Читать книгу Preserving Democracy - Elgin L Hushbeck - Страница 8

PREFACE TO THE PAPERBACK EDITION.

It has been a tumultuous and difficult couple of years. When I started writing Preserving Democracy nearly a decade ago, the threats and problems I described, though real in the long term, had a theoretical feel about them. Sure, the country had problems that, if not corrected, could lead to serious difficulties; but those problems seemed to be in the distant future. The Internet bubble, the events of 911, and the recession that followed, while serious, were not out of line with the types of problems that the country had faced, and survived, in the past; and survive the country did. As the book was being finalized, it was becoming clear that another bubble, the housing bubble, was popping, and that this would send the country into another recession. While it was unusual to have two economic bubbles so close to each other, it looked to be just another period of economic difficulty like those the country had experienced before. In fact, early indications were that this recession might even be on the mild side. Yet, as the hardcover editionwas being readiedfor publication, it became clear that this was not going to be the case. Something was different this time. Something had changed. The theoretical dangers in the future that I had written about, suddenly seemed both more real, and much closer. In the aftermath of the housing bubble came the lockup of the credit markets, TARP, the bailouts, the takeovers, the stimulus plan, and the heretofore unimaginable explosion in government spending and its corresponding budget deficits. When it came time to write a new chapter for the paperback edition, the subject was pretty clear: what happened? How did we get here?

In many respects the issues, dangers and problems discussed in the first nine chapters are what happened. Still, as a reader, you may want to skip ahead and start with chapter ten, as it is the most pressing and will give you a brief history of how we got here and some of the problems we face as a country. You can then return to the earlier chapters to get an even better understanding of the depth of the particular problems and the directions we need to go in order to get out of them.

Still, all in all, I remain hopeful and upbeat. America has faced some pretty serious challenges in her history, both internal and external. Each time the American people have rallied to the challenge, and there have in fact been many “Greatest Generations.” The American people give all indications of doing the same this time.

Elgin Hushbeck

Wausau, WI

May 2010