Whether U.S. is on the right path depends on political perspective

Hillary Clinton says many Americans are “frustrated — even furious” because the economy is “not yet working the way it should,” and a lot of people “feel there is less and less respect for the work they do. And less respect for them, period.”

Donald Trump has built his presidential campaign around his “Make America Great Again” theme. He says “the system is rigged against our citizens,” too many of whom have been “neglected, ignored and abandoned.”

Do you believe our nation is off track? What has gone wrong?

Or is this just politics? Is America still great?

Our nation has definitely gotten off track due to the policies of Barack Obama.

They are designed to put more people on welfare and food stamps, discouraging them from working and making them dependent on the government.

He has demonstrated he does not like America and thinks this country should be punished for our “misdeeds.”

Hillary Clinton’s three decades as a lying, deceitful, bigoted, self-indulgent, arrogant public figure make her unacceptable.

Donald Trump, on the other hand, might not be couth and “politically correct,” but he is honest and has many years of knowing how the world and business works, which makes him perfect to get us out of our political quagmire.

America is out of balance. We blame politics but we must look in a mirror.

Our Constitution served us well and we trusted in God. A new breed says they know better.

We paid no attention, times were good. We elected professional corrupt politicians and let them spend our money to re-elect themselves to spend more. They created a separate society for themselves for healthcare, salary increases, retirement, laws, etc.

A strong military to protect us and one person destroys it while telling us we didn’t need it.

We took God out of schools, the military, business, government, society, our way of life. We created an 11th Commandment of political correctness.

We’re $19 trillion in debt. Does that tell us anything?

America is not off track. But Congress is, as the will of the people is not being followed.

The majority of Americans wants better gun control and corporations to pay their fair share of income taxes. But your Congress won’t allow it.

So, who’s to blame for what’s wrong with America? Just look into a mirror.

Yes, our nation is off track, and our problems can be traced to our nation, as a whole, rejecting God and his basic authority. That has eaten away at the moral backbone of society.

Without God’s rules and directions as our guide, we’re seeing the breakdown of families, which affects our choices and character. Even our leaders lie and cheat, setting terrible examples.

About 71 percent of Americans say we’re going in the wrong direction. This just cries out to put the other party in power.

Hillary Clinton will continue the policies that have led to the slowest recovery since World War II.

She’ll create only government jobs. We need jobs in the private sector.

Donald Trump has and will create private-sector jobs. He surrounds himself with great people and listens to them.

The problem with Trump is that he says things off the cuff, and the mainstream media exaggerate and misinterpret these statements.

Our economy is not functioning as it should, but Trump doesn’t have the prescription to fix it.

Both sides have essentially become corporate parties that beg for campaign contributions as they do the bidding of corporate America and Wall Street.

As long as we continue to deregulate, push free trade and subsidize corporate welfare, we leave behind spending for education, healthcare and infrastructure.

Whenever they’re in power, Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, promise stuff to disenfranchised voters, claiming the rich will pay for it. This is their plan to win this fall.

They think making enough people dependent on government is a winning formula. If “successful,” however, Democrats will eventually have a socialist country, like Venezuela, where the government can no longer provide basic necessities.

As Margaret Thatcher said of socialism, “You eventually run out of other people’s money.”

Donald Trump, even as a loose cannon, seems interested in our country’s prosperity — in “making America great again.”

Then we’ll have a prosperous, “capitalist” country, not a socialist state that the government will be unable to sustain.

America veered off course in November 2000 with the election of George W. Bush.

We had just had three large budget surpluses and experts were forecasting surpluses “as far as the eye could see.” Peace and prosperity had arrived.

Eight years later we were mired in the Great Recession. The economy was headed over a waterfall, the stock market was tanking and two wars were raging and there were no tax increases to pay for them.

Currently, the two big wars have been reduced to a trickle. The stock market has recovered all of its losses. Unemployment is down to 5 percent.

Why the beef?

Indeed, America has gone wrong with the Obama administration applying socialist redistribution theory and regulation to a capitalist economy.

Business spending on new facilities is below base line for the first three quarters of fiscal 2016 despite having huge cash reserves and a record low cost of credit. This shows a lack of confidence in the future.

Wages are stagnant and employment isn’t keeping up with population growth. This will not change with the election of a president who promises more of the last eight years.

Our nation is definitely off track with its influence severely waning in the past eight years.

America is still superior to many countries by offering a better standard of living. However, any country deserves better leaders than those presently offered by our two-party system.

The system is rigged so that 1 percent of Americans have most of the money.

It’s an unfair system supported by the Republicans in which the rich keep getting richer and the poor who have worked to help them get rich stay poor or get poorer.

Hillary Clinton as president will end Citizens United and make our elections and wealth distribution fairer.

This country is heading into the septic tank.

Hillary Clinton has always been a dishonest person and she lives by the mantra of “the end justifies the means.” She’s power hungry with no morals.

Donald Trump is an egomaniac with no grasp of what real life is. The silver spoon in his mouth prevents the rest of us from having any clue of what he may be trying to say.

This story was originally published August 5, 2016 at 5:41 PM with the headline "Whether U.S. is on the right path depends on political perspective."