by Robert M. Traxler

Every four years we revisit the same trite statements:

• The United States is the most divided we have ever been.

• The American economy is horrible.

• The rich are getting richer the poor are getting poorer.

• Our infrastructure is falling apart.

• Racism is greater than ever before.

• The United States is a third world nation or the most advanced nation in the world depending, on the point the politician is trying to make.

• Real unemployment is the highest it has ever been.

• The deck is stacked against whomever your voting block is.

•Other nations are laughing at us and think we are stupid because: whatever your voting block is against or for.

• There is too much money in politics.

• We need a messianic savior.

• Our military is too weak or too strong, depending on party.

• The rich are evil; the poor have no chance to succeed.

The mantra goes on, but I try to keep the column under 700 words. Let’s take a look at the old “every four years” trite statements. The political and media class say we are the most divided we have ever been; 630,000 dead (mostly white men who fought against slavery) in the Civil War would differ.

The American economy is always horrible per the party out of power, and great according to the party in power. Let’s not forget the “Great Depression;” 25% of the nation was unemployed, or the good economic days of the 1950s and 1990s with up to 97% employment.

The poor are poorer than ever, not even close to true, we as a nation keep rising the poverty line up to keep the numbers high to justify political largesse for groups supporting their political power base. The poor in the United States are upper middle class in most of the world.

The poor are always getting poorer and the rich are always getting richer, don’t you think after 160-plus years of that mantra the rich would have everything and the rest of us nothing? Most of us have a vehicle or three, a home, medical care, electrical power, smart phone, TV, computer, central heat, clothing, food and the basic needs to support us; that is not poor.

One of my favorite mantras is 25% of the American children go to bed hungry every night. With help for children in every state, county and local government and also at the federal level not even mentioning church or private assistance, it is a truly unenlightened statement. In poor areas the public education system provides free meals for children paid for with state and federal funds, most two meals and many all three meals a day many seven days a week. If a child goes to bed hungry it is not the government’s fault, it is not our nation’s fault, it is the parents or caregiver’s fault and absolutely not one in four children. Ask yourself how many children do you know who go to bed hungry every night? One in four?

Racism is more prevalent than ever before is a mantra we will hear a good bit in the next few months. I lived in the Jim Crow south in the 1960s — don’t tell me great progress has not been made in Civil Rights. The United States has elected a black President; a racist nation does not do that.

The poor do not have a chance to be successful; the majority of “rich” are folks who became rich and did not inherit it. Stories of successful businesses starting out in a garage are true.

The party out of power will tell us our infrastructure is falling apart. President Obama got billions in his stimulus package to fix that. The truth is roads and bridges will degrade over time and always need to be maintained. A road or bridge starts falling apart the day it is finished, so they are always falling apart.

Ask yourself why the political system keeps revisiting the same old mantras every four years and has for hundreds of years? The answer is simple: they work, we want to hear them and they get our attention, but more important, they get our votes and our dollars.

The truth is that the President of the United States is not and should not be a monarch nor a dictator; power rests in all three branches of government. The only power to make a true change rests in the Congress, and that is a very good thing.

Have you driven the roads in Dorr lately?