With the recent financial events I've found myself more disgusted than ever with Washington.
Most of that is directed toward Congress whose dysfunction seems to have no end. On the first House vote our elected representatives nearly messed their pants because they got bombarded with phone calls, emails, etc emphatically saying no to the bailout. That suddenly made them decide to vote the way they thought their constituencies wanted them to. Normally that would be a good thing. But the current Congress does that only if they feel their job might be in jeopardy.
To quote historian and author Andrew Bacevich: "The Congress no longer is able to articulate a vision of what is the
common good. The Congress exists primarily to ensure the reelection of
members of Congress." I couldn't agree more. A prime example of that was the Speaker's speech right before the vote in which she laid the blame for the crisis on the Bush Administration. Granted that might not have changed any votes but it would have been nice to see the Speaker at least attempt unity for the country's good.
Not that the executive branch is much better. I'm still pissed at W who in his first administration assembled what should have been arguably one of the best Cabinets and Administration in history--at least based on experience--and allowed them to whiff at nearly every pitch thrown. And that was made even worse by 9/11 which gave him a mandate for redoing American foreign policy and the country's defense.
It's a continuing theme of mine but we haven't had a single legislator, executive branch member or business person assume a role of leadership for the financial crisis or for energy. Oh, sure you hear a lot of talk and speeches but it amounts to nothing but hot air. The closest thing we've had to that is with T. Boone Pickens. And given his billions I doubt that many average Americans trust him. This country is in a crisis--that's for sure. But it's not financial or energy. Those are just the symptoms. The real one is a lack of leadership.
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AMEN!!!
Posted by: katherine at Oct 7, 2008 1:09:42 PM
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