By Wes Pedersen
In the earlier era that was yesterday, we worried that the banks and Wall Street were draining the economic swamp of sustainable life. Now we know how silly that was.
The politicians, under George W. Bush and then Barack Obama, were the real culprits, throwing our money away on sad-ass causes overseas while creating a huge class of "have-nots, won't gets" among the American public.
Conning us was obviously not hard to do. Americans have always been a sheep to the shearer people, too willing, too often, to trust their leaders until the clippers cut in too sharply.
We've never really paid attention to what to what those in charge, and those who wanted to be in charge, were saying. We caught and bought simple phrases from them, from FDR's "the only thing we have to fear, is fear itself" to JFK's "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."
Kids just out of college rallied to Kennedy's call, joining the new world-conscious Peace Corps. A world responded to Ronald Reagan's "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
We are responding in an entirely different way to our leaders today. They're scaring us beyond earlier belief with their daily squabbling over the national budget. The question of lowering the ceiling on our lives is resulting in minus points every time a politician speaks. The issue was there when Obama was elected; he and the Republican leadership ignored it until the last moment, then declared a crisis that couldn't be acknowledged before.
The first crisis after Obama took office was the impending fiscal wreck that became The Great Recession. Today the Great Recession lingers on, joined by The Great Depression, a national condition manifested in the feelings of gloom and potential economic disaster about to descend on families of every income level save the wealthy being defended by House Speaker John Boehner with a ferocity that belies his reputation as a cry baby.
The country is ripe for the public uprising that will erupt when the public discovers what those private talks between Boehner and Obama really mean for them.
The ceiling on debt will almost certainly be lifted; that is what was called for early in this costly game. But that will come at a price that is going to cost both parties whatever remains of the trust of their publics. The setting is ripe for an eloquent leader to emerge as head of a new Third Party.
A plague on both Democrat and Republican parties is developing even as we speak; it will fester throughout the elections next year.
Radicalization of the nation may be the price we will pay for our historic complacency in eras of massively incompetent leadership.
The bumper sticker of our times may be the simple, "Close Down Washington."
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Wes Pedersen is a retired Foreign Service Officer and principal at Wes Pedersen Communications and Public Relations Washington, D.C.
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