Time To Grow Up, America

The level of political discourse in America has become increasingly juvenile. As our problems escalate, as people lose their benefits, their jobs, and their homes we call each other names and yell at each other. How is this working out?
New Jersey Star-Ledger columnist Paul Mulshine, a conservative and libertarian, wrote recently about what he would do if he were in charge. He would make sure that  "anyone who tries to be witty by using terms like "Dimmocraps" or "Repuglicans" or by calling the New York Times "The New York Slimes" or calling current president "Obummer" or "Nobama" or some variant thereof" would be publicly humiliated.
Those who make the following statements would also be publicly ridiculed:

• Any invocation of children. "We must do this for the sake of the children.The children are our future."
• Any promise to balance a budget by targeting "waste, fraud and abuse."
• A double-dunking for anyone who compares a political opponent to Hitler.

Let's be real for a few moments, if you would be so kind. Let's talk about pensions. When my dad retired as a university professor he was making a six-figure salary. His retirement income exceeds 50K a year. After attending seminary, if I had decided to work as a minister, I would have earned 25K.
Put aside that would be around one-fourth of the income my dad made. Think instead about the 50K pension. Who is going to pay for it? If I'm earning 25K, I'm probably not paying much in taxes.
When you add up the taxes all my brothers and sisters are paying, we're still not close to 50K. Again, who is going to pay for my dad's retirement?
Extrapolate this throughout the country where a lot of people who made decent bank during the 60s and 70s and are now retired are drawing decent pensions. Who is paying for this when their children aren't even making half of what their parents did? When tax rates have plummeted since the 1970s?

Putting aside political rhetoric, if you could see your way clear to, let's discuss possible solutions. One, we could cut pensions. Two, we could raise taxes. These are not the only options, however.

But given how juvenile our political discussion has become, this is all you hear in the media. Raising wages without raising taxes would bring in more revenue as people climb into higher tax brackets. Creating more jobs, lowering unemployment in conjunction with this would create even more revenue.
When the housing crisis hit, I wondered why the banks were the ones who were bailed out. It made more sense to me to bail out homeowners.
I thought owning a home was part of the American dream. Isn't it the government's job to help Americans achieve the American dream?
If the billions of dollars handed out to the banks were instead given to homeowners as mortgage subsidies, people could have made their payments and kept their homes. And guess what? The banks would have continued to receive mortgage payments. They wouldn't have failed and people could have kept their homes.
That this option wasn't even discussed by Democrats and Republicans confirmed that they don't care about working America or average Americans. They don't care at all. THEY DON'T CARE AT ALL!
The growing protest in Manhattan called 'Occupy Wall Street' is based upon this growing realization that neither political party cares about average Americans.
But turn on the telly and what do you hear? Political pundits calling the protesters names. It didn't take long for some commentators to bring out the Hitler and Nazi metaphors. Grow up, already. We are all adults here. Let's start acting like adults.