What a monumental fuck-up.
Since the 1980s, political liberals have largely been thought of as the minority. Their views were quickly discredited, their programs systematically dismantled, their diverse ranks were painted as latte-sipping demons who sought to micromanage the lives of “real Americans.” Any attempt to deny this is to deny reality: With the exception only perhaps of the brief mitigation of the moderately liberal Clinton administration, it is clear that since Reagan, the liberals’ place in government has been less than dominant.
In 2001, this marginalization of the liberal ideology reached a fever-pitch. Republicans and their ideals controlled a majority of Congress, a highly contested election made it obvious liberals could find few friends on the Supreme Court, and as a result, the government was wrested fully from the control of the last moderate liberals who had a presence there. The liberals, defeated and discouraged, developed a consensus that years would pass before policy could reflect any of their demands, and retreated to their respective state governments.
The liberal voice was, for the most part, silenced. It was difficult to imagine that liberal policies currently in government would remain standing for much longer, let alone to imagine that new liberal policies would ever be enacted. Ah yes, the great victory was achieved: latte-sipping, Subaru-driving, Eugene-inhabiting, homosexual-enabling, tax-and-spending, tree-hugging, pro-choice liberal bastards were finally banished forever. Perhaps now we could see the America that God intended.
Within a year, we suffered the single most catastrophic violent attack on the national security of America since Pearl Harbor. Shortly thereafter, Americans and others were stripped of a great number of their civil liberties, with little objection. Budget surpluses were rapidly converted into budget deficits, and now we face a national debt approaching 10 trillion dollars. We embarked on an overzealous and expensive mission in the Middle East, but did so without the support of many allies, leading to a near-complete loss of credibility in the world diplomatic community. A worsening global climate crisis was denied, then ignored, and finally acknowledged with little plan for action. The trade deficit ballooned. Americans were left out to suffer natural disasters of epic proportions with little help to survive. Gas prices exploded as the value of the currency collapsed under the burden of reckless debt. Housing prices skyrocketed and then, just as rapidly, plummeted, accompanying a brewing crisis in the credit market that threatens to destroy the American economy wholesale.
Our economic crisis, now front and center, will likely rival even the Great Depression in its severity. The $700 billion economic bailout plan was not a good solution. It was horrid, riddled with problems and consequences for taxpayers. It was, in short, a policy disaster – expensive, ineffective, and unpopular.
The problem, though, is that there is no “good” solution. The only true way to effectively resolve the crisis we face is the liberal way: to make the best effort to prevent such a crisis from ever occurring in the first place. Liberals seek not to overburden the taxpayer with regulations, with social and diplomatic causes. They seek only to prevent the taxpayer from being burdened with the consequences of not pursuing those causes and regulations. Without levees, cities flood. Without allies, wars fail. Without regulations, greed prevails, and dangerous risks are assumed. And without environmental protections, natural resources are degraded. Without planning and prevention, consequences and costs result.
One could argue that many consequences were the holdovers of previous liberal policies. In fact, for a while, many did argue that. One could say conservative ideas were still sound in theory, but may simply suffer incompetence in implementation. Some have also argued that. One could even assert that the massive preponderance of catastrophe is little more than unfortunate coincidence – after all, it is not the conservatives who brought us natural disasters or terrorist attacks.
But the decision we now face as Americans is one that will define a generation, and perhaps many generations to come. We can continue to scale back preventative measures, to fail to invest in the future infrastructure through tax dollars, to celebrate incompetence, ignorance, and the general lack of informed expertise.
Or we can change. We can work together and acknowledge our responsibilities as members of an American community – responsibilities to be informed and well-educated, to invest in taxes, and to weigh our actions not by what they’ll cost us, but by what they’ll cost our future.
Let’s not make the same mistake twice.
[email protected]