Today's Edition of the World Getting Worse

Sometimes, it's just hard to have hope for this country. Democrats continue to give and give and give on increasingly extreme Republican budget demands. The budget "compromise" was yet another huge win for Republicans, with the vast majority of cuts coming from traditionally Democratic programs. Obama has now embraced the absurd Simpson-Bowles budget proposal. Republicans are already demanding more cuts to raise the national debt limit, which I am sure they will receive.

Is there anything to be optimistic about in this country? Anything at all?

Meanwhile, here in Ohio, John Kasich and the Koch Brothers' budget begins to have its desired effect of impoverishing working people. In Pickerington, somewhere between 50 and 120 teachers will be laid off next year. I'm sure that those left will still be blamed for our kids not learning. And it seems that about 30 workers at the Job and Family Services Department in struggling Stark County (Canton) will lose their jobs. 1/6 of Stark County families receive food aid from Job and Family Services.

This is kind of liberal way of thinking about the country's past, but I wonder what things were like to live in the 1940s-60s, in the sense that people like me saw the country improving day by day. Of course, "people like me" means white dudes and I realize the complex history of that period and the problems of postwar liberalism.

But today, each and every day, this country gets worse. Everything I value in this nation, at least when it comes to economics, labor, environment, protection for women, etc., is falling apart. And it makes me want to cry.