I’m 41. I’ve been thinking when I was last this down about how our country is doing. The only time in my lifetime I can think of is in the immediate aftermath of 2001. I missed the late 70s malaise. Wasn’t around in 1968. The financial crisis was very very bad, but 1/

I felt like people were trying to address that – both the Bushies and Obama after him. This total confusion and paralysis I couldn’t have imagined.

We’re better than this. No one should accept this. You wouldn’t accept it in your own life.

The idea that we just wave at european results as if it’s obvious they ought to be in better shape is so infuriating. I grew up with the attitude that *we* did things better than them. We were faster. More dynamic. More adaptable.

What the heck is this?

Like a small example: I talked to someone who said, "of course the Germans would do better."

WHY? That's not how we Americans think about things. "Of course the Germans would do better." What the H#$@ are you talking about?

You think this would happen if Dwight Eisenhower were in charge? Did we do D-Day by sailing haphazardly at Normandy and end up occupying Malta, and then having the entire fleet sink because it was made of cardboard? No?

Because I have the greatest faith in our noble experiment, I still think we have time to fix this. That the ideas that make up our country can be revived and our people restored.

But you've got to face up to the disaster first. You can't pretend it's ok. /rant.