Political rant

Dear James, Daniel and Emily,

A few thoughts that have been sticking in my mind recently.

1. Economy: I have been rereading Studs Terkel's Hard Times, and also just picked up Paul Krugman's Conscience of a Liberal. And in reading those at the same time that I have been following the news over the last couple of months a few things have hit me.

Patience: We have to be patient, as the President said last night. This whole thing didn't go south overnight and it won't be fixed overnight. The lesson I have picked up from Hard Times is that because the Crash occurred early in Hoover's Presidency and he didn't do anything to fix the problem, things were allowed to grow worse and worse for almost 4 years before FDR came in. That isn't the case now, hopefully. Obama is stepping and working to fix things much earlier so hopefully the depth of the crisis will not go as low. But we as a country have to realize that while he is working on the issue, there are some fundamental problems that cannot be solved overnight.

Perspective: At the peak of the New Deal and for a long time after, the top tax bracket was 90%! The media lackeys of Big Money are barking and complaining about the possibility of a 39% top bracket now. Come on, get a grip. Things have come so far in the way of helping out the top 1% of earners in this country it is ridiculous. And then people have the gall to claim that any raise for the top earners is Socialism! It's just sickening. Assuming that Obama is able to swing things around the people in that top 1% will need to get on their knees and thank him. Because the people of this country are not nearly as patient as they once were, and if things get worse, and they are still screaming 'Socialist' at any talk of taxes they might get to learn what real socialism is...

2. AIG bonuses: I was pretty ticked off as well about this, and in fact I find the whole idea of the insane executive compensation packages to be out of this world. But I came across a cartoon which helped put a little perspective on this, to summarize:
130 billion: 130,000,000,000
165 million: 165,000,000

The reality is that while those bonuses did take some gall, they were realistically a drop in the bucket compared to what the government has given the company in aid.

3. My politics have gotten a whole lot more radical in the last couple of years, and I don't think I am the only one. Admittedly I have some family background to back me up. But the worse things get, and the more I see the politicians of both sides just bickering over tiny little stuff the more ticked I get.

4. I know a lot of Republicans who marched in lock step with the Bush administration are expecting the Obama supporters to do the same. And I am so glad that isn't the case. Just about every day I read some critique of a new administration policy posted on my various liberal/progressive web sites. And for that I am profoundly thankful. It might speak to a lack of patience for some. But I for one would rather have an open critique of an administration coming from both sides of the political spectrum than to have the one sided arguments of the past 8 years.