The Pity Party

On August 6, 2011 the U.S. government’s credit rating was down graded for the first time in history.  Instead of carrying the best possible credit rating in the world, we now have the second best.  Standard &Poor's had several reasons for the rating, but ultimately they cited the fact that the U.S. government failed to handle the budget within the necessary time frame.  Over the entire month of July our 2.5 party government played the blame game instead of doing the work.  The Republicans blamed Democrats, the Democrats blamed Republicans, and both blamed the Tea Party.  In the long process of taking stands and pointing fingers, adequate measures were not taken to protect our country’s credit.  After S&P announced their decision, the 2.5 party system continued on the same course of blaming each other and some even blamed S&P.  Welcome to the pity party my friends.

So who is responsible for this debacle?  We are.  We voted for politicians who promised to stop each other from getting things done.  We feared our government so much we voted to stop it from functioning.  The truth is that there is no one party that is right for the county all of the time.  This is the very reason why the two party system exists.  If we allow the Democratic ideal to run its course we would ultimately have a socialist society.  If we allow the Republican ideal to run its course we would ultimately have a feudal society.  Instead, our government operates as a pendulum between the two.  It is this great compromise that works.  In America one thing is always certain:  no matter what kind of party you have, someone will eventually be cleaning up after it.

In 2008, a majority of Americans elected a Democratic president along with a Democratic congress.  Immediately the Dems set out to make big changes in health care.  I don’t know if these changes were good or bad, but I do know that our pendulating government has the ability to change the bad stuff.  The damage would be temporary at most.  But this change scared many of us.  This fear opened the door for the Tea Party – a more extreme form of the Republican ideal.  They convinced us that the country was being destroyed by liberals.  So in 2010 we put handcuffs on Washington by intentionally gridlocking the system.  Instead of having a party we have stopped the music.  The 2010 election was last call.

I did not vote for Barack Obama but I am ok with letting the Democrats have their day.  Again, I firmly believe that any bad policy could be undone, and I firmly believe that if EITHER party controlled our government we would still have our AAA credit rating.  Our fear is the problem.  Gridlock is the problem.  Either party would have avoided a credit default.  Either party would have avoided a credit down grade.  In fact, the President and the Speaker of the House had reached a compromise, but they were stopped by the politicians we put in place to prevent compromise.   August 6, 2011 proves that this was a bad idea.  We cannot afford to prevent government action.   It doesn’t matter which party rules the country for a short time.  No party is permanent, and no policy is permanent if it is bad policy.  It is far better to vote for someone who will reach across the aisle to get something done than it is to fill our government with people who will take a stand regardless of the consequences.  The party, whichever one it may be, must go on.

Tony F.