[quote=eavesdropper]
I’m not excusing the Republicans. I’m in awe of their skill in gauging the concerns and frustrations of the American people. The problem is that they exploit this, without any intention of providing relief. They get people worked up over government overspending, over taxes, over “death panels”. Then they head into the Senate and House chambers, and it’s business as usual. And I don’t buy into the “Tea Party” at all. Not only aren’t they organized worth a damn, I believe that many of them are right-wing extremists trying to force the Republican Party they belong to into ultra-restrictive far-right views. And force-feeding us Sarah Palin in the process.
Allan, please tell me there’s hope. You can lie to me, if necessary. I’m used to it – I’ve been voting for many years.[/quote]
Eavesdropper: First off, you need to post more. Not only because you generally agree with me, but because you represent an intelligent, fairly middle-of-the-road voice, and that offers balance to the Left versus Right jousting that these threads usually descend into.
Yeah, there’s hope. There’s always hope. Of course, I’m also a Raiders fan, so what the hell do I know?
More seriously, I do believe that we’ll get through. We always do, and throughout our history. Obama’s election proved the incredibly dynamic nature of this country; electing a black man president and barely two generations past the Civil Rights Act.
That said and ceteris paribus, we also need to get our shit together: Individually, collectively and as a nation. We’ve turned into a bunch of hand-wringing, ineffective, frightened children who are now conditioned to turn to our Big Mommy/Daddy Gubment to fix all woes, whether its the “War on Terror” (don’t get me started), or this bungled and bungling Gulf crisis. If the latter does nothing else, it should dispel the notion that corporations have a heart and are capable and that Big Government is not the easy answer when things go wrong.
I don’t buy into the Tea Party, either, but it is good to see people getting off their asses and rallying, even if the result looks a little like a Klan rally mixed with the Tin Foil Hat Brigade. We’ve had plenty of nutbags in this country, but the beauty is that they tend to non-violence and the transitions between Democrat and Republican are bloodless.
I was in Costco the other day and saw a Newt Gingrich book warning of us of the perils of the Obama Administration and probably containing incantations for protecting oneself from the “Pox of Leftism” or somesuch. I remember laughing at the title, because it was overblown and inane, but also because “only in America”.
We can scream and squeal and point fingers, but eventually we pull our heads out of our asses and go get the job done. I remember my grandpa on my mom’s side, who was working for Ford in Detroit when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. He told me of the complete panic in Detroit, and Chicago, and St. Louis immediately following FDR’s “Infamy” speech and the declaration of war. People were convinced the Japanese were going to invade the west coast and the Nazis were landing in New York City. They were arming themselves from the local hardware stores and Sears and Roebuck and sort of running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Then we got serious as a nation and went out and put Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany to heel. With a vengeance.
We’ll figure it out. We always do. It’ll involve waste, mismanagement, stupidity, and will take longer and cost more thatn it should, but we’ll figure it out.
