In a never-ending attempt to make something out of nothing, both the Clinton and McCain campaigns are trying to get mileage out of Barak Obama comment that some PA small town voters are bitter about government. Of course Clinton, claims she has only seen hope and hard work. Who knows where she's been looking. McCain (a guy born into a family with two admirals who graduated 5th from the bottom of his class at the academy yet still got his wings) is trying to paint Obama as an elitist. Let's take a look at some of the things some of us are bitter about and see who is elitist, out of touch and has there head up their, err, in the sand.
What I am pissed and, yes, bitter about in today's federal government:
In 1980 an actor with Alzheimers disease (hat tip-Flibberty Gibbet) was elected then canonized as a visionary
Under Reagan, it was decided that the way to make the country better was to allow the richest individuals in the country keep more of their money. The idea was people with money invest, expand their businesses, create jobs and drive the economy. Great idea, right? The only problem is, when greed is added to the formula, it doesn't work. If those individuals and corporations took their increased gains and invested in expansion, job, people, benefits and innovation, the US economy would be the strongest in the history of the world. What happened was gross corporate profits, a widening of the gap between the classes and the current "admission price for government access" that we now see in Washington.
A few high(low)lights of Reagan/Bush I:
--Funding for education shriveled up. College grants became almost non-existent and even loans become harder to get.
--Federal job training programs were slashed.
--Wide ranging government deregulation of business (also embraced by Clinton) led to less protection for the consumer and the "profit at all cost" tactics seen in the Savings and Loan crash, Enron, Worldcom and the current Mortgage Lending crisis.
--Demagoguery became the order of the day. Claims didn't have to be true; they just had to be repeated until they were accepted as true. Facts were not as important fancy. If the administration wants it to be true, it is true. We've really seen this taken to the next level with Bush II.
--The Constitution began to become less relevant. The ends justify the means. Once again, see what fruit that seed has grown.
In 1992, due mostly to a strong third party showing by H. Ross Perot, Bill Clinton was elected president
Clinton was going to be a breath of fresh air. We were going to have a president we could be proud of. Unfortunately, it didn't quite turn out that way. Though at the time many of us thought he was doing a great job, we are now seeing some of the long-term damage from the Clinton years. The Clinton years were catastrophic for US labor.
Some high(low)lights of the Clinton years:
--NAFTA has been a disaster for the American worker. We all giggled when Dana Carvey did his Perot impression on Saturday Night Live. "You hear that suckin' sound? That's the jobs leaving to Mexico." You know what? Perot was right! NAFTA has created a situation where people have spent their entire adult lives working for a company only to see their job, livelihood, health insurance and futures sent out of the country. This benefits corporate American but screws the people on whose backs the company was built.
--Clinton pushed for Most Favored Nation status for China. Though I haven't seen anyone bring this up, MFN status for China has been an incredible boon for WalMart, Hillary's former employer. Now more items that used to be made in the USA are now made in China where working conditions,human rights and product quality are not monitored. Now we have pet food that kills our beloved friends, lead paint on our toys (autism has increased in the US markedly in the last decade - related?) and much of the country's wealth being shipped out of the country.
--Clinton looked straight into the eyes of the American public and said, "I have not had sexual relations with that woman." The sad thing is many of us believed him (including me). He played us for saps and we bought it.
--Before leaving office, Clinton issued to pardons to a laundry list of donors and people who paid Hillary's brother to get them a pardon. At least one recipient of a pardon has donated generously to the Clinton Library as well (Mark Rich's wife).
--Once out of office, Bill Clinton used his the clout from his former position to lobby for foreign nationals and nations. Not only that, Bill still hits the taxpayer for about $8 million a year for office space, staff, phone bill and postal privileges. All of this while pulling in over $100 million from 2000-2006 (we haven't seen the 2008 returns yet).
--To top it all off, Bill Clinton was such a polarizing figure that the Democratic party lost seats when he was re-elected and is only now, almost 8 years later, recovering from the damage. Ed Rendell, Clinton's crony in the DNC, was more concerned with getting Hillary elected in New York than helping Al Gore win the 2000 election. and that brings us to...
In 2000, the idiot child of a former president and Satan incarnate stole the election by disenfranchising minority voters in Florida and depending on the US Supreme court to thwart vote counting
Do I really need to elaborate on this one?
My blood pressure is already up.
Quick list
--Lies about Irag War
--"You're either with us or against us."
--Fear as a control tactic
--"Mission Accomplished"
--Repeat the lie until it is accepted as truth
--Bankruptcy bill greatly favoring bank and credits
--Lobbyists "pay to play" mentality
--No Child Left Behind
--Clear Shies Act
--Valerie Plame
--Jeff Gannon
--Hurricane Katrina
--Long vacations
--Secret meetings
--Warrantless wiretapping
There is plenty about federal government in the last 25 or so years to be angry about. If you haven't been connected, wealthy or quite lucky, you may well be doing much worse now than your parents were at your age. That is not the American Dream that is the RBCB (Reagan Bush Clinton Bush) nightmare.
It doesn't take an elitist to see it. It does take an elitist to tell us that it isn't true.
Update--
ge0rge makes a good point. I wish I would have said it.
My point is that Bill Clinton was a coward.
He absolutely refused to deploy the power
of the office in defense of justice or
human rights if there was the SLIGHTEST
chance it might make him LESS POPULAR.
From LANI GUINIER ON DOWN.
If you want to know THE SINGLE WORST THING
about the end of Bill Clinton's presidency,
it WAS NOT any pardons. It was allowing
George W. Bush to be elected.
And the second worst was Rwanda.