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In reply to the discussion: I remember when a Democratic president committed us to go to the moon [View all]Moonwalk
(2,322 posts)--I'm sure Obama would love to send us to the moon, but with what money? Kennedy came into office when America was the richest nation on Earth, the most powerful nation on Earth, before the rise of China to being a superpower, and while we were still surfing the post-WWII wave where we had not suffered, as Europe had from the war and needed to rebuild our cities. We were manufacturing like crazy, people were getting educations and jobs like crazy, we were getting others out of debt rather than being in debt ourselves, and, to top it all off, we had that little contest going with Russia where we just couldn't let them get to the moon first.
Now, I don't know if you've noticed, but we don't have that kind of employment, nor are we educating and manufacturing like that (we're not even making our own technology!), nor are we as globally powerful, and our national debt has gotten kinda large thanks to a couple of pointless wars, etc. Do we really want a liberal president to tell the public that the government is going to spend billions of THEIR tax dollars on a moon base rather than on unemployment, health care, etc.? Oh, and FYI, if we're going to spend that much money on anything, I'd kinda like to get global warming under control, because if our planet goes, we go and so does the moon base because there's no way it can generate air, food, water on it's own. It'll need to import that all from Earth. This is the only spaceship we've got and, in case you hadn't noticed, it seems to be damaged and in need of repair.
So, please, don't give our "liberal" president a hard time here. He may be as close as we can get in the 21st century to a Kennedy, but he's inherited a Great Depression, not the abundance and power of the 60's. And, frankly, it's about time we saw going to the moon--and creating a moon base--as a global affair rather than an "American" affair. It is the 21st century, and we need to think like a planet, not like a country. So, sorry, no K&R for you. I, personally, do want us to go back to the moon, but I don't want to lose a liberal president over such an issue--I want my liberal president to be in office to do other things. Meanwhile, I'll hope that the Earth, as a whole, creates that moon base, as it should. Given how the U.S. has managed its own affairs lately, I'd really rather not have it be the only country in charge of a moon base.
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