All of the boneheads protesting the new TSA inspection protocols should get a copy of the Yellow Pages. The Greyhound and Amtrak are great alternatives to flying. Our enemies keep trying and we keep drawing the aces. I hope our luck holds. But as someone once observed, good luck is the residue of hard work and good design. Or something like that.
So say some new Tea Party members of congress. I hope they are right and I wish them the best of luck. But I do not think we as a body politic are capable of anything adult when it comes to partisan politics. The air is so poisoned I am not sure any discourse is possible but I hope I am wrong. They new guys have it right, we need to change direction on fiscal policies. What the new TP people fail to get is the very voter impulse that got them to Washington may wash them out in 2012. It will be hard for them to legislate when they have to start running for re-election this January.
So reads the headline in today’s Los Angeles Times. So what is new? There is little reason to read the story because the real story is this is how we have been doing business in California since 1978. I remember a pundit speaking of the Ronald Reagan diet, ‘eat all of the chocolate you want, don’t exercise, and lose weight’.
The chickens are roosting and the budget debate in the Brown era promises to have many moments where people have to match their weight and diet. So many hard choices, I suspect the current governor will be more than happy to be returning to Hollywood. I am a real of his work even though perhaps not much real progress was made. The citizens of this state need to curb their appetites for services, or start paying more taxes. There is no other solution. Just as on the federal level, all of us need to start looking inward and revisiting our priorities.
This is not a partisan issue. Certainly the simplistic and unrealistic Tea Party ideas are going to be DOA once the gavels drop. I am not sure how all of this is going to play out, but I am sure it will be a fantastic circus.
In today’s New York Times Warren Buffett wrote a column, “Pretty Good for Government Work”. This is a congratulatory defense of TARP and its ilk and is a reminder that we are a community and that a strong central government is not optional in this globlized world. Mr. Buffett neatly sums up the ugly alternative had those in the White House, Treasury and Fed had looked to Herbert Hoover for guidance. Instead they embraced the activism of Franklin Roosevelt.
If you would like a country without a strong central government consider Katrina and Haiti. Enough said.
I recognize there is a new sheriff in town and that over the next two years this country is going to engage in a contentious debate about our collective future. There will be political gridlock in Washington as the Party of No will primarily be focused on the 2012 Presidential prize and will have little motivation to solve any of our problems. They will soon realize the folly of their ideology and the pace of change in Washington. Not that I blame the GOP or the Tea Party for this particular situation. We are the problem.
Modern political debate is framed more on gaining power and less on implementing solutions. There are plenty of villians to blame for this sorry state of affairs but in the end it is us. Should we have meaningful debate over the future course of this nation? Of course, but by debate I do not mean you define policy by sound bite. Or put another way, why are all of those Fox News women so good looking?
The world is changing and no amount of complaining is going to change that. June Cleaver has left the room and it is time for the sane amongst the body politic to recognize that fact. The Tea Party movement is amusing at best and I think they will sadly discover two facts; the nation’s problems are complex and difficult to solve with simple solutions, and that their missionary zeal will soon be co-opted into the system. Earmarks here we come! They will eventually come to appreciate the value of pork, after all politics is local.
Not that I am that cynical about our governing process, quite to the contrary. Our history is very clear on the fate of all idealistic movements. I have to chuckle when I read about the how the Left is so disappointed with the President. They must have been asleep in history class.
The Tea Party movement will soon join the legions of those on the left unhappy with the President. They will learn how hard it is to implement ideological-based solutions. As a nation we have survived all of these years precisely because change is slow, deliberate and often frustrating. I want to believe the Founding Fathers had the fear of the mob in mind when they wrote the Constitution.
