Twenty-five or 50 years from now, what will knowledgeable observers say about what happened to the United States during the “Obama years”?

Will they say these years marked an end to traditional American free enterprise and capitalism, the tightening or loss of many traditional personal freedoms, a significant drift to socialism, a weakened role in international affairs that left the U.S. no longer as the world’s most powerful nation and taking a back seat to Asian nations, with a weaker dollar and leaders who don’t tell the truth?

Will these observers say the Obama years produced a major shift in income equality and the acceptance of high unemployment with expanded welfare subsidies? Will they say terrorism grew throughout the world and the national debt increased ,with the federal government printing more money to cover ever-increasing obligations?

Or will these observers say the Obama years were among the best in recent history?

During his first campaign for the presidency, Obama told his audiences that, if he was elected, he would make fundamental changes in America.

He has followed through on this pledge and soon will be entering his last two years in office, a period when presidents often are described as “lame ducks” with little ability to call for and achieve meaningful legislative action.

In recent days, Obama has said he intends to fight for many of his fundamental changes using executive actions if he cannot get what he wants from Congress. At the same time, members of the U.S. Supreme Court are debating whether he has violated the U.S. Constitution with previous executive actions.

Whether by the current disclosures in former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ new book or the most recent finding of the Senate Intelligence Committee or fallout from the miserable opening of Obamacare or by many other indicators, it is clear Obama doesn’t worry about telling the truth.

He campaigned on honesty, openness and a willingness to work on both sides of the political aisle, but he has failed on all of these campaign promises. He wants to go down in political history books as one of this country’s great presidents, bringing about significant, meaningful and lasting change in America and he is committed to trying to accomplish this by whatever means necessary.

If he can’t get it done in his eight years in the White House, he will help whichever Democratic candidate he favors to win the party’s nomination and win the presidency if they will pledge to try to continue the “fundamental changes” in the country.

More Americans are likely to be on the government teat at the end of Obama’s term than at any time in our nation’s history. And these millions can be expected to vote for the Democrat/Obama-favored candidate in order to remain on the receiving end of government subsidies.

What is it going to take to wake up America to what is happening in this country? Is there a Democratic or Republican leader who has the courage, intelligence, leadership, experience and eloquence to level with the public and call attention to what is happening to this country and its citizens?

Consider the loss of freedom, the increase in government controls, the national debt, reports that show one out of five adult males do not have a job, growing terrorism, the underfunding or misfunding of education, a steady drift toward socialism, mismanaged health care that accounts for one-sixth of our national economy and, perhaps most important of all, the stifling effect of trying to make everyone and everything “average” with few excelling and few failing. The mantra of social and political correctness calls for everyone to be comfortable with no one losing and no one taking a chance to be a true leader.

As an executive of one of this country’s most outstanding companies recently said, when asked about his company leading the way to set a national standard calling for major changes, “not sure we have the interest or the intestinal fortitude to be the ‘bell cow’ for this. In the past, it has come with significant criticism from both sides of the aisle when we lead in this dialogue.”

So, in this case, the company and its leaders did nothing.

Is this country slowly becoming a nation of people unwilling to be leaders or serve as a “bell cow,” a country where it is smart not to take chances or speak up for fear of offending someone and accepting average or mediocrity as the desired norm, with government in charge of most everything?

Will this be the hallmark of the “Obama years,” and, if so, what can be done to snap out of this damaging drift? Are the words or descriptions of “exceptional” and “excellent” disappearing from our conversation?

Just how concerned is the average citizen? Enough to call for positive changes? Or are they willing to accept average as the norm for this country and its aspirations?