Faith, part III--Americas

For several centuries, Roman Catholic was the only legal religion in Latin America.  Mass attendance was low (10%) and only about 20% of the people participated in church life at any time. Today 51% attend weekly and 79% say religion is important to them.  What happened?  Protestantism was gradulally allowed, first through British and American merchant communities.  About one in four Christians is Protestant today. In the 50s, as Protestants began to make inroads, the Catholic church judged it as an appeal to the material deprivations of the poor.  As an antidote they coined Liberation Theology which was thinly veiled Marxism.  But it never caught on with peasants, in fact backfired and Protestantism grew more, especially Pentecostalism. The Catholic Charismatic Movement did however begin to grow enormously.  Today, attendance in Catholic seminaries has grown to 20,000 where it was 4000 in 1960. It has been most vibrant in countries like Guatemala where the Catholic-Protestant split is about 50-50.  But it comes at a price of polarization and distrust between the two groups as well as anti-semitism. 

            In USA, 78% of the people claim affiliation with Christianity, 2% are Jewish, 4% other, and 12% are unaffiliated.46% attend weekly and 66% say religion is important in life. 82% told Gallup they were “sometimes very conscious of God’s presence.” 44% said they felt called by God to do something. Yet many have concluded that Christianity is dying and in decline.  The answer to this is two-fold.  First, Millenials are attending poorly (about 1/3) which actually matches attendance of their parents when young.  Second, many more are unaffiliated with a particular church.  These “nones” have grown from 8 to 22% since 1990—but what is meant is “no actual membership”.  A third reason often cited, “Young people are more liberal about sex,” has been shown to be meaningless in numbers. What does seem to be measurable is the decline in mainline Protestants.  Many of these bodies have lost half or three-quarters of membership.  Conservative traditional denominations and Catholics have held their own while Pentecostals, and LDS have soared.  But most of all, the conservative, evangelical Non-denominational churches have come out of nowhere to be a major player.  Why have many left their denomination for a more conservative church?  It is often traced to the secularization among intellectuals in seminary and clergy.  Similarly, Judaism has gone through a season of decline in numbers and liberalism, but in the last 20 years has seen a resurgence amid increased observance of traditions.  All of this points to American faith, not in decline but holding at least as many adherents as in previous generations.   

Faith increasing, part II, Africa and Asia

Africa divides into two spheres of faith—Muslim north and sub-Saharan Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest faith measures of any continent.  71% attend weekly and 92% think religion is important part of their lives.  Although Europe had visited Africa for years, they could not tolerate the malaria until quinine was discovered about 1870.  So all the slave, cocoa and rubber trade was iinstigated by Africans who are somewhat tolerant of malaria.  Then 1870-1914, Europeans took over colonially and brought French Catholicism, Anglicanism, and Dutch Calvinism.  Other Christian groups got a foothold.  Ethiopia invited Lutherans in. Methodists, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians came too as did Social Gospel groups. But it was to little effect. Only conservative denominations had limited success. Then came a strange twist.  Converted Africans became schooled in the Bible and noted that things like slavery, polygamy, and witchcraft were indeed spoken about (Europeans demanded they spurn such things.) Christianity grew from the grassroots.  The Bible was translated into 650 languages and today there are 11,500 indigenous African denominations.  Most are very conservative, Bible based, Pentecostal.   Most Africans believe in witchcraft and oppose it (Uganda and Burundi excepted).  The struggle with native animistic religion has been titanic.  Slavery is cast in a new light by Christianity and many slaves are still kept but as family members to some degree.  Polygamy still exists, but the more Christian a nation, the less polygamous.  The improved status of women has also been a big spur to church growth.  Equal rights and the ability to hold any job is approved by 83-90% of Christians. There is also a titanic struggle with Islam.  The nations that border the Sahara on the south are 50-75% Muslim. And Christianity seems to slowly be making inroads into Muslim areas.  Sunday worship is nothing like Europe or America. Dancing, testifying, shouting, breaking into tongues and African music give the sense of a revival meeting.

            Asian religiousness is also growing with the exception of Buddhism.  Chinese and Japanese claim they aren’t religious because they consider Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism to be philosophies with no membership. Shinto is the Japanese tradition but only 4% of Japanese consider themselves religious, i.e. churched.  The main barrier to Christian growth is the intense Japanese nationalism.  But 88% maintain a Buddhist altar in their home and nearly all have a Shinto home shrine.  Praying to departed family members, visiting graves, good luck charms and other practices ordinarily deemed religious are practiced by nearly everyone.  But there are quirks.  There is no connection between societal morality and religion in Japan.

            Christianity is making headway into Korea and China. (no Gallup survey for China)  China has gone from 1 million Christians to 100 million with no western missionaries under communism. It’s an amazing thing, because the government strongly advises atheism. We still don’t know absolute numbers because people are “coming out”. Buddhists seems to also be coming out.   S. Korea is 30% Christian. Why has it grown so rapidly.  Many Orientals convert to Christianity in graduate school in America. A survey found that 62% of young people in China are “interested in Christianity”. And just as Muslim faith is most prevalent among the educated, Christianity is most prevalent amnong educated orientals. This refutes the theory that religion appeals to the poor because of deprivation—Marx’s opiate of the poor people.  It may be that a new theory is needed.  That it is not thwarted material desires but thwarted spiritual desires that drive this trend. The people of privilege ask questions like, “Does life have meaning?” “Does virtue exist?” “Is death the end?” There may also be a cultural incongruity reason since these societies are rapidly changing in the face of old beliefs.  Or a hunger for morality that is not tied to the traditional faiths of the east.

            Contrary to industrial development, Hinduism didn’t die out in India.  Instead it revived. 67% of Indians worship weekly and 85% claim importance of personal faith. Today 80% of Indians claim Hinduism.  Pilgrimages have exploded in number.  In 1986 1.3M visited Vaishno Devi Shrine in Kashmir.  2012 had 10M.  Kimbh Mela bathing in the Ganges has doubled since 2001. There is a huge boom in sacred building.  Sikhism and Jainism have also grown. And again, this is most reflected in the upper classes.  Hindu religion is a one-god pantheon with a strong emphasis on sin, that is, religion is closely linked to morality. A major problem of faith in India is the separatism brought about by Hindu-Muslim clashes which have spread to persecutions of Christians and Sikhs.

            So in Asia and Africa, again the answer is that a huge religious revival is taking place and it has widest appeal to the educated and wealthy classes.

Faith increasing throughout World, Part I

You often hear that churches are emptying and faith is falling on hard times.  It has been attributed to urbanization, modernism, and increased secularization/organized religion burnout.  That’s not quite a fair picture.  Gallup polling has now run an in-depth interviewing of 1000-10,000 people in almost every country of the world (exceptions like N. Korea!).  The basic finding is that the world is grasping for more, not less faith, though it sometimes takes the form of odd spirituality.  Christianity is not losing to Islam.  Atheism remains an exception.  Results of Gallup and several other surveys or looked at by Rodney Stark in The Triumph of Faith, published a year ago.

            How Gallup approached their interviews was to ask more than “are you a member?”.  They asked if the respondent belonged to an organized religious group, have they attended some part of that organization this past week, is God directly involved in things that happen, is religion an important part of their life?  Some astounding things resulted. 

Then Stark looks at results from the historic record and compares with other findings such as the Pew surveys which are simpler. 

            Europe (45% say religion is important part of my life, 31% say attended this week) the original home of Christianity’s explosion, shows that modernity is not part of the reason for less faith.  Per Capita GDP and Human Development index anti-correlates with church attendance and but correlates with prayer activity.  In other words, the wealthier parts of Europe don’t go to church as much, but pray more. Stark points out that reports of a decline in attendance in the 19^th century have been shown to be false and actual declines took place after 1960.  But replacing this is unchurched forms of religious expression.  This fits an old tradition.  When Europe went savage over religious wars from 1520-1648, people went underground in the Pietist movement.  In fact the great majority of people seldom attended in Europe.  In Medieval times only 10% attendance was considered good.  Bishops in the 1500s wrote that far more people were fishing than praying.  Moreover peasant behavior was atrocious in church.  Dogs, drunkenness, card-playing, loud talk was common during the service. Many churches had zero attendance on Sunday, so the priest could save his sermon.  Elsewhere people left after mass. This continued in the Protestant era. 
             What Gallup found stunning, was the belief among modern Europeans in Unconventional Supernatural beliefs—fortune tellers,fairies and trolls, astrology,a nd lucky charms. (30-40% Western Europe and 40-70% Eastern Europe)  So much for the modernism theory of church demise.  And these beliefs are most prevalent in countries with low church attendance like Sweden. As Will Durant observed, "Religions are born and may die, but superstition is immortal. Only the fortunate can take life without mythology."  Among urban Europeans, church attendance is higher so the idea of urban agnosticism is a falsehood.  Why the generally low attendance?  Stark says it has to do with a long history of lazy, obstructionist state churches that won’t allow competiton from other denominations, yet provide little inspiration.  States block other denominations with all sorts of restraints.  There has not been a religious revival in Europe since the Reformation.  And if you'll remember, the Thirty Years War so devastated Europe that people became cynical of Christianity everafter. USA contrasts in having numerous revivals and religious movements and competition among groups.  Another interesting fact—anti-semitism is strong (except in Sweden, Netherlands and UK) at 33% of population.  There is also a very strong correlation in fertility rate and church attendance (2.74 children from women with weekly attendance vs. 1.79, never attend).  What’s interesting about this, is that in about 4 generations, religious Christians and Muslims will outnumber those of little religiousness.  

            Muslims may never have been as religious as they are today.  90% say religion is important and 58% attend weekly.  And it thrives among the well-educated and affluent. It appears to be a reaction to modernization and urban life.  Culture in backwards areas was often more tolerant of sin and rarely spoke of jihad half a century ago.  The desire for governments aligned with Sharia (Islamic law that punishes blasphemies and those that leave the faith with death) is very  universal (70%).  So is anti-Semitism and hatred of other faiths.  This religious revival is reflected in pilgrims to Mecca (Hajj). In the 1950s Hajj was about 100,000.  In 2012 it topped 3 million.  Turkey and other Middle Eastern states seem to have experimented in Western ways and rejected them.  This can be understood as a disgust that Muslim nations are weak and therefore, the fear that Muslims have not been faithful enough to Allah.  The West is resented. A good indicator of religiousness among Muslims is the difficult belief that all go to hell upon death.  Belief in hell is from 91% to 100% across the Mideast whereas it was 50-70% in the 50s.  Asked, “When science and religion conflict, is religion always right?” has agreement above 84% in all countries except Lebanon and Turkey.  Religious intolerance is considered a virtue (compared with the 17^th century when more Christian eastern Europeans preferred living under Turks than Austrians, Italians, or Poles.).  And this is reflected in the flight of Christians and Jews from Muslim countries.  Egypt was 18% Christian in 1975 and is 5% today.  Lebanon was 67%; 37%, today.  Turkey was 0.6%; 0.2%, today. Jordan 5%; 1.7%, today.  Libya and Algeria, once home to hundreds of thousands of Jews have exactly none today. 63% of Muslims believe the Holocaust was a myth.  Veil wearing, supported by over 70%, is virtually as high among women as men.  Honor killing is endorsed by a high of 60% in Iraq and a low of 11% in Morocco (Egypt and Pakistan are in the middle at 40%).  Yet this intensification of Islam is not a regression into a pious past.  Whatever else it may be, it is “modern” Islam.

            More on faith in Asia, Africa, and the Americas in next two parts.

Is Cowboyin' dead?

If you’re a lover, a rider, and a wild bull fighter—can you wear an Obama mask?  Remember the guy in the Missouri state fair rodeo 2010 who did that?  He got suspended and nearly lost his occupation and had to beg and plead with all the politicians and the sponsors who want all the benefits of sponsorship without any of the controversy.  It made me sick. 

Indeed the guy who was the rodeo clown didn’t even do much of a lampoon by just wearing a mask.   A better lampoon would have been to carry a golf club as well. There is a longstanding cowboy tradition of making fun of everybody including yourself. If someone is such a egotist that they can dish it out but they can’t take it, that’s more than just a character flaw.  Indeed we all have character flaws.  It’s more like a moral flaw.  Among country folk who fight weather, diseases in the herd and markets, humility is an imperative of spiritual health.  No humility-- people question whether you have any faith in God. Cowboys and farmers laugh at everybody.  At least that’s how it used to be a century ago when 40% of the people lived off the land.  Now it’s 1%.

The objectors on the left said it was racism, which is what they label everything this side of not being able to find a parking space. The rodeo clown had no thought of racism.  In fact, as a rodeo attendee, I have seen my share of Nixon masks and Reagan masks and had a good hoot over the shenanigans.  And there are clowns with African heritage.  Did anybody call them racist?  I think not.

When Obama came on the scene, I read Ed Klein’s The Amateur which details how Obama is a narcissist.  He painstakingly proved the point.  Obama won’t invite union leaders back to the White House if they object to anything he wants.  He stops listening and calling on cabinet members who voice warnings.  He requires yes men in all bureaucracies. He thinks he is the smartest person in the room no matter which room he is in.  A narcissist thinks the sun rises and sets on himself. This is a prescription for fiddling while Rome burns. But the media portrayed his early days as being victory after victory for the liberal cause.  Obamacare and Stimulus were rammed down throats gleefully because they had power to do it.  But I wondered if Obama weren’t in fact, a hardcore ideologue, unwilling to bend.  I got in a discussion of the economy with my financial planner and he noted that stagnant economies like Japan cannot fight recessions with cheap interest.  Spending does little but is the only tool.  Suddenly a light bulb went on in my head and I asked what do you invest in when that happens, because Obama will stimulate forever.  Own Wall Street all the way, he told me.  That’s what I did and made a killing in the midst of a terrible recovery.   

So here we are at the nadir of another summer rodeo season, another presidential season. The bull riders are all wearing elbow braces and have wrapped wrists.   Is it okay to have a clown with an Obama mask now that he has served two terms, or is the Left still insecure and can’t laugh?  OR, should we just declare the demise of the American Cowboy?     

Perplexing things

At sundry times I have not been able to figure out why people think like they do.  The latest is this Lochte controversy. I admit I don’t know all that went on, nonetheless, I can’t figure out why no one holds Brazil responsible.   Suppose I was still in business and I ran a gas station.  You came into my gas station, blasted out of your mind, causing trouble, tearing stuff up—worse than anyone alleges in the Lochte incident.  But if I pulled a gun on you, do you think the police would lock me up or you? Brandishing a gun can still be a felony charge in most states.  Apparently not in Brazil.  Moreover, the Brazilian government now wants Lochte to pay $47,000 to avoid charges??? Isn’t it time someone told Rio to go to hell?  And take all those Tijuana operators with them.

            Nobody was more clever about feeling our pain that Bill Clinton.  When disaster happens, it is up to the state to clean up.  We never see federal regular Army troops taking charge.  FEMA is only a loan/payment agency.  Governors used to routinely ask Presidents to not come to a disaster area immediately because it causes too much disruption of responders.  That’s why W. just flew over Katrina in a plane.  But Slick Willie transposed the governor’s function of showing up at a disaster into the Presidency and won huge acclaim for it.  So Trump went to Louisiana and scored a big Clinton-like win.  Obama is taking the guff for golfing.  But given that Bill is married to Hill, why does no one ask where she was?  Where was Slick’s wife?

            We have two candidates who are 69 and 70 years old.  Only half of all Americans live to age 65. Avg. age at death is 78. Reagan was 69 and everybody was concerned about his health, which turned out to be robust with an active lifestyle and proper eating. Still, he had Alzheimers within 4 years of serving.  8 of 44 Presidents have served because of death of the former guy. Why does no one ask about Trump or Hillary Health? And then KFC announced they are making sunscreen that smells like fried chicken.  Where can I get this?  If you’ve ever tried to walk houses campaigning and met vicious dogs you might come to realize that if you eat a nice greasy burger, they tend to start wagging tails and licking hands.  I want to find that KFC sunscreen!

            Why is everybody, and I mean everybody, making bacon cheeseburgers with jalapenos?  Don’t get me wrong.  I love bacon.  But the strong flavor overwhelms the sandwich.  Add jalapenos and you can’t taste beef anymore.  Is this what passes for gourmet?  Whatever happened to charbroiling, mushroom-swiss, bleu cheese, and carmelized onions?  Is every taste a desire for bacon and peppers?  But then I was also the guy who wondered why the burger joints didn’t offer alternatives to French fries like Wendy’s.  Don’t tell me nobody is interested.

            Given that the research of the last 15 years points to the rarity of an earth-like planet nearby, why does everyone explain anything they can’t understand as caused by aliens.  If something in history is a mystery, it must have been intervention by mysterious aliens.  If a mystery in science, maybe it’s aliens.  Somebody figured-out something new, maybe he was helped by aliens.  Isn’t this the same baloney that people used to think about leprechauns, ogres, trolls and fairies?  By golly, I think the pyramids were built by fairies.  With tin-foil hats.

            Given that ISIS and all sorts of Islamists would love to cripple USA and that hundreds of thousands of illegals have crossed our borders in the last ten years, why aren’t we worried about terrorism cells?  Why doesn’t some pop-culture saavy network adopt this as a theme—how to protect yourself in time of terror emergency?  If one of those mideastern countries had an atomic weapon and medium range missle launcher and didn’t want to get caught, they would park a ship offshore, launch the missle at the center of our country, detonate in the atmosphere (doesn’t take any guidance system) and cause an EMP explosion that would destroy virtually every computer network in America—cars couldn’t operate, electrical grid would go down, no internet or phones.  The same effect would happen if a large solar flare were to erupt.  One does every hundred years.  Why does no one plan for this?

            My conclusion therefore is that people don’t like to think about bad things.  They love the familiar and status quo.  You can’t control Brazil or a solar flare. They just don’t want to think about anything that challenges their notions.     

Oklahoma towns

I read on the internet what they thought were the strangest town names in the world.  Why, Arizona makes it.  So does Dull, Scotland.  Well, Hello!  Have you been to Oklahoma?  We have paired towns like Dinger and Binger. Ringling and Ringwood and Bowring. Bokhoma, Dacoma and Lahoma. Wakita and Vinita  Boggy Depot and Bug Tussle. Bessie and Gerty.  Go down I-35 and find a sign south of Oklahoma City that says Wayne/Payne.  They aren’t far apart either.  Liberty, New Liberty and Freedom. Slapout is a ways from Dibble and Tuttle.

Then there’s my favorite, Nowhere.  Nowhere is between Turpin and Gray along US 83 out in the panhandle. There’s actually a bit of history and politics about this name.  US 83  was known as the highway to nowhere when it was built in 1935 because the eastern press disdained the project as a government boondoggle.  It went from Williston, ND to Dalhart, TX never intersecting a city with more than 15,000 people.  Why build the highway?  Because FDR was trying to retain the farm vote and show confidence in the progress of the Dust Bowl area after committing the gaffe that he thought the whole area should be made a national park and the farmers removed.  So they built the highway to nowhere, and the urban newspapers lampooned it, even though it turned out to be a good truck route.  Since the Democrat party was turning decidedly urban, the controversy only stirred up animosity with the rural folks. 3 different country music songs were written about the “highway to nowhere.” “I’m travellin’ this highway to nowhere / since I can’t find the way to your heart.” And somebody in Oklahoma had the inspiration to put up a sign near a rural elevator, Nowhere, OK.    Eat your heart out, Wappanucka. 

Another favorite is Enid.  (Between Fairmont and Fairview) Sounds common enough.  A woman’s name, right?  Nope.  Originally a small eating joint was located along the Chisholm trail, later US 81.  They put up a big cutout sign that said, DINE, but most people approached it from the other direction where it looked like ENID.  The town was born. 

We also have city names around here just to trap and label you as a foreigner.  Miami is prounounced My am uh.  Prague, a town of Czech settlers, is mysteriously pronounced Pray-g. How about Gotebo? (Goaty Bow) If that doesn’t trip a stranger up, try pronouncing Ochelata or Nelagony which are only 15 miles apart.

Just remember Happyland isn’t far from Oil Center.

Hillary: Charles IX or Phillip II?

I catch myself wondering what kind of President Hillary would be in a foreign policy crisis?  Are there any precedents in history?  Apparently the Benghazi incident occurred the day Obama announced he was going to bed because he had a fundraiser to speak at and needed rest.  He also has little stomach for war decisions, so he left the Libya situation in the hands of Hill and Leon the Congressman Forever.  As they watched the 7 hour horror unfold, Indecisive Hill and Leon the Peon couldn’t decide to wake the Emperor from his beauty rest. (only a Prez can order troop actions.)  Either they thought it would end or, more likely, Hill who had been the strong advocate of getting rid of Qaddafi, thought the “rebel” attackers would surely be our friends.  Hence she clutched.    

            Charles IX was king of France during a time of extreme partisanship. Catholics conspired to murder Protestants and vice versa. Chuck’s mother, Catherine de Medici, had been regent in his youth and was still chief advisor when he was 23 in 1572. France was 90% Catholic and 10% Huguenot Calvinist Protestant who were on the rise in government.  In particular, Coligny, admiral of the French Navy had the ear of her son.  Catherine was jealous.  She and the widow of the Duke of Anjou blamed Coligny for the good Duke’s murder and conspired to have Coligny assassinated in revenge.  In August 1572, rumors of a Huguenot revolt ran through Paris and in the middle of the night, the young king was awakened by his panicked mother, fearing that a Huguenot takeover would mean doom for herself.  She and a gang of staunch Catholics told the king that he must execute 6 noted Huguenots or risk his mother’s life.  But Chas protested that they should be tried.  Too late for that, he was told.  They must act fast.  Still Chas argued until finally at his wit’s end, he blurted out blasphemies and said, “By the death of God, since you choose to kill the Admiral, I consent! But then you will have to kill all the Huguenots in France!” Slammed the door and went to his room.  And so the highly partisan Catholics gave orders to literally massacre most Protestants in France.  The following day, August 24, 1572 is known as St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre when 30,000+ Protestants were unsuspectingly drug from their homes and killed execution style. Charles IX tried to stop the holocaust twice but was told it was too far along. Having lost the better part of his government, he grew despondent and was tortured by his conscience. As for the partisan Catholics, they rationalized the massacre as an explosion of resentment and revenge against the heretics. Charles grew recluse and thin and the next year contracted tuberculosis.  By 1574 he was spitting blood and called for Henry of Navarre, a Huguenot duke and cousin.  He named him heir on his dying bed.  Henry, assessing the situation and realizing he was not too personally religious, agreed to convert to Catholicism as an expedient to ruling the kingdom, and as a first act as Henry IV, amnestied Protestants. But the Massacre haunted France.  Playwrights and philosophers began to question Divine Right of the King, as a precursor to the French Revolution two centuries early.  The loss of the Huguenot bourgeois plagued France for a hundred years. Morality declined and ultimately led to ruin.

            Here’s the deal with a weak decision-maker in the presence of strong partisanship.  The worst atrocities are committed when the ruler doesn’t stand up for right and wrong and common sense, then gives in to one of two sides.  Often the consequences are worse than the atrocity.  France, with its weak morals, in 1789 guillotined ¼ of the clergy, ¼ declared atheism, and the other half left the country.  Since Napoleon, France has been a weak state in war, a creative and innovative land but with poor economic performance.  Is this called missing the discipline of morals?

             If Hillary is checked by a Republican Congress,they will fight for 4 years.

            But what if Hillary gets a Democrat Congress?  “Then we are Italy,” a friend of mine said.  Well, actually, Phillip II of Spain comes to mind.  Spain was a proud country that defeated the last Moorish kingdom, Grenada, in 1492 and discovered the new world that same year.  In the years after this, the gold and silver from Mexico and Peru enriched Spain phenomenally.  The Hapsburgs married-in. Finally Phillip II rose to the throne in 1555 and then inherited the throne of Portugal when it went heirless.  Fanatic and conscientious about his Christianity, the people loved Phillip and still do to this day. They denied him nothing.  With their blessing, he began the purges. He exiled all Jews and then most Muslim Moriscos.  The Jews were the bankers and merchants.  The Muslims worked the farms for the Spanish.  The Spanish who remained didn’t want to work farms or trade.  They wanted to strum flamenco guitars, fight bulls and other proud occupations worthy of conquerors.  Phillip lost his internal economy and never understood why. He hated war and belatedly agreed to invade England.  When Spain lost the Netherlands to revolt and the Armada in 1586, the country went into steep decline.  His son Phillip III completed the banishment of Moriscos.  The people loved it and scooped up property at steep discount.  But Spain lost 400,000 of its most productive people out of a population of 7 million.

              The worst decisions with long repercusions  are made when one side wins everything.  "If only one idea is allowed, even if it is the correct idea, that is tyranny." --James Madison, Federalist Papers. 

            So what happens if the Democrats inherit the kingdom and our economy, already immune to stimulus from too much government regulation and taxation, is regulated/taxed even more?  That’s an economy which has experienced one of the worst recoveries (1.8% growth) in US history, has for the first time in 400 years of America, produced fewer new business start-ups than closures, has produced 10.5M new jobs when 21.5M were needed to keep up with population growth.   But would Hillary do damage or rectify things?  Well, she wants a massive new Islamic refugee program, wants to move Obamacare closer to single payer, desires more protectionism than Trump, and wants the coal industry dead. Taxes?  I listened to the debate between her and Bernie where she was advocating 45% max income tax and he trumped her at 54%.  She said she would do 54% if only Congress would pass it.  Think that will create new jobs???

            Trouble is, once you create a large, permanent dependent class, like Juan Peron did in Argentina, they are always there to out-vote and demand the taxpayers and producers spend an increasing share on free stuff from the government.