Damn lies

I rarely take in much of what liberal blogs say these days. Some of it is intelligent but some of it is laboured and narrow focused. I've made it clear here on my blog about concerns I have about Obama's stimulus plan and that pretty much puts me at odds with many progressive bloggers and econ-bloggers.

But I have to say, there is something like a magnitude of difference between progressive blogs say and what the "Faithful 20%" super-conservatives go on about. Reading their blogs is sickening as they go on about Chairman Obama turning the US into America S.S.R. with his terrible, horrible no good stimulus plan and how he is going to completely wreck the economy with it.

I have been warning for years about the coming crash. Moreover, I have clearly identified the main culprits of the crash as being the Republican Party and their policies under Reagan, Bush 2 and the congresses they controlled (either partly or fully) during the reign of those two presidents.

And just to prove how nice and bipartisan I am, I'll say clearly that George H.W. Bush wasn't much to blame for this, and nor will I say that the Gingrich inspired Republican Congress between 1994 and 2000 is to blame for this mess. Moreover I'll also point out that Democrats under Reagan who helped create the national deficit are to blame as well for being stupid.

But when you look at the big picture, the main culprits are the Republicans. The Republicans ran up huge budget deficits and engaged in tax cutting voodoo economics for most of the period 1981-2006.

So when Obama starts throwing money left right and centre, the super-conservatives suddenly become all economically righteous, throwing out their pathetic chests and rattling their dull swords as they predict dire consequences for such fiscally irresponsible behaviour.

Irresponsible? To be honest they're probably right. Yet to ignore their own party's role in creating the dire circumstances the world economy is in shows up their hypocrisy and blind partisanship. From now on, any drop in the sharemarket, any rise in unemployment, any contraction in GDP, any rise in bankruptcies, can all be blamed upon Chairman Obama and his hand picked politburo in the White House, rubbing their hands in glee at America's downfall.

Intelligent conservatives would be more circumspect. They would pick holes in Obama's plans while acknowledging the damnable role that the GOP had in creating the mess in the first place. They would criticise the president without resorting to insults - not least until the president's poor record demanded it (something that progressives did to Bush).

And the sad thing is that, if things get really bad, we can probably begin to expect violence from these people. Even from some who call themselves Christians and who have drunk the super-conservative Koolaid. And they would participate in the violence with a clear conscience, motivated by the knowledge that they are fighting evil and protecting their liberty. Such is the beginnings of terrorism.