The failure of the Obama Administration to unite the nation — after his 2008 “change” campaign and all the hope it engendered — has caused the American political universe to spin out of control.
The first result of this ongoing chaos is the meteoric rise of the Tea Party as an alternative to both the GOP and the Democrats.
The energy, the anger, the sense of betrayal felt by millions of voters — many of whom voted for Obama after eight disastrous years of Bush-GOP rule — is all wrapped up inside these various iterations of Tea Parties and Tea Party events that occur all across the country.
One year ago there was no Tea Party. In fact, while the nation was gripped by a disastrous economic meltdown brought on by unfettered Wall Street greed, then-President-Elect Obama had a united nation behind him. His ratings were sky high. And everyone hoped for better days.
Instead we got the predictable, by-the-usual-book, left-wing, big-government, big-spending programs.
By April — Tax Day — many had already seen enough. Obama was, like Bush with Iraq after the unifying events of 9/11, re-polarizing the nation. Indeed, we are already back to an approximate 45-45 Red State-Blue State nation today.
It didn’t have to be this way. Obama could, and should, have driven right down the economic and political middle lane: some tax cuts to stimulate consumer spending, sometimes saying an emphatic “NO” to the left for their spending programs. And, above all else, he should have talked “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs” all the time — all year.
Had he done this, he would be ahead of the curve today.
But he didn’t do this. Instead he talked about healthcare so much he talked it, and himself, down in the polls to the point that a majority of Americans now oppose it and him. Thus he is a failing president — now open to charges of not just being too liberal, but also being incompetent.
All the other screw-ups — such as the Olympics-for-Chicago and the Professor Gates incident — are now a precursor for his inept, too-late-to-the-dance handling of the Christmas Day underwear bomber.
Obama’s executive skills have been so poor that he is rapidly making Jimmy Carter look competent.
The GOP has done nothing much since their two wipe-outs in 2006 and 2008 to resuscitate itself. Thus the rise of the Tea Party.
Prediction: 2010 will be a year filled with even more political chaos — somewhat like the late 1970s. The Republicans will pick up a lot of House and Senate seats and governorships in November because they are on the ballot — and the Tea Party is not. But the unraveling of our current two-party system has just begun.
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