Update: It seems the Supreme Court do not read my blog. Today they overturned part of the campaign finance law and now allow corporations to purchase air time to run commercials in support or against political candidates. Fucking nice.

America is in trouble. It is something that we say a lot but few people actually understand what it means. We are failing. Our children are not being properly educated. We are almost completely mortgaged to China. Our democracy is a farce. We have no plan and we have no idea what is working and what is failing. If we don’t change now, we will not withstand the coming tide.

Now, I am not one of those who believes that China is going to take over in our place. China is failing, just as we are, and is widely distrusted in the West. They have much dissension within their land and a human rights record that causes real concern in the outside world. China is not the issue. We are.

Our education system is the joke of the world. We are the leader of the free world and yet our children are some of the least educated out there. Now, I don’t promote a system like the Chinese, Japanese, or Korean where children are taught merely to memorize facts (sound familiar?). Instead, I would like to see a system like the Swedish. Children are taught comprehensive information in a multitude of subjects including history, mathematics, science, literature, language, religion, and arts. Not only are they taught, but they are expected to demonstrate their knowledge – and not with tests. They demonstrate their knowledge through comprehensive projects that sometimes span years. In addition, their education is not cookie cutter. They choose tracts and their education is designed to meet their needs. And they do it more efficiently, and at less cost per student than we do.

We owe $820 billion to China as of 2008. It is most likely much higher now. That means each American (man, woman, and child) owes China $2645.16. Are you prepared to write your check? Remember, this does not include our full national debt over over $9 trillion or our yearly deficit of over $500 billion. We are broke. But we are not beyond recovery. It will require sacrifice, however. And that sacrifice will be higher taxes. And less international aid. Especially with the recent earthquake in Haiti, this is unpopular – I know. And I am not suggesting we stop emergency assistance to needy countries. I am suggesting that we stop throwing good money at bad situations, however. We need to rely more on private charities to help in certain places. We need to tell Europe to step up and cover some funding for the underdeveloped world. We need to cut expenses or one day we won’t be able to help anyone. We also need to reduce wasteful spending in America. But some areas will need to increase. We need to take a look at each spending point and evaluate it. Can we reduce it? Should we be spending it at all? It won’t happen overnight, but it must happen.

Finally, the biggest change that must take place is with our political system. It is a freaking joke. We have career politicians – something our founding fathers never intended. They come from a private, elite world and have no idea how to make tough choices. They few their political position as a job and therefore don’t want to do anything that might jeopardize their next election. They have forgotten that they work for us and need to act in our best interest and not the best interest of lobbyists, special interest groups, and themselves. We must reform our political system. We need to return to a time when politicians were public servants. When it was about who was most qualified, not what party they ran under. We need a system that allows anyone to run, not just the well connected and wealthy. When was the last time a truly middle class individual sat in the Senate? It does not happen because it takes millions to run a campaign. We need to enforce term limits on Congress. We need to set up a campaign fund and disallow private donations for public office. This would not only level the playing field, it would prevent large corporations from “buying” an election.

Beyond all else, we need a plan. We need to sit down and decide where we want America to be in 10, 20, 50 years. We need to set up a plan to get there. It is going to take hard work, but we must do it. Every year America becomes more, and more unrecognizable. If we don’t change now, we may not ever be able to recover.