Now for one of the bigger problems with President Elect Obama that was not mentioned much going into the election: The prospect of John McCain leaping lunging across the aisle to do Obama's bidding in the Senate for the next four years.
Drew at Ace of Spades noted today's joint statement from Obama and McCain, and comments:
"At this defining moment in history, we believe that Americans of all parties want and need their leaders to come together and change the bad habits of Washington so that we can solve the common and urgent challenges of our time. It is in this spirit that we had a productive conversation today about the need to launch a new era of reform where we take on government waste and bitter partisanship in Washington in order to restore trust in government, and bring back prosperity and opportunity for every hardworking American family. We hope to work together in the days and months ahead on critical challenges like solving our financial crisis, creating a new energy economy, and protecting our nation’s security."
Here's the thing, 'partisanship' is not a bad thing. In fact, it can be very healthy. When one party wants to do something staggeringly stupid, it's the job of the other party to STOP THEM, not join them in pushing the country over the cliff.
I wish McCain would shut up about 'government waste'. Yeah, that's a problem but a small one compared to government encroachment into areas it doesn't belong in the first place. No amount of efficiency makes me want the government to get involved in regulating the economy to stop 'global warming', 'fix' education or a host of other issues.
Good points, Drew. I would add to it by noting that Obama and McCain promise to restore trust in government. I don't want a government I can trust. Which is a good thing, because you can't trust government, by definition, if it has any power. That's why our Founding Fathers put so many checks and balances in place, to minimize the overuse of government. To restrain government. To leash in the dangers of this necessary evil.
When Americans start trusting their government, we're all screwed. You've all seen the polls that show that trust in government was very high for most of the 20th century until the late 1960s. So people trusted the government while it was enslaving them within the welfare state, while it was wasting their money by implementing the horrific social security theft/boondoggle, while it was creating the largest and most expensive entitlement in medical care, while it was systematically destroying the local public school system, while it promised them more and more while taking more and more? And after they stopped trusting government, we saw a massive reduction in new programs and greater prosperity for the people than ever before? We want to go back to the former? I'm sure Obama New Deal 2.0 does. But the rest of us?
If John McCain follows through with this, and there is no reason to doubt he will, I will do anything I can do to help him lose his senate seat in Arizona. Assuming he runs for re-election.
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