The world of politics is indeed a strange one. It would seem that logic holds no sway when it comes to taking positions against the opposition. Take for example the latest blast from GOP legislators and the White House against the passage of a Democratic sponsored Bill to cut interest rates on some federally subsidized student loans. The GOP criticized the measure for “not doing enough” and for not also “providing additional funding for grants to students.”
To be sure, the Democratic legislation to aid students is imperfect and does not even purport to correct fully the plight of students whose dream of a college education now seems more elusive as their economic circumstances deteriorate and the cost of higher education rises constantly. Cynics also point out that some colleges may raise tuition costs and defeat the intended beneficial impact of the legislation. But the measure is at least an effort and a step in the right direction.
What defies logic is the nature of the GOP criticism. During absolute control of the Congress and the White House for six years, the GOP failed to take any of the steps that they now complain that the Democratic measure lacks. Intent upon raiding the treasury to grant tax cuts to the wealthiest 1% of Americans and bankrupting future revenues with the tab for the Bush war in Iraq, GOP Congressional leaders failed to take any steps to assist students obtain their dreams of a college education. Now they complain that the Democrats are not doing enough.
The Mad Hatter presses Alice, insisting that she take “more tea.” Alice protests that she cannot have more tea since she has not yet had any tea. And so the mad party continued. We will no doubt hear more of this type of nonsensical repartee in the Congress as the year progresses.
1 comment:
Hey Paul! Welcome, nice to meet you. I like your blog, BTW, & especially enjoyed reading the article on "Bush psychology." Rang true to me, for the most part.
What scares me is that he's managed to elude the famed American bullshit detector (because we are a nation of opportunists & salesmen, maybe, most of us have a healthy skepticism of others behaving the same way), but for a substantial-enough portion of the population, he's apparently come to embody strength & decisiveness, & what he says goes.
The reasons he got as far as he did in his political career (despite himself) & the rest of the GOP throwing in with him, may be another thing entirely, but the scary thing to me is that, inept & inadequate as he's shown himself to be, a stubborn 25% still regard him as iconic.
Now THERE's one for the history books: how someone like George Bush almost succeeded in converting America into a personal despot-ocracy. If there's anything at all historically interesting about George Bush, it's that he was the beneficiary of a perfect storm of factors that swept in & almost completely blew America off course, while those of us cognizant of it were practically helpless to DO anything about it.
Malevolent winds, indeed. I just wish I wasn't here to have to live through it. I'd rather be reading about it from a far remove in the distant future & marvelling how very close we almost came to losing our country.
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