Lately, I've spent more time watching discussions of financial markets. The differences of opinion expressed by the various financial experts reminded me of our political debates.
Each of these guests is an expert, who has reached market conclusions based not only on the pool of information to which each has access but on how their personal intellectual, psychological and sociological systems interact with the circumstances and human inclinations they peruse.
But regardless of how much these experts express believes in their market predictions or expectations, they never invest based only on their own ideas. They tend to invest in a manner that acknowledges that other opinions may be correct. They diversify.
However, present-day Republicans, despite most of them not being experts, are insist on investing the nation's future exclusively in their ideas. There is seldom any mention of "common ground." Republicans seem to be intentionally making ever aspect of every issue a source of debate. I use Republicans to be inclusive of even Republican who don't necessarily agree with every idea that surfaces under the Republican banner. I include them because they too often refuse to show their opposition with their votes.
Republicans dug the financial ditch in which America finds itself, and Bush's Iraq war and tax cuts were the shovels. The Republicans' position in 2003 was that the government budget surplus, which had been built up by tax increases and spending cuts during the Clinton presidency, somehow was the people's money and should be returned to them.
President Obama and fellow Democrats, along with decisions by President Bush at the end of his presidency and Republican support early during the Obama presidency, applied brakes to the free fall of the American economy. Obama's actions bought the free fall to a halt: fewer jobs were being lost. Soon more people were being hired than fired. Banks were shored up. And the big three auto makers had been saved, surviving prosperously and hiring among other things.
But the media kept saying that the people would judge Democrats in the 2010 elections by their own present conditions and not be the fact that the nation's Bush induced condition (and potentially their own) was improving. The media did not know how the American people felt. It was as if these analysts were willing to have Americans blame Obama for what Bush had caused and give him no credit for ameliorating the condition. Somehow this idea that the party that was trying to fix the problem (and succeeding) should be blamed and not the person who caused it made no sense to me. The political party that thought the low taxes for the wealthy, that brought on the Great Recession, was good in 2003 still thinks it is good for America despite our still not being sure how to recover from it.
The strange thing is that Republicans are counting that Americans continuing believing those tax cuts for the wealthy were good for all Americans then and are necessary for the future success of the economy. It may have been good for average incomes of all Americans but not nearly so good for the incomes of average individuals. As someone wisely pointed out, if one averages the income of a typical American and that of Warren Buffet, that typical American becomes a billionaire--but without the money.
Every Obama success makes it harder and less likely that Republicans can achieve their goal of making him "a one-term president." He had Obama Care approved by Congress. He found Osama bin Laden. He withdrew troops and suspended major military activities in Iraq. He is committed to beginning substantial troop withdrawal from Afghanistan this Summer. He very likely will suspend major military operations in Afghanistan by the end of the year. But all of these achievements and prospects of achievement will only make Republican less willing to help Obama succeed wherever they can, or to give him credit wherever he does.
However, the New York congressional election shows that not all Republicans, especially those outside the Bible belt, vote according to dictates of the standard Republican propaganda. While they may not agree with much of the Democratic ideology, they also don't support Tea Party craziness. They don't believe columnists and commentators who deliberately distort Obama and Democratic positions. And despite some of these people's claim to be born-again Christians, Precinct 26 voters were not deceived about the truth of the issues at hand.
Even as they blocked most of Obama's efforts to stimulate jobs creation, Republicans blamed Obama for not producing enough jobs. Yet during their tenure of being in control of the political agenda, Republicans have failed to suggest any of those ideas they claimed Obama should have used to create jobs. Only fantom jobs, which presumably giving more money to oil companies, millionaires and billionaires would produce, were recommended..
Americans of all political and ideological persuasions, therefore, must be able to distinguish between those ideas and actions that are sincerely believed to be the best of known alternatives , and those that are obviously designed only to defeat a president in the next election and to enriching the wealthy. They must realize that economic problem are not solved by continuing what caused the problem.
In 2010, both Tea Party and Republican politicians fooled both independents and the majority of their political bases. The results in the special New York congressional election suggest that, in 2012, shame may well be on these politicians.
America's greatest fear, though, is that most Republicans weren't merely fooling the American people in 2010 as a political strategy: These politicians may have been saying what they actually believed. And their craziness about not raising the debt ceiling may not seem crazy to them.
America's greatest hope is the suggestion by the NY-26 special election that most Republican politicians are rational, and are only temporarily acting crazy.
Ronald
Email: rcspoon@earthlink.net
Blog: www.ronaldcspooner.blogspot.com
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