Michael Swickard

The woman looked pitiful in the interview. “I just can’t quit smoking; it’s that secret stuff companies put in them that keeps me from quitting.” She brushed back a tear. “Cigarette companies did this to me.”

The interviewer accepted her assertion. However, people in prison say, “If you can’t stand the time, don’t do the crime.” There is no avoiding the consequences of actions. This woman made a case for it being someone else’s fault she didn’t stop smoking. But she cannot avoid the results.

The woman smoked for many years because she wanted to smoke. She ignored the people around her who spoke to the dangers of smoking. All smokers know before they start that it is not healthy. They also know it is a hard habit to break. Each has reasons for why he or she started and why they continue despite the dangers. Likewise, many geezers say, “Nope, never smoked.” No one pesters them about why they did not smoke.

Each of us makes a conscious choice to smoke or not, just as each of us eats healthy or drives safely. The other day someone passed me over a double yellow line and narrowly missed an oncoming car. They may make risky maneuvers many times before they are killed. Whether it is driving, drugs or anything else, the thing about consequences is that, while they are not applied every time, sooner or later they always come to bear.

This is a long introduction to my concern that our nation cannot continue to elect people who allow our nation to act financially irresponsible. One day this cancer of spending without restraint will metastasize into a nation killing calamity. We have the example of Greece, where much of their future was expended in the past for political advantage. Now their future is bleak, at best.

During the last 50 years our nation has taken a giant leap from our collective financial senses to enjoy the short-term political advantages of irresponsible gathering of debt while ignoring the prospect that comes with the long-term debt. There is no escape from those consequences, only delay.

Individual politicians say they have to be financially irresponsible or be thrown out of office. That is true. If a candidate does not clamor for money to bring to the district they are unelectable. Current politicians only have one plan: “I will spend the resources of our nation on you, whether we have resources or not.”

The problem is us

So, my fellow Americans, we have discovered the problem and the problem is us. Now that we have the culprit firmly grasped by the collar what are we to do with ourselves? The politics of promise is where the power and money is in our society. Anyone with a frugal streak is unelectable because voters rightly understand that if one state foregoes the federal largess another state will get that benefit instead. Voters rationalize that someone will get those resources; we must elect someone to look after our short-term interests.

At the core what is being practiced in our country is a political system designed to give amazing power to a few while taking the resources of many. Because so many people benefit from the theft of resources, there are not enough protestors to the theft of our country’s future. Know this: The promises sound great but are not sustainable. One day the bill will come due. Our country will be like Greece in that riots will precede the collapse. Will there be a collapse? There has to be, no other outcome is possible.

Comingled with our financial crisis of spending significantly more than we have is the crisis of entitlement. What drives our public policy is, “I deserve this and more.” Americans say, “As long as I vote as I have voted I will always have what I have had.”

The sense of entitlement is the thing that is essential for politicians to trade the resources of a nation for their control of that nation. At the very least we need truth as to the direction we are going. We all know we cannot spend without restraint much as we know that smoking is unhealthy. There will be final consequences.

Swickard is co-host of the radio talk show News New Mexico, which airs from 6 to 9 a.m. Monday through Friday on a number of New Mexico radio stations and through streaming. His e-mail address is michael@swickard.com.