It was the economy, stupid...

Once again, the idea that the Republican "strategery" is to criticize the new president for not understanding economic principles demonstrates the perils of "faith-based" economic ideology, as opposed to having any semblance of understanding how the system works. In part, I would argue, the problem is not so much the issue of economic theory, but a fundamental disconnect from having to deal with the consequences of their policies in any substantive way. It is possible to be faithful to this economic ideology (rather than understanding economic principles) because people like JIm Boehner and Newt Gingrich do not suffer at the hands of their failure.

Among the two greatest failures of the RNC over the last twenty years are George W. Bush and Newt Gingrich. The former now seems like a distant memory, exiting to Dallas with barely an afterthought from his own party. One would not have known that the RNC worked in tandem with GWB over the past eight years helping pass the finishing touches on an economy that is now devastating the U.S. and creating tent cities. Gingrich fell out of power long enough ago that he can apparently rise out of the ashes to reaffirm conservative economic ideas, such as small government and a faux free-market ideology that is actually no such thing in their application. Thus, we hear arguments that certain businesses cannot fail, while "greedy" individuals who have too large of a mortgage are treated as if they have sinned mightily.

Among other things, there is a major concern about the plans for us to re-start the economy. The first is that there seems to be no accountability for those who occupy the upper echelon of the system, be they the de-regulators in congress or the corporate hierarchy that took advantage. It is not economic policy, but a political spin of moralization that creates low-level economic sinners and leaving the policy saints in the clear to benefit. In the case of the RNC, they are arguing that somehow they deserve to be architects of future policies to combat the very disaster they constructed. In the case of the corporate elites, they seem prepared to buckle down and do the work of creating jobs for the rest of us, after having been greedy at a rate one thousand times over that of the average home buyer. The same people who convinced the average person to buy a home beyond their means, because they "qualified" for it, are doing another sales job on us.

It should be interesting to see what new products they will now produce for us, so that we can later be blamed for our greediness... We can best help them out by asking for less government oversight, socializing banks but not healthcare or home loans, cutting education, ending pork-barrel spending (because they obviously did so during the past 8 years), and btw, the president needs to be more positive. It is not polite to be negative about receiving a gift from someone, even if you've been re-gifted a Depression economy.