Democrats and Republicans Both To Blame

Somehow Republican politicians have convinced themselves (or want to) that Obama’s diminishing poll numbers signify a voter mandate for their own return in the next election, not to mention a clean wipe of the slate for the big-government policies enacted and military entanglements entered into by the previous administration (with pitifully little resistance from a Democrat-led congress).  With support from their one sympathetic television media network, Republicans are self-righteously jumping aboard the uproar over corporate bailouts and buyouts, Obamacare, and attempted indoctrination of school students, and comparing Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Clinton and friends to every socialist monstrosity of the last century.  Regardless how deserving this comparison, Republican politicians are apparently determined to ignore their own recent eviction from power after Americans became fed up with loose fiscal policies and the crusade for global democracy – a pink-slip for a party whose contradictions and irrelevance has become increasingly obvious to traditional “conservative” voters.  Republican politicians nevertheless skip past this failure-laden history in office, even going so far as to shamelessly promote the Tea Party phenomenon that erupted across the country during the past year as solely “anti-Obama.”  These grassroots events clearly advocated support for Ron Paul and a return to libertarianism, and not the mixed-bag of contradictions that is the current “Republicrat” regime.   

On the other side of this ping-pong match are the Democrats, who (predictably) are blaming Republican propaganda and subversion for Obama’s quickly fading demigod status.   Confused as they have likely ever been, they proceed to back-peddle, distract, delay, and point fingers because they have absolutely no idea why their massive spending binge has failed to halt an economic collapse.  They are undoubtedly correct in their claims that Republicans are being intentionally difficult – nothing new or surprising there.  Democratic politicians, however, conveniently ignore the fact that they would pursue exactly the same course of action if the roles were reversed, a reality of which voters are no doubt fully aware.  Moreover, the Democratic Party has, at this point, virtually dropped all facades of “moderatism”; its agenda is blatantly socialistic, and the party is either too arrogant, ignorant, or out-of-touch to appreciate the intelligence, independence, and mounting frustration of average income-earning and tax-paying Americans who will refuse to stand by and watch as their country is turned into an image of some third-world totalitarian state.

Surprise and uncertainty is turning into fear and anger for many citizens – both those who watch impotently as their property is confiscated to fund doomed-to-fail collectivist social programs and nebulous foreign policy quagmires, as well as the looters who are completely dependent on the nanny-state yet manage to complain about the quality of life they (incorrectly) believe is their natural-born right as American citizens.  For these reasons and countless others, I believe people are beginning to sense something ominous – a boiling unrest unlike anything in recent American history.  While politicians and media pundits look forward to the next election – naively assuming voter frustration for one party translates to mean support for the other, in accordance with Congress’ decades-old political seat-swapping version of “musical chairs” – Average Joe is beginning to realize that a swing of the pendulum back in the direction of Republicans won’t solve his problems. 

Most voters probably don’t fully appreciate what is happening, the underlying causes of this economic depression, or what the future may hold in store.  Few can likely identify an appealing alternative to the two-party system sermonized to them since elementary school; far less understand the concepts of liberty, individualism, or capitalism; and probably only a tiny fraction of American citizens have even heard the terms “objectivism” or “Austrian economics.”  For the time being, tax-payers are perhaps overwhelmed trying to keep their jobs and pay off their debt, fed-up with the shallow and one-sided media coverage, and too frightened about their vanished nest-eggs to find time to explore the alternatives offered by Ron Paul, Ayn Rand, or Ludwig von Mises.  Looters, on the other hand (tax-paying and otherwise), are… well, they are not likely to read, understand, or agree with the principles of individual liberty in any case.

Nevertheless, economic and financial events bigger than any candidate, policy, or party are apt to make a severe change in the political direction of this country unavoidable; eventually, citizens will be forced to sort things out philosophically, one way or another.  Campaign promises, two-party political rhetoric, and media spin aside, the finances required to maintain the status quo of the last decade (or half-century) will run out – the vast policies of wealth destruction adopted by both Republican and Democratic administrations cannot be swept under the mat with another election.  Funding may no longer be available to sustain certain government programs (not even by bleeding wealth producers completely dry) – this is already becoming increasingly obvious as more municipalities and state governments face the prospect of bankruptcy.  Welfare, Medicare, military campaigns abroad, public education, environmental regulation, public safety and transportation… they all may land on the fiscal chopping block in the near future.  And I haven’t yet mentioned the very real prospect of massive dollar devaluation.  Contradictions do not exist and policies based on them cannot last.

When the funds are gone and tax-payers are completely broke, who will the politicians blame next?  The Democrats and Republicans can cover their eyes and ears and try to continue business as usual, but how much longer will citizens accept this?  How long will they continue to listen to the excuses and finger-pointing, to say nothing of the rampant theft and corruption?  Are they even listening now? 

© 2009 myrationalreality.com.  Permission to reprint in whole or in part is granted, provided full credit is given.