- The split between the blue dogs and the democrats in Congress
- The split between the far left here and the rest of here (okay, take a chill
pill. Turn it around the other way to suit your snit)
- The Republican de facto majority in a supermajority world
- The sound bite mentality of the electorate
- President Obama
- Myself
In other words there's plenty of blame to go around.
Follow beneath the fold for the sad part...
The combination of the above (from my "its the economy stupid" perspective) resulted in failing to turn the worst recession since the 1930s into a roaring "happy days are here again" engine of prosperity...in two years. Funny thing is, it would have been insane to have expected that to happen if every one of the above situations were reversed...especially since the entire world is sinking around us.
Sad thing is, the slow grinding of economic progress usually results in unwarranted political windfalls. The party in power reaps the benefits of success, even when the party just ousted from power was responsible for them. The reverse is also true, as we are witnessing now.
So, if the economy turns around in the next two years, the brilliance of the American electorate will deduce that it had something to do with what the Republicans did in those two years, and we will see an even greater Republican majority in 2012 than we will in 2010, not to mention the very real possibility of a Republican presidency.
I wonder if we will be then hoping for economic disaster like the Republicans have for the last two years. No, if we could trade political success for a job, most of us, I think, would do so. Even if it means we'll be back here after the next bubble bursts.
Don't you just love politics? It's enough to make you envy the reality-challenged great unwashed, feet up on the ottoman, mindlessly peering over their beer bellies, American flag clutched tightly in the fist not holding the beer can, watching Cartoon Network, or as some insist, Fox News. No, not really. Really. That was just a fleeting fantasy. Really.