Obviously, Sept. 11 and its aftermath have changed the country in countless and irretrievable ways. But even beyond the emergence of war and national security as pre-eminent concerns, there has been a profound reordering of domestic priorities, a darkening of the country’s mood and, in the eyes of many, a fraying of America’s very sense of itself.
A commenter at Villainous Company has his own sob story:
My tale of post 9/11 woe:
Things for me have gone from bad to worse. Sure, I have a 56" HD projection TV, but I couldn't afford the 1080p or the plasma. And what with global warming affecting our normally frigid winter temperatures, all of the time that I thought I'd spend watching it is wasted on outdoor pursuits I would never have considered just a few short years ago.
Bush's economy has simply ruined my job. I'm an IT guy, and all of these new-hires running around, incapable of remembering their damn passwords for more than a few minutes at a time or wanting their new PCs configured is driving me batty.
His disastrous tax cuts have just made things worse at home too. The huge bonuses that I've received for the last few years as the company's business has grown have caused fights of biblical proportions with the wife as we simply cannot agree on vacations to the beach or the mountains. Hey, maybe if this global warming thing keeps going, we won't have to decide: the mountains will have beaches!
And of course, we were silly enough to buy a home well within our means, so now we're paying an extra $1000/month against the fixed-rate 6% mortgage. This means we won't get any of the gov't candy being handed out to the idiots that didn't realize that 'variable' is not synonymous with 'ever-decreasing' or 'immutable,' so I have to live with feeling cheated out of that. Kinda pisses me off a bit, ya know?
And yeah, the soulless corporation I work for actually expects me to follow rules like show up for work, don't grope co-workers (God, how I miss the Clinton years when that was the cool thing to do), and put the lid down on the toilet. In exchange, all I get back is interesting work to do, 12 annual holidays, a 23 day PTO bank, a 6% match on my 401k, and a paycheck.
From where I'm sitting on this barstool crying in my beer, I sure miss the days when I had none of that, but at least I could make my own rules. You know, rules like 'Sleep until at least noon,' 'drink no less than a 12 pack a day,' and 'do not drive with a BAC of less than .15.'
I'm telling you, these are dark days indeed.
You know, the worst financial times I ever had were during the Clinton years. Bush's terms have been fairly prosperous (except for the last year or so, which has nothing to do with the government). A president doesn't really have that much control over the economy anyway; no individual does. The laws of supply and demand are as beyond man's reach as gravity. But if it's bad, it's Bush's doing somehow. And if the next president (probably a Dem) has economic woes during his administration, it'll be a holdover from Bush. Bet on it.
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