Counting Chickens

Perhaps some in the Republican Party are slavering over their soon-to-be takeover of Congress, intent on more disingenuous ranting and obstructionism in the name of helping Americans. But as a sage once noted, it is often problematic to count the chicks before they hatch. Sometimes, all that happens is you get egg on your face.

The economic recovery is stalled, the job picture is bleak, foreclosures continue apace, and money continues to be tight. This is, of course, tailor-made for Republicans to point at the President and exclaim "See? See what he did? He's ruining our country!!!", assuming they are still suffering from the collective amnesia that was the previous administration's need to deregulate the "free" market, which started the economic downturn. In nineteen months, the current administration, without the aid of House and Senate Republicans, has tried to stave off a depression, and mitigate the damage done by rampant speculation and poor money management by Wall Street. All the while, as the "loyal" opposition has taken every advantage allowed them, to stall, hamstring, or outright kill legislation that would work to reinvigorate the American economy and give small businesses the needed tax breaks to help them hire people.

The chest-thumping and proclamations that issue forth from the Minority Leader's offices, and from the Republican caucuses, would have you believe that President Obama single-handedly created the poor economy and is responsible for firing everyone who has lost a job. Worse, they are pretty certain that anyone who needs to be on unemployment compensation is a shirker or layabout, obviously too lazy to keep a job where they were forced to work 60 hours per week for 40 hour per week wages. Perhaps their laziness is what forced employers to cut jobs or send them overseas, and not the need for ever-expanding profits and larger bonus packages.

While the Republican Party may wish to think it has snowed under the American populace, with the help of their friends in the news media, the sad fact is, not all of us are that stupid. We can see through the tissue of lies, the inflammatory rhetoric, and see exactly what they have done to assist America in its hour of need: nothing. Still wounded from fielding a weak and ultimately incoherent candidate in the 2008 Presidential Election, they would rather lash out, taking it out on those who did not vote for their candidates, than roll up their sleeves, suck up their pride, and get down to the business of governing a nation in crisis. It is more important for them to regain power, re-establish their hierarchy, and get their hands firmly back on the purse strings, than to remember to their solemn duty to see to the general welfare. If they can use it to their advantage, they will continue their obstinacy and hypocrisy, leaving the average American to scrape by, while they live it up in the halls of power.

One can only hope that the majority of Americans, the ones who really decide who wins and who loses an election, deal the Republicans another blow to their psyches, that they might get the message that America does not want partisanship, it wants results. If you wish to impress us, do not do so by your words, but your deeds. for words do not fill bellies or create paychecks. And to Democrats, let them use the advantage they are being handed to good use, for if they do not, then they are no more ready to govern than their Republican counterparts. Let the bickering and nattering be put aside; it is time for America to regain her footing, a task we cannot accomplish without a strong and united government.