The Fire Sale Of Change And What It Means For The Expediancy of Now
February 8th 2009 18:01
“One man may hit the mark, another blunder; but heed not these distinctions. Only from the alliance of the one, working with and through the other, are great things born.”
~Antoine de Saint-Exupery
~Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Growing up as an American I grasped a strong understanding of the hard work that goes into wise men and women working together towards a common goal.
When I envision the great mountains we have crossed in social understanding and building this great nation I see the wide array of colors wrapped around political affiliations, race, gender, religion and creed.
Recovery from centuries of racial strife, working past demonization of religions different to the main stream and the deconstruction of social roles for women are just a few of the accomplishments our country has achieved through bi-partisan measures.
It wasn’t one great Republican or Democrat who brought the Nazi regime to her knees or ended the Cold War nor was it the work of Franklin Delanore Roosevelt alone that ended the Great Depression.
Each and every chapter of our darkest periods of history has been brought about when the great leaders threw down their banners of partisanship and simply said to the other side:
“What do we need to do to fix it?”
The thing that got America excited about the possibility of a Barack Obama presidency originally transcended race and party and struck to the heart of the kind of man we as a nation need during these tough times.
After decades of bloody partisan battles that have lead us on a road to where someone can say we need a 800 trillion dollar bailout package; what the American people reached out for was a leader who would not look to wipe out the legacy of his predecessors through partisan victories but would reach deep into the needs of the other side and come to a consensus.
Ignoring the signs of partisanship through the second half of Campaign “08” Americans from sea to shining sea still held onto the belief of true change in Washington...
Much like the end of a bad long term relationship and finding a fresh and new commitment to forget about the past we gave the unhealthy approach of giving our complete hearts and suspended cynicism in the hope for something better.
Less than a month later we’re looking at just more of the same…
With all the Bi-partisan comparisons to Lincoln and Kennedy we somehow forgot the partisan battles, mistakes and blunders that occurred during these respective Presidential dynasties.
While the Lincoln/Douglas debates portrayed everything that a political campaign could be by offering unfettered access to the American people to judge candidates by their own merit and not media spin, it didn’t help to maintain the non partisan tone of his campaign when he took office.
Good will and reaching across the aisle is only judged in history by end results and conclusions.
With all of his hard work to include his political enemies in his cabinet it could not divert the culmination of a war that was brewing since our nation first formed.
The same battles fought today between the ideals of state’s rights vs. federalism were fought on American soil because the problems could not be worked out in the halls of Capitol Hill or in the Oval Office.
The important thing to take away from this is the fact that there are two sides to every argument. As Americans we have the right to stand on either side, yell and scream about who we think is right or wrong.
No matter who represents us in the Oval Office or which ever party holds majority in either house of Congress the end result needs to be the same.
The end result should not be about a political leader scoring a victory in his first 100 days.
I’m still trying to grasp the concept of a political figure comparing our current financial situation to that of the Great Depression in a fire sale and not instinctively walking into the halls of the Republican side of Congress to pass a bill that would work the first time.
Call me idealistic but isn’t the fanaticism that drove Obama to the White House based purely off idealism?
Is it Idealism to believe that a man of the same race as slave’s decades before could become President of a nation that enslaved these very same people?
Is it Idealism to believe that a man could simply talk about the ideals of change and hope and inspire a nation mired in cynicism?
I know it’s a theme that I have been hammering home since the middle of campaign season but I expected more…
It’s a mute point now as we got what we asked for without the creamy filling.
As we look forward to the vote Tuesday I want you to remember everything that this victory will entail for the Democratic Party and the Obama administration’s future battles.
Party Line passage of the stimulus package in the House of Representatives did nothing but prove the adage of politics as usual in Washington...
The Democrats are drunk with power through a misunderstanding of why they hold the majority in the Legislative branches of Congress and have power in the Presidency.
Bills that are passed without respect to the balance of power will always come back to haunt those who create, mandate them to the people and demonize those who oppose them.
The problems in the bill that passed through Congress and the revised bill now was never about the partisan goodies that were thrown into the mix but was rather about the intent behind the legislation.
While one side claims the intent is to create jobs through the structuring of an even more robust government, the other side’s version of stimulation is to put more money in the pockets of the average citizen through tax breaks and incentives.
You say “tomatoes” and I say “tomawtos” simply because no matter what words are put together to spin this issue one way or the other it is not enough to find three people from the other side and call your legislation bi-partisan.
One of the many common themes from the Obama campaign lies within the phrase:
“The Urgency of Now”
This is more pertinent now than ever and there is this irresistible urgency for "America" to reach a point of recovery.
Recovery is going to take more than partisan trillion dollar pieces of robust legislation and scare tactics to the public blaming the other side.
It’s going to take all of us as a society to open our eyes to the BS spewed from our Congressional representatives, media zealots and national leaders to finally understand that we’re back in the arms of more of the same and not at the dawn of a new era….
Sources and interesting reading:
GOP Senators Cave On Stimulus
RNC Chairman Steele Questions Whether Power Has ‘Gone To Democrats Heads
What Got Cut From the Stimulus Bill
Stimulus Bill In its Entirety
Biden: 30% Chance We’ll Get it Wrong
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