Thursday, July 10, 2014

Brett Stevens: Open Acts of Defiance - "Our government has become so ideologically rigid and power hungry that open acts of civil disobedience could bring it down and liberate the American people once again."


Open Acts of Defiance

Murrieta
Discredit the regime’s ideology and the regime crumbles.
Across America there are signs of discontent. There is growing dissatisfaction with the path America has taken since the end of the Second World War.
We used to console ourselves with the belief that Americans live better, freer lives than anyone else. And yet, a recent poll finds that the number of Americans who think they enjoy real freedom is declining. In 2006, 91 percent thought they had enough freedom to decide what to do with their lives; by 2013 that figure had dropped to 79 percent.
In 2006, Americans considered themselves freer than just about anyone else. Now they are outranked by 35 countries–including Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates–whose people are more likely than Americans to say they are satisfied with how much freedom they have.
According to USA Today, it takes an income of $130,000 a year for a family of four to live what could be called “the American dream”–except that only one in eight households make that much. It’s no wonder 52 percent of Americans think the next generation will be worse off than their own, and only 21 percent think it will be better off (the rest expect it to be about the same).
Trust in Congress is at a record low. In 1973, 42 percent of Americans trusted it “a great deal” or “quite a lot.” Today only 10 percent do. . . .