I read an article the other day about the Beret and how it is making a fashion comeback. I have always thought that berets looked silly, especially on men, unless they had been earned with an elite military unit such as the Rangers or Green Berets. I have noticed that over the last ten years, many old styles have made comebacks with big sunglasses and afros being a couple of the notable reruns. I guess the fashion industry runs out of ideas every generation or so and tosses those reruns back into the mix hoping that no one notices and if they do that they won't mind dropping a C-note at a high end retailer on something they used to get out of the Ward's catalog for $9.95.

Politics is much the same. Every generation thinks they are on to something new, that their ideas are fresh and that the public will have forgotten about the last time their "progressive ideas" were run through the mill. Does anyone remember the "New Deal", "The Great Society or "The War On Poverty"? The details today may be slightly different due to priority rotation, but the sales pitch is the same. WWII had more to do with the economic resurgence of America than did the New Deal. The war unified the country and helped fire up the country's industrial machine. The New Deal just gave Americans some confidence in themselves and their country again.

Social Security was aimed at helping retirees with(not providing them with)security in their Golden Years. Kind of like what Bush tried to do recently, but people missed the point this time because they are so used to demanding the government provide for them, which is a manifestation of the liberal credo that people aren't smart or responsible enough to provide for themselves and now the Baby Boomers are paying the price for misunderstanding what FDR was trying to do. SSI has been a dismal failure and it's not going to get better.

The Great Society was a noble cause. Social equality for all. Yeah..That's worked out well. It was doomed from the beginning. The country was, and still is, divided along so many lines that any plan having to do with solving such problems is a lost cause. Things just aren't that much different today, even though we like to pretend they are. Oh, women and minorities have it easier at the top of the pile and everyone nod their head in self absorbed back-patting and mindless, useless self appreciation and self centered congratulations whenever a woman or a minority becomes the CEO of some corporation or is elected or appointed to some lofty office in government, but the rank and file are still pretty much where they were in 1965.

Every president and congress since Warren Harding has been regurgitating the same social drivel, they just try and word it so it sounds "fresh" and "progressive" hoping no one notices the foul stench of the diseased and dying animal they parade in front of a public desparate for change.

Society seems to hear more often that they listen, and as long as the politicians continue to dispense their new solutions downwind, the public seems content to believe them because they are hearing what they want to hear rather than listening to what they should be listening to. Hmm..Sound familiar? The democratic candidates are after society's problems againg with te same promises of solutions that have been in reruns for eighty years. Rushing to the defense and care of a society they have determined are unable to defend or care for themselves, leaving the government to think and act on their behalf.

Today it is Universal Healthcare, and once again, social equality for all. I guess nobody is paying attention to the fact the men who have made themselves mouthpieces for Black America have no intention of ever allowing racial lines to disappear. That would put them, the biggest racists in America, out of a job. There is really little difference between Malcom X and Jesse Jackson. Both despise whites and blame them for all for society's ills and for the apparent lot of Black Americans, Malcom X just had the moxy to say it aloud.

The costs of Universal Healthcare will quickly outpace the cost of any war in which we may find ourselves engaged. The cost of Medicare in 2006 alone was over two TRILLION dollars! Can you imagine the cost of Universal Healthcare? Well, you don't have to. John Kerry's OWN numbers for it over a 10 year period was over seven trillion dollars. Somebody has to pay for that and that someone is the tax payer, most of whom won't qualify for it's benefits!

Social Security is a failure people didn't listen. All they heard was "We will creat a program to help....". They didn't hear the part that said"...you help yourself by adding to the savings YOU create yourself".

Affirmative Action failed because people heard the same thing, but failed to hear the pat that said "...you further your education and ability to enter the workplace when you are on equal footing'. Suddenly sub par students and workers were demanding, and getting those positions, in direct conflict with the dream of Martin Luther King, creating problems that plagued society for thirty years in the form of high college dropout rates, poor workplace output and quality all of which fomented social resentment for those who DID listen.

The people who properly utilized these programs were able to truly reap the benefits they offered because they listened and acted themselves and didn't count on the government to do that for them. Two of todays democratic candidates have utilized and realized the benefits of those programs and ideals. A woman and an a minority. They took advantage of the rights and opportunities society offered them without leaning on the governemnt to "make it happen" and they now vie for the most powerful position in the world and they have done on their own merits.

Let's not be hornswaggled by todays political Berets and Big Glasses. We have seen them before. If you aren't sure, go ask your parents. They should remember. Politics can not afford the retro gimmiks of the fashion industry's recycle bin. It's time for people to listen to what is being said and compare that to what has already been said. It's time to ask the candidates the hard questions and see if they stutter when they answer. We don't get to pick the fashion industry's leaders, but we do get pick our country's leaders. Let's make them accountable for what they are trying to sell us and not just buy it because our neighbors and friends did.