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At his December 7 press conference, President Obama declared his belief that this country was founded on compromise:Under the criteria that you just set out, each of those were betrayals of some abstract ideal. This country was founded on compromise. I couldn’t go through the front door at this country’s founding. And if we were really thinking about ideal positions, we wouldn’t have a union. So my job is to make sure that we have a North Star out there.See, I thought that this country was actually founded on the basis of an uncompromisable "abstract ideal," namely the right of a peoples' collective and individual right to self-determination. This concept was concisely and eloquently expressed in the Declaration of Independence.
Maybe what the President actually meant was that the U.S. Constitution was hammered out in an epic labor of debate and compromise so both the humble and the aristocratic founders could get behind it. If so, that's true. But you can't compromise if you don't negotiate. Obama allowed senior congressional Republicans to take the restoration of Clinton-era tax rates for the rich completely off the table before the first bag of Cheetos was opened. That's not compromise; it's a surrender to winner-take-all tactics. And it pivots the responsibility for intransigence onto his own party. Smooth move, President North Star.
that Santa-- I don't like him
ReplyDeleteThe Southern Cross?
ReplyDeleteAnd to "restore" the SocSec cuts (excuse me, holiday) later could, in election season...., be termed a TAX INCREASE....oh my, tigers and bears (vote for us). Putting SocSec "into" the so called general fund....possibly with individual managed accounts...is next. The New Deal is taking calculated and pointilistic cheap shots that will become body blows. When the boxer is finally felled by a haymaker from the floor Uncle Sam and Lady Liberty will have lost their only son.
Billy Corrigan
bit o' history; prior to FDRs various plans in the first 100 days was a bill for a 30hr/wk (similar to the French 35hr/wk dodge). Deftly defeated the sponsor was offered a prominent role (i.e., his bill had been in the vanguard you see) but he declined. Black I think was the name.
Tripp: remember that Santa gets really stressed-out during the Christmas season, just like most people. It makes a maniac out of him.
ReplyDeleteBilly: the poetry is eloquent this week; thanks. Hard for me to figure out what freedom is supposed to be for if democratic institutions are supposed to have no role in preventing economic catastrophes that drive people into ruin or have them working 12/6 until they're 70. Freedom isn't free. Which, I guess, could be the rallying cry of both the peasants and the aristocracy depending on which "frame" you hang around it.