Thursday, 12 March 2009
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Four on Four: President Obama's Proactive Approach
I had a blogging brainstorm the other day. Yes, I am still capable of those you know – despite my non-xanga busy season.For some odd reason, I couldn’t stop thinking of these four particular topics:
- With President Barack Obama's proactive approach to improving the nation's current conditions (stimulus package, homeowner help plan, health care summit, etc), do you feel that it could lead to too much government control or do you feel that he's genuinely working to change things for the betterment of most Americans?
- A college study linking sex to music
- Chris Brown beating Rihanna
- Personal goals in life
Well, rather than give out some tired, played out post stating my own personal viewpoints, I decided to try something different. I assembled four diverse Xangans -- whose unique styles of writing I’ve long since admired -- and I obtained their respective perspectives on the four subjects mentioned above.
Your panelists for this four-part series of entries are (as told in their own words)…
Franksabunch (FRANK) - a half-superhero, half-Taiwanese American physician from Honolulu, HI, who's been blogging for almost five years.
Lotta_Valdez (CARLOTTA) - a Mexican American student from Houston, Texas, who's been blogging here at Xanga for five years.
Trunthepaige (PAIGE) - I am American, that is something I am rather grateful for, but not proud of... Because I had nothing to do with were I was born. I'm an Architectural Sales Representative, from Seattle, Washington, who's been blogging here for three years.
VaneDave (DAVE) - a black/latino comedian from NYC, who's been blogging here at "The X" for five and a half years.
Out of courtesy to you kind readers, I will post one topic per blog entry as part of a series. Today, I will only cover Topic #1. .
Topic One: With President Barack Obama's proactive approach to improving the nation's current conditions (stimulus package, homeowner help plan, health care summit, etc), do you feel that it could lead to too much government control or do you feel that he's genuinely working to change things for the betterment of most Americans?
Franksabunch: I think people forget that socialism/communism failed. Anyone who thinks otherwise should compare the number of people who move to America from China and the former Soviet Bloc countries to the other way around. When all is said and done, you'll find that the powers that be will have their hands in all aspects of your life, and that isn't necessarily a good thing. I think Barack Obama is a very intelligent individual and talented leader, but he's still a company man, and that means big government, taxes and spending. The market will eventually equilibrate. I've worked really hard to get where I am today, and I don't particularly like seeing 45% of my money paying for the irresponsible choices of corporations and other people. Capitalism isn't perfect, but it's still the best system in the world.
Lotta_Valdez: I disagree with some parts of the stimulus package, but I like the idea as a whole. In order to build a truly strong nation, you need to provide your citizens with education, healthcare, and infrastructure. It’s time to prioritize these things again instead of letting corporations run amok.
Trunthepaige: Obama believes his ideas are very much in the national interest. Unfortunately, he is far more concerned with using the economic crises as an excuse to recreate America -- turning this nation into a European style “mommy” state. He is far more interested in that goal than actually working on the real economic issues. His first priority was not an economic fix at all. Remember, this was a banking and mortgage crisis. Those are two issues he has yet to do much about. Despite already allocating a trillion dollars to projects unrelated to the economic crisis. No, his first priorities were to initiate his more controversial and expensive socialistic ideas to grow the federal government. He seems to think you fix a problem -- caused by excessive deficits, bad laws regarding mortgages and the economic bubble this caused -- by pouring vastly more money into everything, but fixing nothing. His goal does seem to make every American dependent on the government to some extent for their basic needs. That simply is not what this country is all about. He is creating a new nation in the mold of failed European models, as opposed to fixing some problems in the most successful system ever created. In the end, it seems we will not have enough money left to fix the banking and mortgage issues. Actually, we ran out of money a long time ago. We are just running out of credit to mortgage ourselves and our children into the next century.
VaneDave: There needs to be a balance in what the government controls. Barack Obama was elected to maintain that balance. Their are situations where the government has exerted total control in the past, such as ignoring the will of the people and continuing the war in Iraq, and there are situations where the government has not exercised enough control, such as allowing sub prime lending to kill the housing and banking industries. We are in unstable times right now. It might be necessary for President Obama to be a bit more proactive than usual for at least the short term.
Thank you for taking time out of your day/night to read “Four on Four: President Obama’s Proactive Approach.”
Please be watching for the next topic as our four guest bloggers share their own personal views on S & M… err that's "Sex and Music," and what one university had to say about the relationship.
Stay rooted, stay grounded, and stay out of trouble...
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Comments (21)
i like the Charlie Rose-style format. a roundtable discussion, as it were.
lol, I didn't think anyone could post about something I could care so little about.
Good read! I like this!
This is awesome. I love this format!
This is a very interesting format. I look forward to seeing more.
fun stuff! capitalism FTW!
dude, a series....awesome.
(film and TV rights to follow)
Very cool. It seems to me that Franksabunch is using a bit of a slippery slope fallacy.
This is cool. Looking forward to the other answers, and happy to see you back, if only for these guaranteed four posts lol
A roundtable discussion! Awesome! Keep 'em coming!
two thumbs up to franksabunch and trunthepaige. i couldn't agree more.
and two thumbs up to you, too, for picking two equally eloquent people from each side to discuss the issues at hand. just a guess, but i imagine this series will be more of a two on two than four on four :)
@unshakeablekingdom - actually it's "FOUR bloggers" on "FOUR topics." hence, the play on words "FOUR on FOUR." thanks for your kind words!!!
You can tell I am having a hard week when it takes me this late in the day to see you have run this one
I was wondering if this was up yet. Great idea DC.
This is really cool. Its a debate, but everyone is actually getting their say instead of interrupting each other in mid-sentence (like every single "discussion" you see on the news anymore)
Very cool. Looking forward to the other answers.
Just a small point...
"socialism/communism failed"
No it didn't. China is doing fine. Many countries have implemented socialist policies that have been effective. Many others have implemented ineffectual capitalist policies. The US isn't the supreme economic victor in the world and its predominance in recent years is not solely or even primarily do to its embrace of capitalism. Some of our government programs helped too and there was a lot of chance involved. It's not all or nothing.
What happened in the Soviet Union is that they suffered a severe economic downturn that made it impossible for them to preserve their empire. LOTS of countries suffered economic downturns with or without capitalism, including the United States during the Great Depression. And now almost all the industrialized countries in the world are suffering a severe economic downturn. Capitalism certainly didn't immunize us from it.
Whether or NOT Socialism is RIGHT or better, it's simply unsupported by the historical record to say that Socialism fails and Capitalism works better.
For the record though I do strongly suspect primarily capitalist systems work better than primarily socialist systems. But I'm not sure and I think there's plenty to learn from Socialist systems.
I liked this, and look forward to reading how you handle other issues.
This is a great idea. I'm excited to read the rest. Well done.
This will be wonderful to keep up with especially if youre careful to get people with differing poltical and personal approaches / ideologies. Let me know if you need a professional woman's take on anything. I'd be happy to participate.
This is an interesting idea. I look forward to the next topic.
- J. M. 713