That old saying that we have the best congress and president money can buy is wrong. With all the money that was spent buying these worthies in the last two election cycles we should have gotten a far better political product.
We didn’t end up with a president with liberal leanings as so many voters believed they would get in 2008. What we got instead is someone surrounded and advised by the same crowd that ran things in the Clinton years — a time these folks regard as a golden age rather than a black swan preparation for what has come to pass in the economy since then. Our president today doesn’t lack the guts to fight for the traditional liberal principles of his party. He simply doesn’t seem to care enough about these principles and the constituencies they benefit enough to fight for them.
And then there are those Republicans in congress. Boy of boy, did they ever pull the wool over the eyes of conservative-minded Tea Parters. During the recently completed campaign Republican spin masters portrayed themselves as fighters for fiscal sanity who would fearlessly attack yearly deficits and a soaring long-term government debt.
And what did they do in the just announced tax “compromise?” Completely sell out fiscal prudence merely in order to save the bacon fat of the very rich — not only on income tax rates but the inheritance tax.
At his press conference today the president should have worn an “I fooled ya” tee shirt. And the next time Mitch McConnell and John Boehner appear on the tube, they should be wearing “We conned ya, too” tees.
It’s time for liberals and conservative to stop arguing and fighting. We’re not each other’s enemies. Our real enemy is the folks who buy and lie their way into power and then sell out our interests (whatever they may be) in favor of the internal interests of their own Beltway-based political establishments.
A third party in 2012 anyone?
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