So, it seems I'm in a bit of a writing mood again. Sorry if that puts some folks out, but hey, the price of admission here isn't much and you can easily skip over this article and any others I post easily enough. Note that is unlike the idea of being able to "opt out" of the 4 more years which is pretty much impossible under our system where we have to wait out the 4 year terms as patiently as possible and hope that whatever happens in the next election the results don't wind up putting us all on a path to despair and destruction.
Honestly, I don't think President Obama is intentionally trying to put us on such a path, but then again I'm not so sure about Harry Reid and his friends in the Senate. Oh, sure, it might not be intentional, but they don't seem to be able to recognize when they are positively on the wrong path and they also seem to continuously misread their opponents on the other side of the aisle when it comes to negotiating a resolution to the debt ceiling crisis (back when that was going on) and then later getting progress made on the Fiscal Cliff and Sequestration.
In the last day or two, I'm starting to marvel a bit at the thought that some true genious has gone into setting up the events that may unfold in the next few months.
Let me ask a question here of those that wish to answer it - how short of a memory do you all really think the electorate (e.g., the citizens of the U.S.A.)?
If the tea party elements in the House of Representatives were to steadfastly refuse to allow for any increase in taxes other than those that will come by the expiration of the original Bush tax cuts that were never extended beyond their soon to be passing expiration dates would we blame the Tea Party and the GOP or would we wind up blaming the President and his party for the failure to prevent the citizens of this country from experiencing the financial hardships that could bring?
The last time we had a government shutdown it was fairly close to the next election cycle and because the Democrats were able to demonize the GOP for it, control of the congress was basically lost back to the Democrats in the following election. But, if the seemingly horrific events of the fiscal cliff were to pass now, if the credit rating for the U.S. were to be lowered would it be blamed on the GOP this time or would the cuts that would be forced in discretionary spending along with DoD spending that could also come along in the mess be blamed on the President and his party?
Citizens in this country do have a short memory when it comes to these things, though the media tends to -- when they want to -- extend that memory period by finding convenient sound bites and video recordings that are brought back out to do damage to the other side at every possible opportunity. On the other hand, if the GOP basically sits back and says a polite "No" in response to the half-hearted offers that will be put forth by the Democrats, and they don't utter stupid sound bite worthy statements, could they then later weather the storm and be able to say that the new economic hell that was foisted upon the U.S.A. is all the fault of the Democrats? If so, would we perhaps see a repeat of the mid-term elections of 2010 when Obamacare and how it was forced upon us basically cost many incumbent Democrats their jobs?
I'm not sure I'd bet against such possibilities. I know that there will be those in the GOP that will fear letting the car run off the cliff, but then again, there are others that seem to think it might not be such a bad idea to watch it do just that.
Thoughts?
