The S&P downgraded the US credit on Friday, something that has never happened before. Washington cronies are hysterical over this move, saying it wasn’t based on a sound financial analysis. Perhaps that’s true. But, what was it based on? That’s the thing they can’t process.
S&P says the downgrade was prompted, among other things, by the pathetic political brinksmanship that led up to the recent “debt compromise.”
Obviously, political cronies are shocked by the S&P’s downgrade of US debt ratings. Hosni Mubarak was shocked when Egyptian citizens rose up and decided to throw him out of power. Saddam Hussein was shocked as well. Politicians are always shocked when their extremism is met by counter-extremism.
I’m not saying that the S&P’s decision is sensible, but it’s definitely motivated by frustration with our current political “leaders.” Yes, our Forefathers created a system with wonderful checks and balances. So what? Do we really believe that our government can run on an autopilot that was set over two hundred years ago? Here’s what we need to focus on next Fourth of July: we started out with an excellent political system, and we’ve let it corrode into shameless partisanship and mindless extremism.
Many people (both in and out of our country) are frustrated with the partisan bickering, but few have the power to do anything about it. The S&P had power. And it took that opportunity to deliver a stern message. China might take the opportunity to send a similar message, not to help us understand. Other countries want us to fall from glory. They are salivating at our unstatesmanlike manner and can’t wait for the balance of power to redistribute. You’d think that more people in the US would understand this and get riled up.
Will voters penalize the current batch of political hacks in the next election?
Probably not. Most voters are simple-minded about how our problems were created and how they might be solved. That’s how the current batch of political hacks got into office in the first place. Voters aren’t even going to rearrange deck chairs. They’re too busy admiring the approaching iceberg, thinking that their partisan leaders know how to turn it into a pile of gold for their team.
Red Team, Blue Team. That’s all the voters understand. They might as well be getting their information from early reader books. Go Dog Go!
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