all your hopes in ANY human … you are probably setting yourself up for a major disappointment. Problem is we are all just too human.

As for me, I still maintain that I like most cows and every horse I ever met better than most people I ever met. Therefore, I probably have disqualified myself from having an opinion about this subject.