Equally inexplicable is the president’s apparent eagerness to negotiate with a legislative faction willing to hold the entire economy hostage—and one prepared to extort concessions in backroom deals that it could not achieve in any normal legislative process. Negotiating with fiscal terrorists only encourages them.
Man, I go on vacation for a few days and all Hell seems to break loose in Washington. I have to admit, though, that being out of town and somewhat (willingly) deprived of news was really a pretty good thing. Imagine my dismay, then, when I return and discover that our President seems to have once demonstrated that the Obama method of compromise entails equating negotiation with capitulation. Drop trou, grab your ankles, and let the Republicans drive the bus. Quelle surprise, non?? Talk a good ballgame, act as if you care about your base…and then give away the farm. Nice….
There seems little doubt that America is now in the thrall of a small, zealous, and exceedingly vocal minority willing to burn America down if they don’t get 100% of what they’re after. The Tea Party, though politically immature, inflexible, and dismissive of those they disagree with (which is the vast majority of Americans), has decided that austerity is the path to greatness. Never mind, of course, that no economy has ever saved their way out of an economic downturn. Facts, history, and reality have never stood between these idjits and their self-righteous certitude. They want what they want, and, in their world at least, truth is a fungible commodity that can be massaged and molded to serve their agenda.
As the smoke clears, and the impact of the debt ceiling agreement is becoming evident, it’s not surprising that it seems the folks who are going to take it in the shorts are those most in need of an activist government- the poor, the middle class, the elderly, and the long-term unemployed, to name a few. That these are some of the very same groups candidate Barack Obama promised to look after during the 2008 campaign hardly seems to matter. That was then, this is now…and if the price for an agreement to raise the debt ceiling was throwing people who don’t generally vote Republican overboard- well, so be it. Everything has a cost, right?
There seems little reason to believe that the deal with the Devil agreement made in order to get the debt ceiling raised was a compromise in any sense of the word. What appears to have emerged from the ashes of this epic struggle was an agreement that strengthens the hand of the Far Right and weakens America. Yes, Democrats and the President appear to have negotiated a “compromise” that handed the Radical Right a moral victory and weakened the position of those on the Left working to ensure that this country continues to respect and honor the Social Contract. What we’re left with is an exercise in raw, unvarnished Social Darwinism. Welcome to the New Austerity, in which the interests of the wealthy and powerful are represented at the expense of those unable or unwilling to donate large sums of money to the GOP. If you can’t survive in the new sink-or-swim America…well, what kills you only makes us stronger.
It’s little wonder that in the aftermath of this fiasco that President Obama’s poll numbers are at the lowest point of his Presidency. When you consider that what appears to be an exercise in lead-and-lose is actually part of what the White House describes as part of the “master plan,” it’s hard not to think that the Obama campaign was nothing more than lies and propaganda designed to unite and embolden the Right. Evidently, this “master plan”, which is less strategic retreat than a full-on every-man-for-himself withdrawal, is about losing the battle(s) but somehow winning the war. Sorry, y’all, but no one ever run a marathon running backwards, knowhutimean??
How about we all just wake up and smell the cat litter? If, like me, you voted for Barack Obama in 2008, it’s time to admit that we were duped into voting for a Republican in a Progessive Democrat’s suit. We were promised change…and the only thing that’s really changed is that we now have a Democrat screwing the poor and middle class instead of an inept Republican ideologue.
