What really gives me pause are the Savages, Limbaughs, Boortzs, Oreillys, and Hannitys of the world. They act as if they have a clean slate. As if they have a monopoly on perfection and integrity. I know it’s lonely on the top but this is ridiculous. I watched the press conferences, and some of the town halls. I’ve listened to the vacuous dialogue that has followed afterwards. The bravado that the Dick Cheney’s, and Karl Rove’s have shown in the aftermath of their disastrous tenure amazes me. The artificial stance that they’ve taken that government has no place in the private sector just to sound principled is amazing. Especially considering the most expansive use of government and executive power in the history of the United States the past 8 years. I believe that they fail to recognize that they are implicit in their contribution to the worst economic downturn in decades like the kids that broke the vase and ran out of the room. All of this is true. American’s voted unanimously to move away from this so-called “hands off” approach to government although it was nothing resembling “hands off”. Wake up America.
Barack Obama’s administration is barely out of it’s first two weeks and they are calling him a liar and cheat. The “Shop-Lifter in Chief” I heard the other day. Bush’s projected 3-trillion dollar war, however, is somehow more dignified an expense because if you didn’t support it you were unpatriotic. He sold us bumper sticker philosophy “They Hate us for Our Freedom” and “Your either with us or against us.” The cost of this to our international perception was decimating. All of this pales in comparison to the human cost. Obama believes in a philosophy that government is inherently as good as the people that govern. He reveres the Kennedy’s, and the FDRs. We knew that going into the election. As much as others wanted to paint him as this mysterious terrorist, yet they act surprised when he brings a pro-spending agenda. Politicians are such drama-queens. They sensationalize every blunder, and hyperbolize every action and it’s sickening (this goes for both sides).
It’s a world that we have created, exasperated by the Bush Administration and consumed by so many political hacks (like myself) like junk-food. Unfortunately, it’s not only bad for you it matters. It matters in every way because it divides us. We will not move forward. We will not progress without cooperation. The sad thing we all know this but are unable to concede anything. It’s either liberal or conservative. Sometimes Socialist or Fascist. The government panacea or almighty free-market ingenuity and nothing else.
Stop listening to the entrenched and listen to who matters. The loudest one in the room is always heard but is rarely right. He can’t remove the passion to make an objective decision. See what really amazes me is that the most staunchest of Republican’s swear by the free-market. Just this fall they claimed the economy was sound. Some consider any government interference to be an act of blasphemy. Yet they fail to recognize that any process requires the meddling of man. If I’m wrong, please enlighten me. The market supposedly self-corrects itself as this perfect organism. I recognize government as flawed, and full of corruption. But so is the private sector. I think the rub is that government, although accountable to the public, is ran by a majority that is apathetic. Government is rarely newsworthy to the middle, and useless to the extreme. Useless in the way that it only matters to the spin-masters and opinion makers. Then the parochially minded eat it up when they are in agreement. When it’s packaged as an affront on their deepest values. It plays to the worst of our prejudices.
Obama has gone out of his way to hear the other side of the argument. Even though it’s slanted by the right as conniving and dirty. They take some poor judgements by his team and frame it as typical “Chicago politics” or “Blago-tics” (after the infamous impeached Illinois governor). They fail to give credit to Obama to doing one thing that Bush never did, and in the first few weeks of his administration for that matter. He took credit for a mistake. Can any of you name one former Secretary of the Treasury? I can’t, except Paulson. I’m actually for the nominees stepping down. (For what it’s worth). I understand why Obama doesn’t denigrate them and dismiss them, and it’s not because he is a corrupt Blago-clone.
The vast majority of us have no real understanding of the economic crisis. We all have someone else’s idea, and most likely an oversimplification of the theory (myself included). Let’s give the man a chance to do what he was voted to do. I understand the microscope that is being applied. I actually applaud it but the dialogue coming out of it is disappointing in substance. It doesn’t move things forward. It’s political protectionism in the disguise of patriotism. It’s Obama’s move, let him have it. If he fails, it’ll be his and his side to take the fall. No more political grandstanding . We need leadership, and leadership comes with a great responsibility and accountability.
“We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things.” Barack Obama
