WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO THINK?

The scandals are piling up and the president wants me to believe they are phony. All our Middle Eastern embassies are closed because of imminent threats of attack and the Congress has decided to take the next six weeks off. American citizens as well as our Ambassador are murdered in Benghazi and we don’t even try to defend them. The IRS has obviously become a tool in the hands of political operatives in an effort to sway elections and to date no one is being held accountable. Lois Lerner, their erstwhile head, has even pled the Fifth Amendment to keep from testifying in an effort to stay out of jail. The First and the Fourth Amendments to the Constitution are being subverted by our Attorney General and seemingly without penalty. The NSA is secretly listening in on our private conversations illegally and again without any restriction. Putin and other world leaders are laughing at our plight and thumbing their collective noses at us. Our medical care is being taken over by an incompetent bunch of bureaucrats who have proven time and again they are incapable of running anything.

My question is simple. What am I supposed to think? Am I supposed to believe this is business as usual? This is the way it is supposed to be? A clear majority of the American people have lost trust in our government and especially the political leadership. The Congress has an approval rating lower than the Asian Flu virus and I’m supposed to be okay with all this?

It would be simple enough to blame one particular political party or another, but that isn’t the answer. Our issues are not defined by party affiliation. Republicans have a clear majority in The House and they have to pay the bills. Obamacare does not exist if the Republican House refuses to pay for it. In fact nothing happens in this country if the Republican House refuses to pay for it. So while it is tempting to blame everything on the Democrats, Republicans own this mess too.

Well I don’t know what I am supposed to think, but I know what I do think. First, persons who violate the law or attempt to subvert our system, regardless of their position, should be held to account. Whether they be President, Attorney General, IRS head, or Member of Congress, they must be held responsible for their actions. If those actions are illegal, they must be prosecuted. Secondly, if we have enemies anywhere in the world who threaten our security or our interests, they must be hunted down and neutralized immediately. We are the strongest nation on earth with by far the most powerful military ever to have existed. We do not close our embassies and cower in the face of threats. We face those threats and take care of business. Our enemies cower, not us.

Concerning the IRS. I think we do not allow any official of that organization ever to refuse to answer any legitimate question from a Congressional Committee. If they do, they are promptly terminated and then prosecuted if they have broken any law. We do not allow civil service employees of our government to thumb their noses at our Representatives or to the American people.

Finally, we absolutely must re-establish trust in our government and its institutions. It is incumbent on those who have violated that trust to do what is necessary to overcome that trust deficit. This is America. This is not some third world banana republic.

So, regardless of what I am supposed to think, this is what I do think.

Ron Scarbro