Right, Wrong, and Politics

It appears there may still be “right” and “wrong,” but not in politics. For those who might still believe that right will triumph the tax cut “compromise” must have come as a shock. Rarely has there been an issue in which one position was so clearly right and the other so clearly wrong. There simply is no convincing argument for why tax breaks should be extended to the wealthiest 2% of Americans, especially when it means adding 700 billion to the national debt to do so. Even President Obama himself has acknowledged that the Bush tax breaks for the wealthy should not be continued, that it would be the wrong thing to do, but he did it anyway. I do not believe he needed to do it and I do not agree with his explanation for why he had to do it. If he had stood his ground and fought I think he could have arranged tax breaks for the middle class without having to extend them to the filthy rich who do not need them, because, to put it simply, it was so obviously the right thing to do, and he so obviously would have had public opinion clearly on his side. And if he failed he should have let the tax cuts expire for everyone, making it clear that Republican intransigence was responsible, the outrage would have been so great it would have fairly quickly brought about an even better outcome for the middle class and shown Republicans up for the immoral hostage takers they were. But he didn’t and now the only hope for right to prevail is if the Democrats refuse to agree to this immoral agreement. Only contemporary Republicans would have stooped so low as to hold the middle class hostage in order to line the pocket s of the obscenely wealthy, especially at a time of such obvious need.

I suppose it is somewhat amusing, in spite of its being so disgustingly awful, to hear everyone, especially Republicans claiming to know what THE American public voted for. Of course Democrats also chime in about what it is THE American public wants. They all seem to agree that what THE American public wants is for the two sides to come together and solve the momentous problems that now beset our country. I am willing to assume that that is indeed what the American public wants, but given the current circumstances it certainly is not what they are going to get. This desire presumes that the two sides will come together and work on solving our national problems, but it fails to consider that in order for that to happen both sides have to agree to try to solve the national problems. Republicans have made it clear for the past two years they have no interest whatsoever in solving the pressing and important national problems. The announced immediately upon Obama’s election they would be the party of “no” and they wanted Obama (and by implication the nation) to fail. Subsequently they have announced publicly their primary goal is to make Obama a one term President. They could not have been any clearer about this even had they tried. Thus the hope the two parties will come together to work out solutions to our urgent problems is no more than a pipe dream. As long as Republicans stick to their stated goals there will be no progress towards solutions to our problems until Obama is gone.

I suspect that if we manage to only have gridlock for the next two years we will be lucky. Of course by then it probably won’t make much difference. I wait in vain for the White Knights to rescue us, or even Black Knights, or even Polka Dot Knights. Maybe someone from the planet Boobala, anyone, please help.