The Belmont Club has a couple of posts up that are critical of Obama. The first examines his “I am so tried” excuse for miss handling the the visit Gordon Brown. The second post examines the signs that his honeymoon may be coming to an end.
Both of these posts are worthwhile if your only object in life is to repay Obama with the same kind of treatment that was given to Bush. But as far as addressing the real issues of the day, these posts miss the mark by a wide margin. The real problem is articulated by Obama himself in a recent interview with The New York Times….
As he pressed forward with ambitious plans at home to rewrite the tax code, expand health care coverage and curb climate change, Mr. Obama dismissed criticism from conservatives that he was driving the country toward socialism. After the interview, which took place as the president was flying home from Ohio, he called reporters from the Oval Office to assert that his actions have been “entirely consistent with free-market principles” and to point out that large-scale government intervention in the markets and expansion of social welfare programs began under President George W. Bush.
No fair minded person could deny that what Obama is doing is largely the continuation of the polices that Bush pursued. To the extent that markets seem to be punishing Obama’s every missteps harder it is because they thought that Bush’s plans were only there to keep everything from collapsing until Obama arrived with a real plan. Now that everyone can see that Obama’s plan is just an expanded version of Bush’s plan, it is harder for the markets to convince themselves that some magic fairy is going to arrive and save us.
But this realization is not likely to do Republicans (or the nation) much good until a credible alternative to Obama/Bush’s economic rescue plan is put forth. Right now, few people really believe that Republicans would behave all that differently then Obama if they still held the presidency. Nothing that either McCain or Bush has said or done offers any kind of real contrast to how Obama is behaving. And in my experiences this is widely realized among the blue collar white males who form a key part of the traditional Republican governing coalition. This post from Rod Dreher talking about a recent conversation he had with a blue collar conservative reflects a lot of conversations that I have heard. Toward the end of the post Rod Dreher says…..
A couple of things were clear to me. One, this working-class conservative voter had bitter contempt for the Republican Party in particular, and the political and financial elites in general. He believes, quite correctly in my view, that they’re looking out only for themselves, that they will avoid a just reckoning for the disaster they’ve caused. And two, there’s no telling what kind of backlash is brewing once people lose faith in the institutions of politics and finance. This is just one repairman in Texas on one day in the spring of 2009. But I am sure he’s not alone.
The key point that a lot of conservatives seem to be avoiding in their critiques of Obama is that the only alternative to what he is trying to do is the complete destruction of the existing system. In fact, many of them go so far as to argue that Obama is trying to remake the existing system and that is why is so dangerous. But the truth of the matter is that failure of the existing system is what is going to happen and that is going to change the American economic/poltical system in ways that are far more radical then anything Obama could dream of accomplishing. Acting as if Obama’s program is an attempt to bring about radical change instead of an attempt to prevent radical change is not really productive.
In the end, I think that the failure of Bush/Obama approach is a forgone conclusion. In fact, I think that by trying to head off the collapse Bush/Obama plan is making things worse. When you factor in the strain on government finances that will be brought about by retirement of the baby boomers and I just don’t see how the current system can keep functioning.
I am not alone in thinking this, of course. In fact, on both the right and left of the political system, you can find people who salivate over the prospect of a collapse because they believe that the forces that would be unleashed could be stage-managed to produce the society that they desire.
But if we are honest with ourselves, both liberals and conservatives would have to admit that there is no guarantee that the system that would arise out of such a collapse would be more to our liking then the current system. The problem with collapses is that they are inherently unpredictable and uncontrollable. A collapse could lead to huge increases in government power. It could lead to a sharp rise in racism and the oppression of minorities as a matter of government policy. It could lead to a rise in prominence of religious groups that are not even on the radar right now (economic problems have historically been good for the creation of new cults). It could lead to war and strife.
That is why everyone wants to attach huge importance Obama’s every little misstep and mistake. People would like to fool themselves into thinking that a trip into the unknown could be postponed if only our political leaders would do things right. Obama himself has this belief. That is why he is working himself into such a state that his aids worry he is not getting enough sleep. He thinks that if he just tries hard enough he might be able to make a difference.
But the truth is that the plane we are on is going to go down over unknown terrain. You can argue about which way would be the best way to crash land if you want. Or can try to fool yourself into thinking you can keep the plane in the air with positive thinking. But in the end, you can’t escape the fact that we are going to crash.
