"We had to destroy the village in order to save it." -- Army officer in Vietnam.
"This is no time to be complacent." -- BBC Commentator.
Compare the two statements and apply them to America's dilemma today.
The changes to government and society proposed by the current president in the name of making America "great again" is based on the premise that it's not great now, and a return to a past era is the only way.
However, the changes proposed are beyond the status of modification or improvement, but are tantamount to destruction of what has worked reasonably well for quite some time. Not that the systems don't need improvement, but focusing on destruction rather than making them better is a major mistake.
Privatizing key programs such as air traffic control, which is critical to preventing chaos in air travel, or eliminating support for the arts, or putting maintenance and replacement of public works such as roads, bridges, and water supply systems, will only destroy things that help people, in the guise of putting them in the hands of profit-making private enterprise that supposedly are more efficient.
But the reality is that they are not. If they were, the private sector would have jumped at the opportunities decades ago. Government builds and maintains roads and bridges for the benefit of all, largely because the private can't or won't.
So to destroy something in the name of replacing it with something better is often a dream, and usually becomes a nightmare, since replacement never happens.
The warning signs are clear, and this is no time to be complacent.
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