In case you didn't catch the hint yesterday and you haven't looked, get your tender hind parts on over to Borrowed Suits and check out the video clips posted there of Obama's economy speech from earlier this month. Do this now. Go.
...well? A number of things came to mind when I watched these clips, but I wanted to mention two of them. First off, is it just me or is The Main Man talking about some straight-up New Deal-type sh@t to get done with the money from the stimulus package? I mean, he did say new bridges, rebuilt levies and repaired roads, right? I don't know about anyone else, but I suddenly felt like I was back in high school US History listening to Ms. Kiley talking about FDR. Pretty cool if it works...again. I'm optimistic.
And why? Well mainly due to the second thing that came to mind. Those of you who know me know that my attitudes towards the gummint tend to be that ours pretty much bites it hard. Politically and socially my views tend to be pretty far left which may seem odd in lieu of my utter disgust with the Democratic Party and so-called Liberals and their not-in-my-backyard breed of passing the buck. I'm of the opinion that you should walk the walk. Republicans and the Right certainly walk it, whether you agree with what they're saying or not. I certainly don't agree with, well, pretty much anything they have to say, but you can't deny they back up their bullsh@t, self-serving, money-grubbing, close-minded I'm out for me attitudes with bullsh@t, self-serving, money-grubbing, close-minded, I'm out for me-type legislation and lobbying and pandering to the masses and to big business. Sucks it hard but at least you know where you stand with the Right's.
On the other hand, the Democrats and so-called Liberals have largely drifted so far to center in response to the Right's progressive shift towards more reactionary action, that the political spectrum has been thrown way out of whack. One of my biggest gripes with the Deocratic party in the past eight years is that as I watch campaign after campaign get hijacked by the straight-up lies and deep-double-stuffing media manipulation of the Right, the Democrats are still playing at being polite. It drives me absolutely nuts to watch candidates with good ideas get hijacked by half-truths and outright lies and not do anything about it. Berserk.
Which brings me back to Obama's speech. Probably the best thing I saw in that speech was Obama's up-front, head-on reaction to criticism of the Stimulus Package. In the past, the criticism that it's not a stimulus package but a spending package would have thrown the Dems into a defensive mode running for cover and trying to defend the merits of the stimulus package and engaging in the back-and-forth with the Repubs.
The Main Man on the other hand? Has finally done what has been needed for a long, long time. Called it like it is and made his detractors look stupid and petty. The Stimulus Package is a Spending Package? ...um...what was it supposed to be!? The whole point of a stimulus plan is to put money into the economy to jump start it. It's a spending package? No sh@t.
That heads-up kind of play mixed with the inherent honesty in his speech gives me hope for our system. Which is something I haven't felt in a long time. Maybe our broken system can be salvaged, at least in part and be made to work for the people again rather than for the Big--big business, big gov'mint, big whatever. I guess we can hope. And that was the point all along, right?
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