A hat tip to Jimmy Page and Robert Plant for today's headline.
The other day I heard that song from Led Zeppelin's second album for the first time in a long time. It had been so long, as a matter of fact, that I couldn't recall the title at first. As I often do when driving to Detroit at 5:30 a.m., I allowed my mind to wander, pondering the meaning of the lyrics, the lifestyles of the band members 40-plus years ago and what they're doing now (one of them, drummer John Bonham, is in the Great Beyond).
The lyrics are possibly about a man's fantasy love affair with an unattainable woman -- one of those agonizing "if only" scenarios. I could be dead wrong, but the song certainly is about love and romance. So why did I think about politics and current events?
Because it dawned on me that the title is apropos of the United States of America in 2012 -- our sickly economy, demoralized people, appalling deficits, dysfunctional government, misguided foreign policy, crony capitalism, and arrogant, lawless administration that tramples wantonly on the constitution with reckless abandon.
This reminds me of the dark days of Jimmy Carter, when the prime rate was 20 percent, inflation was 13 percent, unemployment was near 10 percent, and hostages were being held in Iran. But it seems there was more hope then that things could and would get better. Today's problems seem far more imposing and overwhelming. The economy is vastly different, more multi-faceted and complex; Europe is cratering, and the menacing threat of Islamofascism hangs over our heads like a guillotine.
Moreover, the unbearable weight of unsustainable entitlements in conjunction with an entitlement-addicted population portends a massive collapse of this fiscal house of cards. The bigger they are the harder they fall!
Aside from these very cogent difficulties and brewing crises, the disdainful attitude with which the administration and its key members treat the American people is infuriating. It precludes hope for better days ahead.
Take, for instance, the administration's abominable policy of forcing religious organizations and all other employers to sponsor and subsidize health care coverage of sterilization and contraceptives, including abortion-inducing drugs, for their employees. This is a prime example of trampling on religious liberty.
And then there's the contemptible hack Eric Holder, who tried to stonewall a congressional investigation of the Fast and Furious gunwalker fiasco. He's got his back to the wall now, as Congress has threatened him wth Contempt of Congress charges, so it looks like he's going to be dragged kicking and screaming to the witness table.
All of these problems are what is -- our train wreck status quo brought on by an incompetent, sharply partisan and flagranty misguided administration. And because ours is the greatest nation on earth and capable of so much better, this is also what should never be.
Page and Plant never could have imagined back in 1969 that more than 40 years later, a middle-aged conservative typing away on a MacBook Pro laptop computer would appropriate their song title to describe the precarious and grievous state of affairs in America, its economy and society: What is and what should never be.
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