Pine for the past as apocalypse nears

Rob Powers, Las Vegas

Sunday, Nov. 18, 2012 | 2:01 a.m.

As I read letter after letter in newspapers predicting the end of the world because President Barack Obama got re-elected, I pause to reflect. I find myself in complete agreement with all of them.

Oh, how I long for the good ol’ days four or so years ago, when we were losing hundreds of thousands of jobs each month. I recall fondly two badly mismanaged wars (one launched absolutely unnecessarily, based upon faulty intelligence), each with no end in sight. I get choked up when I think about the then-thriving U.S. auto industry and the horrible fate that has now visited it.

I pine for the days when health insurance companies could deny coverage for people with pre-existing medical conditions, even children. I get positively angry when I realize that millions of people who could never get medical insurance before now will have access to it. And I bemoan the loss of a health care system that allowed people who had worked hard all of their lives, and done all of the right things, to be financially ruined because someone did the unthinkable — they got sick.

I, like your letter writers, pine for those halcyon days and am terrified that the apocalypse appears to be rushing toward us.