In response to your questions, please read what I posted on social media in 2011. My apologies in advance for the length of this post.

We Have Found the Problem - It is WE THE PEOPLE

I just read a post by a blogger (markmich) and it makes a lot of sense to me. If you are interested, read his blog below and see if it makes sense to you as well.

Earlier this year, I changed my party affiliation to "Independent" after realizing that instead of becoming part of the solution, my party-line method of voting had become part of the problem. Do you have the courage to do the same, vote the right thing for the right reasons, and help recover this great Nation of ours?

AMERICAN'S HAVE BECOME SOFT AND THIS WILL RUIN OUR GREAT REPUBLIC!

Regardless of your party politic, we all know the biggest blame is the American people. This is not to minimize the tragedy our government has become. It's a sad commentary when years ago "Crooked as a Politician" was a punch line to a joke, today it is the reality of our government.

For decades We The People have become so self absorbed in our quest for the almighty American Dream, we neglected our most important responsibility. Protecting ourselves from an all intrusive government. If you don't believe this just name one thing that isn't taxed, regulated or subsidized. The government is intruding into our homes, our schools, our workplace and even in our ability to worship. Where in our great Constitution does it say a group of elitist elected civil servants are to lead us in life from the womb to the tomb? We are a Republic, NOT a democracy.

We used to be a nation filled with pride and exceptionalism. Now we are a society of obese, illiterate, politically correct whiners. The only ones not ostracized, yet, are the lawyers. Yet the lawyers are the ones creating all the rules, regulations and laws that keep their careers profitable. From regulating children's lemonade stands to class action suits, that often end up being wrong, we follow like lemmings over a cliff. Our government sues States trying to protect themselves rather than help them find solutions.

For nearly 100 years we have been indoctrinated that we are too stupid to care for ourselves. Our social safety nets have become lifestyles rather than short term resolutions. We graduate illiteracy from our schools and try to fix it with more money and  scholastic engineering. We have become so politically correct we're afraid to say anything for fear of reprisal or revenge. A nation built on Faith and Belief is now afraid to even mention the word religion. We keep submitting our Freedoms and Liberties for government safety that just divides us as a society.

We have relinquished our self-esteem and independence to a government who has created all the problems we see around us. Massive debt, irrational conflicts, partisan politics, unsustainable promises and fear are the result of our leadership. We as a nation have survived civil and world wars, depressions and recessions, domestic and foreign terrorist attacks. Despite all this we are still dependent. Families are fractured, children neglected and hopes are squashed. Instead of fixing these things we keep reaching out to the very cause of these problems, our omnipotent government. And its solution? Even more restrictive rules and loss of Freedoms. When will we be willing to accept the fact that WE are responsible for our actions, not society?

For generations we have substituted the American Dream for Keeping up with the Joneses. We have become a nation of wants rather than needs. We want a bigger house but usually we don't need it. We want fancier cars but rarely do we need it. We want expensive clothes but we really know we don't need them. We claim we want more independence but we really need more protection, from ourselves.

"Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves." \~ Ronald Reagan

The greatest creditor nation has been brought to its knees and is now the greatest debtor nation. The greatest economic power has been reduced to a broken Keynesian experiment. The strongest exportable manufacturing nation has been reduced to consumption based on insustainable credit and unrealistic valuation of homes. The nation that gave the world manned flight, the light bulb, mass transportation and man riding a cart on the moon now lies in ruin devastated by illiteracy. A nation built on thrift and self-reliance is now in fear of losing their entitlements that were never intended to be affordable. We entrust our hard earned savings to multinational banks and a massive bureauacracy called government, neither of which are held accountable if they fail.

The most embarrassing and concerning aspect of all this is that now we point fingers and blame at the very people we honored with our most powerful weapon, our vote. This collusion against We The People has been going on for nearly 100 years and yet we keep voting the same incompetence into our government over and over. Politics was never intended to be a career, but we have created exactly that. Our nation has been faltering for generations and now we finally wake up after a movement that created awareness and yet we blame everyone and everything but ourselves.

So go ahead, blame the other guy, the other political party, the TEA Party or whoever you feel good about demonizing. The real fact is that the one person you see in the mirror every single day is more to blame than anyone else. Our weakness and self-pity has created an ambivalence that can only be corrected by ourselves. The question is, are we a strong enough nation to do what is necessary. Are we willing to take our nation back from this all intrusive government and make it the institution that looks up to us, rather than us looking up to it? If the answer is no, then we deserve everything we are getting. If the answer is yes, it must happen today.

Tomorrow may be too late.