Peggy Noonan: America Is at Risk of Boiling Over

I live in a community in the South where we have a lot of retired citizens from the Northern states. I have never seen the level of unrest and sheer anger at our Federal Government as now exists. Most of us have lived through the good times, with the economy having its ups and downs. As Peggy says, we all felt that our children would be better off than we were. Now that has changed. We are no longer confident that our leaders are serving the people, and we sure as heck, do not believe the country is on the right tract.

Congress, beginning in Bush's time, but continuing at a much faster pace, is spending and taxing this nation into oblivion, and they don't seem to care. The entitlement programs, whose tax revenues were spent on "pork", and the public employee pension giveaways, which far exceed anything in the private sector, are bankrupting our nation.

Yes, I can see the hot water we are in, and, unlike the proverbial frog, it is time for all of us to jump out of the pot. November would be a great time for the first giant leap.

Excerpt: But I've never seen the gap wider than it is now. I think it is a chasm. In Washington they don't seem to be looking around and thinking, Hmmm, this nation is in trouble, it needs help. They're thinking something else. I'm not sure they understand the American Dream itself needs a boost, needs encouragement and protection. They don't seem to know or have a sense of the mood of the country.

And so they make their moves, manipulate this issue and that, and keep things at a high boil. And this at a time when people are already in about as much hot water as they can take.