Reactionarianism

As a rule Americans shun good advice. We've always had this 'don't tell me what to do' attitude. It's born out of the national lie of independence. I love living in a revolutionary country but the detritus of radical change is our proclivity towards reactionism. Our national gravitation swings too widely. Some say that the Civil War was written into the Constitution. We are now reaching the battle point juxtaposing our long history of exploitation and greed with the common good.

After viewing the failure of financial markets and the exposure of the lies of deregulation and unfettered capitalism we selfishly retreat to an attitude of 'what's in it for me'. Nobody wants to pay the bill. After the second world war Eisenhower raised taxes to pay down the deficit of victory. Modern Republicans think only to dig a deficit hole while placating the populous with the illusion of tax cuts. Economic reality is boring to most but it's best we deeply understand some of it. Obama should replace Larry Summers with a more personable person, like Paul Krugman, give the Treasury job to Paul Volcker and keep Bernake at the Fed for a while. Three really smart Jewish guys couldn't hurt.

An angry yet ignorant electorate is posed to do great govenmental harm by electing a new crop of idiots in a reactionarian response to what is percieved as a slow repair process by a new adminsitration that promised change. Grid lock will tighten, less will be done. Washington will sink further into the culture of corruption, combative rhetoric and legislative tupor.

Our complacency gaurantees that we suffer either from conservative neglect or from the wasteful ministrations of clueless liberals. Because of some strange American amnesia
we fail to remember the revolutionary power of the majority voice. Within living memory we have ended wars, cleaned a toxic environment, advanced race relations and learned to recycle. How great is that?