YouThinkWhat: Critique, Comments From Readers

Sunday, September 27th, 2009 @ 5:56 pm | We Think

A message from Henry Gandolph, Editor-in-chief/Web Site Administrator /Publisher-YouThinkWhat:

Recently we published an article about a Volusia County, Florida community service organization, Family Renew , celebrating its 20th anniversary of providing help to homeless families with children.

We said the economic policy that has brought us to having a need, all around the nation, for charitable agencies, like Family Renew of Volusia County, is the result of decisions made by the Republican Reagan administration. It was during the presidency of the 41st POTUS, Ronald Reagan, that policies based on supply-side economics were implemented thus laying the foundation for today’s economic debacle as predicted by economic experts more than twenty years ago.
In our opinion that is how we got here.

We received messages and comments from several readers who disagree.

One writer stated, “You neglected to mention the role William Jefferson Clinton played in further screwing up the American economy.”

True, we did not mention Democrat President Clinton’s not insignificant role when he successfully promoted and managed to get the North American Foreign Trade Agreement (NAFTA) approved he essentially helped to further decimate our strong American economy. Jobs, even jobs requiring college degrees, began to be performed at a lower rate by employees of other nations, leaving our citizens without work, thus without funds to support themselves and their families.

“You used a completely apolitical event to make a twisted political statement,” is how another reader viewed our report.

We vehemently disagree with this statement. As we see it, if not for the avaricious economic policies of past administrations, Republican or Democrat, in an attempt to protect the banking/financial/business classes which are political–the politics of money and industry is really big and really important in our capitalistic society; we would not be celebrating the 20th anniversary of an organization like Family Renew of Volusia County Florida.

Another person wrote in to say, “It’s not just Republicans who make decisions that will make or break the majority of citizens. ”

Again, we agree. However, considering more Republicans have held the office of POTUS than have Democrats, we are certain those who disagree can understand how we conclude the cause for our current situation lies at the feet of the Republican presidents of the past.

From another reader we heard, “There’s no point in playing the blame game with our country’s economic situation. It is what it is, and we’re goin’ down fast!”

On this point we do not agree. We believe in a positive future. While history shows it was a Republican administration’s policies which began this downward slide into the economic abyss, it has been with the assistance of a re-packaged Dixie-crat, dressed in modern day– 1990s clothing, that our situation has been been exacerbated. Accepting these facts are positive steps toward doing better.

The way we see it the facts prove this economic disaster, with its homeless families with children; seniors unable to afford medical treatment or proper medical insurance coverage; high levels of unemployment throughout all communities, is an all-American tragedy.

Everyone, politicians, Republicans and Democrats alike; anyone old enough to have voted in the elections over the last forty years, whether Black, white, Asian or Hispanic; main stream media, even bloggers like us– we are all responsible.

We are complicit in our complacency. The only sensible thing for us to do is to wake up, organize, develop a strategy to stand together as Americans to make meaningful change in how we run our government.

We, The People, are the government.

For those of you who wrote in with opposing opinions, you are welcome to comment again. Know we have been properly chastised and we look forward to hearing from you again.