A Rock And A Hard Place

As the Obama administration continues to try and come to grips with the many crisis’ that face our nation I can’t help but wonder what is going on in the mind of Republicans. They truly are between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand if the Obama administration is able to produce results and begin to make inroads towards resolving these myriad of problems it will surely keep the Republicans out of power for not just years but possibly decades and on the other hand if they continue to resist and obstruct the possible answers to these problems and succeed in collapsing not only our economic, but our social and political order where does that leave them? In my opinion they have only one choice. They must put the welfare of the American people first as they were elected to do.

I realize this flies in the face of everything the Republican leadership has been preaching for decades with their partisanship hyperbole and win at all costs attitude, but we are not dealing with politics as usual and I am not sure they are willing to accept this premise. How anyone can envision this as a winning scenario is beyond me. First you help to create the crisis and then not only do you do nothing to fix it but you actually try to derail the things that may reduce suffering and resolve the crisis. Do they really believe that people who are unemployed and hungry are going to be concerned with political dogma and right-wing principles? Yes, we brought the country down around us but we preserved our principles. Let it be said that it was these very same principles that created the atmosphere for this crisis we are in. When you are out of work and your home is being foreclosed on al Qaeda, minorities, and all the other fear tactics of the Republicans seem a lot less scary. Being homeless and not being able to take care of your family I think trumps all the other fears you may have had in the past.

Where were these "principles" when the Republican leadership embarked with George W. on the trillion dollar deficits from billions of dollars of surplus left by the Clinton administration? Just so we understand these "principled" men, when a Republican President was in the White House and they had control over Congress spending billions of dollars to reward wealthy people was not a bad thing but when it is a Democrat in the White House and the Democrats control Congress now spending billions of dollars to fix the crisis their spending habits created is now a bad thing. I’m sorry but I seem to be missing something in this equation. Principles are a funny thing. The reason they call them principles is because you stick to them no matter what the circumstances. If you claim to have a principal against committing adultery and then you commit adultery over and over then it is not a principle. It may be something you aspire to or something you talk about, but it is not a principle. It just amazes me how blatant the animosity of the Republican Party is towards the average people of America. And what amazes me even more is how we allow them to get away with it on "principles". It has become abundantly clear to me that many of these people have no principles or empathy for that matter for anyone but themselves.

I found the town hall meetings by the President to have been refreshing and insightful into what is going on in the real world. It allowed all of those politicians and media types who spend their daily lives living in the vacuum of Washington and influence to see how the average American is rooting for this President and how they want to come together to solve our national nightmare. Unlike the Republican town hall meetings and "impromptu" gatherings these were actually open to all and this President does well in this type of exchange with everyday people. We as a nation must begin to turn the heat up on the Republicans. They must be held accountable for their unfounded claims and their lack of empathy for the suffering of the people. It is one thing to have a difference of opinion or philosophy but it is quite another to be willing to sacrifice the American people to prove a point. We are not economic models or financial theories; we are real people who have seen our lives damaged by policies and greed from Washington to Wall Street. Just as the CEO’s should be held accountable so should the politicians who oversaw this fiasco. So long as we allow these people to operate with impunity for their actions there will be no incentive to change. So long as the Republicans are allowed to make their baseless claims and tired old arguments without fall-out there will be no incentive for change.

Change must become more than an election slogan. Although I have to admit it was one hell of a slogan, we the people must continue to press for change. There are going to come times when we will have to take to the streets to emphasize our deep desire for change and support of change. The hope is that we will become weary and go back to American Idol or Desperate Housewives and once again leave the politicians and titans of Wall Street to their own devices. We have the momentum to make drastic changes that will impact not only ourselves but especially our children. Will we be the next "Great Generation" and change a world or will we be remembered for "the Osbournes"?