"The End Is Near!"

Nah, I don't really believe that, but between Glenn Beck's daily "the end is near" show and Peggy Noonan's piece in the WSJ, where she describes a "pandemic of fear," it's difficult not to keep my usual sunny optimism going.

There is no doubt that people I know personally, as Peggy does, are stashing cash in their homes, buying guns, and setting up a "if it all goes to hell" emergency plan. I get e-mail every single day referring to it.

People are scared. I don't think anyone expected everything to go so bad so quickly. Just within my own extended family there are layoffs, lost health benefits, and devastating losses in retirement. There is this sense that something bad is right around the corner.

It doesn't help when the Gitmo Five put this chilling statement:

“We are terrorists to the bone,” the Guantanamo detainees proclaimed. Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11, and his four comrades consider the charges that they slaughtered nearly 3,000 Americans to be “badges of honor, which we carry with pride.”

And we are going to put these guys exactly where when Obama closes Gitmo?

It also doesn't help when violence at our border increases and is being ignored by our government.

Then there is President Obama. Douglas Schoen and Scott Rasmussen write in today's WSJ: (via NRO)

Polling data show that Mr. Obama's approval rating is dropping and is below where George W. Bush was in an analogous period in 2001. Rasmussen Reports data shows that Mr. Obama's net presidential approval rating — which is calculated by subtracting the number who strongly disapprove from the number who strongly approve — is just six, his lowest rating to date.

The thing that is worse about Obama's falling poll numbers, which otherwise would be just the normal flow of things for a new President, is that people had such "hope" that he would bring about such "change."

But that hasn't been what we have gotten. He promised bi-partisanship, and then gave only lip service to Republicans. He promised a more moderate way of governing, and then proceeded in his first month to offend pro-life Americans by reversing orders and having taxpayer money pay for abortions overseas, and funding embryonic stem cell research, and his signing of FOCA, which will wipe away all reasonable restrictions on abortion, including parental notification of a minor seeking an abortion, is only a matter of time.

It was also frustrating that so many of Obama's appointees seldom seemed interested in paying their taxes at a time Obama seems determined that the successful pay more.

Obama promised no earmarks and he proceeded to sign a spending bill with 8000 of them. He promised bills would be online for five days for the public to see them before they are voted on. Didn't happen. He promised no lobbyists in his administration. Didn't happen. He said he would never tax the poor, yet starting April 1st there will be a 61 cent tax increase on cigarettes knowing that the majority of smokers are the working poor.

I think people are depressed that this wasn't a man who was really different. That he was, after all, just a politician like the rest of them. There is a lot of disappointment out here.

I wish I could say that I also don't carry this sense of unease within me. I wish I could say that things will get no worse. But what I really feel is that this will be a time for all of us to step up to the plate and help those in own families to get through these hard times. If you have a job and your brother doesn't, then you help him get through without turning to the government. This is how we get through this. Together.

We, as conservatives, know that the government isn't the answer. We are the answer. Now is the time to prove that.