I still really like President Obama, but... This story did make me think.
A Bedtime Story
So here is where I'm at, and if the more politically astute of my readers would like to comment and correct me if I'm wrong, I'd really appreciate it.
So we have America with a system of government, put in place to help maintain our freedom and prevent tyrants from taking over.
Tyrants have kind of taken over though, and thus we have wars being waged in the Middle East and a growing deficit.
I think President Obama genuinely wants to change things for the better, and with a majority in the house and senate, most of the American people wanted that as well.
We didn' get it, and there is a real problem no-one seems to recognize...
There is a class of people who have been duped - In my opinion.
Average, good intentioned, hard working Americans. These people have been told that there is a chance that one day, they might be in the top 1% and so they have a responsibility to protect those people.
They have also been told that these people are the reason America is great.
I have no doubt that many of the top 1% in America have gotten there through hard work, however, many have leverage others to help them get there as well.
Take for example, someone like... Bill Gates. Bill had a great idea, and then working with others created a great empire. Would he be that great if people hadn't helped him on that way, helped him market his product, purchased his product and that kind of thing? I used to support one of his products, and I had to pay his corporation for the privilege of doing so. Something stinks about that.
Without the American people, Bill Gates would be just another computer nerd. It's not that he owes us, but in a way he does. He owes his success to the American Dream, and along the way, he's leverage others to increase his fortune.
Are you following me here, or starting with the "Geez! Sounds like Koda is turning into a communist!"
Anyway, so there is this whole class of Americans who feel that it is their patriotic duty to protect the fortunes of people who have used them to amass that fortune.
OK... So here we have America, deeply in debt, struggling middle class and wealthy folks who some how seem to have made out like bandits from this whole recession thing.
A president gets elected and tried to change some stuff.
He runs into the GOP. The party of NO!
They're a minority, and yet they use the checks and balances in Washington to prevent any change. Change which will impact the wealthy 1%.
So here's my question about what happened earlier this week..
Faced with the choice between continuing to fight, and having people lose their unemployment benefits, and compromising and throwing a bone to the wealthy 1%, the president opted to compromise.
It was a choice between letting the GOP win, and letting the GOP win, and not screwing the average hardworking American over in the process.
Did he make the wrong decision - Absolutely!
But was the other option the right one, or was it even more wrong?
Was there a way the President could have won without conceding to the scum who are raping this country?
I'm not sure there was, making his wrong decision the right one in the end.
Of course I'd welcome your comments and thoughts.
It would have felt great to have Obama take a stand against the GOP and dare them to vote against the middle class only cuts that the house passed. But for those among us looking at that unemployment deadline, his deal looks like the right move.
ReplyDeleteMy comment is that someone, somewhere needs to be smart enough to figure out how to stop the Democratic options from being lose and look weak or lose and look stubborn.
ReplyDeleteI thought that person was Obama but I'm sensing he is too pragmatic to stand up to these pig-headed pricks.
I've said this before and I'll say it again. The middle, the compromise everyone in this country says they want is a shitty, horrible place where nobody is happy and everyone feels cheated. It's a great idea in concept but not so much fun in practice.
I say ram-rod through your agenda while you have the opportunity and then at least you can say you fought for what you believed in at the end of the day.
I am majorly disappointed.
I had a snarky comment about finding a way to fly planes into buildings and using that to justify the expansion of basic welfare reforms and services, but I think this says it best:
ReplyDeleteWhat distinguishes the liberal from the conservative here is that, however profound his own spiritual beliefs, he will never regard himself as entitled to impose them on others and that for him the spiritual and the temporal are different sphere which ought not to be confused. - Friedrich August Von Hayek
I would say that in some cases that may not be true, but I think in general, some liberals are more concerned with making sure everyone's opinions are taken into account, while the conservative folks seldom offer the same respects.
I've said this before and I'll say it again. The middle, the compromise everyone in this country says they want is a shitty, horrible place where nobody is happy and everyone feels cheated. It's a great idea in concept but not so much fun in practice.
Yep!