Discussing politics with someone of a viewpoint opposite that of your own is a certain path to disagreement. And that disagreement is often impossible to bridge because political policy is often speculative and it is very likely for two views to be completely irreconcilable making compromise practically impossible. Sometimes a political conversation can start innocuously, over a simple comment and then lead to conflicting terms. I found myself in just that sort of conversation recently when I responded to a friend’s posting after the “debt ceiling” bill where they called the President a Republican.
I was appalled by the suggestion and responded by pointing out the massive accumulation of debt, spent on social programs that did nothing to help an ailing economy, instead making it worse and pointed out that the debt ceiling deal didn’t cut anything, instead slowing the rate of growth in future years that can be reinstated by a future congress. My friend, unfazed, retorted with talking points and blamed today’s spending on the previous President. Back and forth we went, with me using inferential statistics based on the White House Office of Management and Budget’s historical tables and my friend using democrat talking points. I gave up with a final rant attempting to clarify dozens of contradictions ignored by my friend who got to his main talking point, that the real reason why we don’t live in a socialist utopia is because real progressive policies have never been attempted and that progressives always lose because they are afraid of Republicans.
There is no way to rationally discuss political policy with someone of this opinion. Every year the federal government has grown. Under our last President, a Republican, a new cabinet level department, a new Medicare entitlement, $168 trillion in do-nothing stimulus, private bank bailouts and a large education initiative were added. And under the current President, a democrat, more private bank bailouts, auto company bailouts, a new trillion dollar health care bill, an $800 billion do-nothing stimulus, a $400 billion omnibus spending boondoggle, an automobile purchasing program, a housing purchasing program, unemployment benefit expansion to two freaking years, repeal of 1990’s era welfare reform leading to record numbers of recipients and double digit increases to democrat favored departments amongst other new spending has been added. A progressive complaining about a lack of progressive policy under this administration is akin to Michael Jordan complaining about a lack of NBA championships, absurd.
The problem with the federal government is that it is too progressive. Massive entitlement programs have changed the government into a check-writing enterprise, using the taxes of some citizens to pay for the livelihoods of others, effectively making them wards of the state. Many of these beneficiaries have no idea where the money comes from other than the government and the government uses this fact to utilize them as votes for expansion. One of the President’s favorite talking points is to demand sacrifice from higher income taxpayers, taxpayers that already pay a share of taxes disproportionate to their share of income. How that is supposed to be fair and how increasing taxes even further is fair, I don’t understand.
Progressive political policy, as defined as the unfettered expansion of government in scope and consumption of resources, has won consistently for too many years. Progressive detractors of the current President’s methods are too-clever by half. Those who claim to be upset with the President’s lack of “progressivism” are simply impatient and aren’t paying attention. The President seems to understand that progressive policies take time to grow and need to start small (believe it or not, Obamacare is considered ‘small’ by self-identified “progressives”) in order to not be noticed by an electorate that is not enamored by such things. Progressives who claim that the President will lose their support in 2012 are either deceptive or just whining because the prison in Guantanamo Bay is still operating or some other nonsense and unreasonable leftist promise hasn’t been fulfilled. Who else are they going to vote for? And if Obama’s is not “progressive” enough, would they really stay home and allow a Republican bogeyman to be elected? If Obama’s a Republican and not “progressive” enough then the Earth is flat. Progressive policies have brought this country to insolvency and the only way out is to shrink government and foster a culture of responsibility, rather than dependency on progressive overlords, er experts.
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