Things Are Worse Than I Imagined

[wlotus]

sophiaserpentia has written an eye-opening (to me, anyway) description of why the political situation in this country is much worse than I imagined it was.

In spite of my surprise at the seriousness of the problem, it is no surprise to me that the Democratic Party is wasting a hard-won opportunity to turn this country around. If they keep it up, we are looking at another 8-16 years of Conservative Republican control over the country (and the fiscal and social nightmare that will accompany it) once Obama's term is up.

Comments

[sandokai.livejournal.com]

Wow, I never thought of that analogy. Very interesting...

Do you think it's possible though for a politician to make promises and actually get them (mostly) done?

I wonder if the system is somehow set up so that they can't even if they really do want to, or if they really just aren't trying hard/wisely enough.

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

In order for a politician to get anything done, they have to win over their peers, not the people. In Obama's case, that could mean one of two things:

1. He has not won over his peers.
2. He has won over his peers and is getting done exactly what they all intend to get done, regardless of the claims he made during the election.

I tend to believe the second one, based on his rapid ascent to the office with very little time on the national political level. You don't ascend to the presidency with as little government experience as he has without a LOT of back-room help...and once you get there, you'd better pay the piper.

If, on the other hand, #1 is the truth, he can help his party and his popularity by being more transparent. As I said, I stepped back from politics a lot, so I haven't been following the nitty-gritty details, but I get the sense (from reading others' commentary, particularly the commentary of those who used to support him) that he and his administration are venting about and avoiding the hard questions far more than honestly answering them. Rants like the one sophiaserpentia quoted show a blatant disrespect towards their own voting base, and that is not going to win any politician brownie points. What will happen, instead, is those people they snubbed their noses at will either stay at home or use the midterm elections to get rid of Congress-people who could have been allies to the president's causes. If he thinks he's having a hard time getting anything done, now, his head will spin at the resistance he'll get from a restructured Congress after the midterm elections.