By Les Dunaway

Well, it’s been a rough week! With every indication of more rough times to come.

The economy continues to sputter and 1Q11 was worse that we thought [read]

There’s lots of punditry about what the debt ceiling impasse will mean:

• Debt ceiling: Will I get my Social Security check? [read]
• What Will Happen If Debt Ceiling Is Not Raised And The US Defaults? [read]
• What Will Happen If The Debt Ceiling Isn’t Raised? [read]

But, here is the real issue:

• Wiedemer: US Treasurys Now a ‘Toxic Asset,’ Debt Deal Won’t Fix It [read]
• Pew: US Becoming a Second-Rate Power [read]

The world has begun to see that America is just another socialist basket-case; headed down the same road as the PIIGS.

The Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787.

Lyndon Johnson was inaugurated on November 22, 1963 – following the assassination of President Kennedy.

In the 176 years following the signing of the Constitution, America became, as President Reagan said, “We are indeed, and we are today, the last best hope of man on earth.” In the 48 years since Johnson’s inauguration, the prediction of Alexis de Tocqueville “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money” has been mostly fulfilled. In today’s America the “takers” outnumber the “makers”. Those “takers” are the power that elected the politicians who’ve pushed us the the brink of the abyss, where we now stand.

We have gone far down that same dark path that has consumed Greece, Rome, … All because we forgot what one of our founders, Benjamin Franklin,  told the lady as he left the Constitutional Convention “A republic, madam, if you can keep it”.

We have 15 months before out last chance to “keep it”. Although, at this point “recover it” is more to the point. Any American who fails to do everything they can in support of that recovery will see in the mirror, each morning for the rest of their lives, a person who killed that “the last best hope of man on earth”.