The Cycle of Life
Sep. 14th, 2008 10:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jmatonakI can't read right now. I'm sorry for not keeping up with everyone's journals properly. Something about my Big Medical Fun has rendered me even more unable to concentrate than usual. It's like being stoned, without the fun.
Politics is making me grumpy and moody. This is the cycle of political life.
Republicans promise to "shake up Washington."
Republicans win.
Republicans go on an orgy of deregulation and tax relief for the rich because "government is bad."
Whatever industry the Republicans deregulated *last* cycle goes belly-up.
Because "there is no real choice", the government (which, recall, is bad) bails out the industry that just failed.
As a consequence of this bail-out, the same people who were getting tax relief face minimal risk, thus essentially living in the government-supported world they are always against at election time. Because that's not hypocritical at all.
The Democrats win a midterm election. This step is optional. When it occurs, the Democrats make no headway on extending government support to most of us instead of just a few. I have no idea why.
Because/in spite of the big bailout, the economy goes tits-up for a while. Republicans point to this as proof that government is bad, for some reason. Note the further contradiction here with the claim of "no other choice" that supported the bailout.
Obviously, it's time to shake up Washington and get those lazy politicians off our backs!
And away we go.
How does this work more than once? How many huge bailouts do you need before you realize you could just spend the damn money on social programs instead? Why do the people getting slapped around by economic "policies" that boil down to "steal money and keep it" keep voting for them and against "steal money and spend it"?
Is it really that everyone secretly thinks they'll be rich and wants to keep all the hypothetical money they'll never really get? Really?
Word around the water cooler is that dynamic heroine Sarah Palin will save the country with her peppy smile and can-do attitude, much like the guy who was exactly the same as that but too liberal. Of course, one difference between her and Obama is that Obama will be senior to the cranky old guy looking over his shoulder and will actually get to, you know, do stuff. Except he won't, because it's a year divisible by four, and it's time to get to work and "shake up Washington."
I realize deriding Sarah Palin as "Caribou Barbie" is sexist tripe. I hate her fair and square, for words that came out of her own mouth. And, yes, I am bitter because the Republicans have become charismatic again. Because I know what will happen when the charisma does its job. And because the magic shaking mantra only works for the party that's going to crush most of us again.
Politics is making me grumpy and moody. This is the cycle of political life.
Republicans promise to "shake up Washington."
Republicans win.
Republicans go on an orgy of deregulation and tax relief for the rich because "government is bad."
Whatever industry the Republicans deregulated *last* cycle goes belly-up.
Because "there is no real choice", the government (which, recall, is bad) bails out the industry that just failed.
As a consequence of this bail-out, the same people who were getting tax relief face minimal risk, thus essentially living in the government-supported world they are always against at election time. Because that's not hypocritical at all.
The Democrats win a midterm election. This step is optional. When it occurs, the Democrats make no headway on extending government support to most of us instead of just a few. I have no idea why.
Because/in spite of the big bailout, the economy goes tits-up for a while. Republicans point to this as proof that government is bad, for some reason. Note the further contradiction here with the claim of "no other choice" that supported the bailout.
Obviously, it's time to shake up Washington and get those lazy politicians off our backs!
And away we go.
How does this work more than once? How many huge bailouts do you need before you realize you could just spend the damn money on social programs instead? Why do the people getting slapped around by economic "policies" that boil down to "steal money and keep it" keep voting for them and against "steal money and spend it"?
Is it really that everyone secretly thinks they'll be rich and wants to keep all the hypothetical money they'll never really get? Really?
Word around the water cooler is that dynamic heroine Sarah Palin will save the country with her peppy smile and can-do attitude, much like the guy who was exactly the same as that but too liberal. Of course, one difference between her and Obama is that Obama will be senior to the cranky old guy looking over his shoulder and will actually get to, you know, do stuff. Except he won't, because it's a year divisible by four, and it's time to get to work and "shake up Washington."
I realize deriding Sarah Palin as "Caribou Barbie" is sexist tripe. I hate her fair and square, for words that came out of her own mouth. And, yes, I am bitter because the Republicans have become charismatic again. Because I know what will happen when the charisma does its job. And because the magic shaking mantra only works for the party that's going to crush most of us again.
