Post #358 The Only Thing We Have To Fear Is...

... a dancing horse on the White House lawn! ;O

Seriously, it was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt who said in 1933:

"[T]he only thing we have to fear is... fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and of vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory."

Ahh, Roosevelt knew.

"[W]e now realize as we have never realized before our interdependence on each other; that we can not merely take but we must give as well; that if we are to go forward, we must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline, because without such discipline no progress is made, no leadership becomes effective. We are, I know, ready and willing to submit our lives and property to such discipline, because it makes possible a leadership which aims at a larger good."

And it starts at the top.

"One thing about discipline... you don't discipline the bottom," Tom O'Brien, the head football coach at N.C. State University and ex-Marine, said. "You discipline the people at the top and when you do, then everybody stands up and pays attention."

For example, Mitt Romney wants everyone to pay the same tax rate. Me, too. Eliminate the Social Security tax cap -- make Romney (and members of Congress and the President) pay the same rate as I do. My Grandma, when she died last year, was drawing $470 a month. That works out to a little bit less than what someone pays who pays the cap. Members of Congress support a little more than one Grandma every year but could support two Grandmas (if they paid the same rate as I do on all of their income). John McCain supports a little more than one Grandma every year but could support four Grandmas (if he paid the same rate as I do on all of his income). Barack Obama supports a little more than one Grandma every year but could support 17 Grandmas (if he paid the same rate as I do on all of his income). Mitt Romney supports a little more than one Grandma every year but could support 300 Grandmas (if he paid the same rate as I do on all of his income). Who is ripping off Grandma? It starts at the top.

Mitt Romney is the tallest boy in class. When the bell rings for recess and everybody runs outside to play dodge ball, the ball sits on a high shelf in the back of the room within easy reach of Romney who had tall parents. Romney refuses to get it, saying he is under no obligation to get the ball and the solution is for the other kids to grow. Half of the class thinks he is selfish jerk; the other half thinks he is right -- even some kids with short parents.

* sigh *