As I write this, Americans are (starting) to get used to their new President. The economy is tanking world-wide and everyone seems to disagree on how to fix it…although, to a layman at least, all the different ideas seem oddly similar. The Democrats are calling the President’s plan “bold” and the Republicans are calling it “irresponsible”.
Frankly, I find the behavior of both Parties pathetic. They both seem much more interested in advancing their own agendas at the expense of the other Party than they are in helping the American people.
The people of this country seem to be in favor of what the President is trying to do – not 100% but enough to matter. Certainly enough to allow Mr. Obama to use the populace as a club to threaten Congress into doing what he wants. I’m not sure how I feel about that yet but it is nice to see the congress-critters actually doing something for a change instead of just sitting around on their collective fundaments producing nothing but enough hot air to melt an ice cap.
Don’t get me wrong. I have no problem with Congress…at least, not the idea of Congress. It’s the execution of that idea that seems to need a little work. Things have gotten so polarized these last few decades that very little actually gets done. Or it gets done by one Party while they hold the majority and then gets undone when the balance swings the other way.
It seems to me – and this is not an original idea – that starting around the time of the Reagan Administration, Partisan politics have become more pronounced. It’s gotten to the point where the Republicans – the Party that claims (wrongly) to represent me – is actually boasting about hoping the President’s recovery plan fails.
Forget about the fact that it would mean that the current economic problems would get worse. Forget about the fact that this would hurt a huge number of Americans, cause even more widespread unemployment, would cause more people to lose their homes, would cause businesses to fail. Forget that it could cripple the United States to the point that it might never recover. Forget all that. The “Important Thing”TM is for President Obama’s plan to fail – utterly and completely. Because this would prove that the Republicans were right and the Democrats were wrong.
This strikes me as wrong-headed. Simple-minded. Childish. Stupid. Short-sighted. Selfish. Did I mention Childish? In other countries it might even be Treasonous. Don’t believe me on that last one? Look up the definition of Treason as defined by various other countries and compare it to the definition used by the United States. The Rush Limburgers of this country are damn lucky they’re ‘of this country’ and not from somewhere else.
And don’t think that the Democrats are pure as the driven snow. They play the same hard-ball partisan politics as the Republicans. They just look better right now because the country has just had 8 years of hard-line Republicanism. By comparison, the Democrats are a breath of fresh air. But only by comparison.
Remember what I said earlier about how things done by one party while it’s in charge are undone when things swing the other way. The Democrats are currently reversing a lot of the things done during the last 8 years by the Republicans. Some of the undoing is for the good – such as a reversal of pretty much any environmental policy made by the Bush Administration. In other cases though, it’s not necessarily such a good thing. In too many cases, Democrats take a position opposite the Republicans simply because it’s opposite the Republicans. Again, the problem is Partisan Politics.
I’d like to see our elected officials take positions and propose legislation based on a sober, balanced assessment of the facts and make decisions based on what is best for the country, not on what is best for their Political Party. Until that happens, things will not change – except for the worse.
