[onewhippedpuppy]

I'll go you one better Mule: entitlement and personal responsibility. Remove the entitlement programs that remove the incentive to work, give handouts (illegals included), and suck the government dry, and you have a good start. Related to that, make people again responsible for their own actions, as opposed to blaming another race or the government.

America was built on people wanting a better life. The American dream was working hard and having a great life. America was a world of opportunity. It still is, unfortunately the American dream has turned into the American right. People used to work their ass off to attain it, now they expect it to be handed to them. Individual hard work and innovation, and the rewards that come with it, are what made our country great. Now that incentive is slowly being removed by increasing government intervention and handouts.

Sadly, the illegal Mexicans are more like our ancestors than many Americans. They come to America knowing that if they work hard, they can have a better life. I don't agree with their methods, but America can learn a lot from their spirit.

In America, you can be anyone you want to be. However, this burden should fall on the individual. A sink or swim mentality made America great, and it saddens me to see it slowly washed away by entitlement. Terrorism has chipped away at America from the outside, but this is a problem eroding us from within. I wonder how long it can continue before we simply implode.