Make fun all you want, but leadership is exactly what we need right now.
The problem with almost everything we’re going through boils down to a lack of confidence. It’s a lack of confidence in the system, in the people running the system, in the dollar, in our banks, and in our industries. Banks aren’t lending because they aren’t confident that they’ll be repaid. People aren’t spending because they aren’t confident that they’ll have their jobs much longer. Housing sales have plummeted because people aren’t confident that home values will appreciate.
Because our currency is not standardized by any commodity, ours is a fiat economy. It depends on good faith and credit. When these dry up, the economy stalls, even crashes. Right wing nuts poked fun at Obama’s desire to “spread the wealth around” without understanding the Chicagoan/Austrian nature of his premise — namely, that wealth cannot be created unless money is moving from one person to another. When money is hoarded or held by a cabal, no new wealth can possibly be generated.
All that is required to revive our economy is to get banks to lend, investors to capitalize, companies to hire, and consumers to spend. These are exactly the keys that Obama is targeting with his plans. Pardon me if I fail to excoriate him for his intelligence and insight.
For what it’s worth, I registered the same sort of complaints when people bashed Bush over piddly shit, like how he pronounces “nuclear” or how many fewer minutes he should have spent in the classroom on 9/11 or even, God, someone pitted him for his facial expressions or something. Meanwhile, he was committing war crimes, trampling on our liberties, trashing our international reputation, and neglecting the coercion and deception taking place in the open market. Fuck how he pronounces “nuclear”.
With Obama, same same but different. He is doing almost everything right, in terms of putting people in place and setting things up so that he has the best possible chance of dealing with the shitstorm Bush created. Fuck all the bitching about whom he invites to say a prayer, or what he thinks about DTV. Speaking for myself, he will deserve criticism when fails to do the very best he can or when he phones it all in the way Bush did.
He’s intellectually briliant. He’s morally courageous. He’s a good hearted man who cares about people. He is self-made, having endured hardships and obstacles that only a biracial child of a single mother can know. He values the opinions of others even (and especially) when they disagree with him. He consults people who oppose him along with people who support him. He surrounds himself with giants and legends, and isn’t intimidated by any of them. He is a natural leader whom people are happy to serve.
Every person who opts to join these circus causes and snipe at him, rather than give him support for his excellent ideas, is a traitor to people who are struggling and need a way out of joblessness, homelessness, and hopelessness. So don’t expect much from me in the way of “Wah! Obama made a different decision than I would have made!”
Yes, goddammit, we should trust him. He has earned it.
