Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Friday, May 13, 2011

Speak Up Dude

Maybe Poet Laureate/Homeless Man Donald Hall can help Obama find his voice.

There's a poll out there that says a plurality of Americans don't want to see the debt ceiling raised.

Short version: 19% say raise it, 47% say don't raise it, 34% are smart enough to know they're too dumb to answer the question.

I was not one of those people who thought Obama could have used the bully pulpit to get a public option or DADT repealed or any of that.

But the President is a remarkable teacher.  He really does a good job of explaining things.

He HAS to explain what would happen if the US defaults on its debt.  As the article linked above states, right now people think the debt ceiling is just a thing.  And you can disagree about things.  "Some people say" that defaulting on the debt won't crash the economy.  Just as "some people say" that Osama bin Laden's remains (he's still dead) have melded at a genetic level with mutant sharks from Fukushima.

The GOP is insane right now.  Even though uber-GOP macher the Chamber of Commerce have urged them to raise the debt ceiling, the insane from the Teatards is more powerful right now than the big money boys are willing to admit.

Obama is the only person who can seize the agenda.  He has to make a prime time speech explaining what happens when the US defaults on its debts.  How this would be worse than the 2008 crash.  I can't tell you how many times I've had students say, "Why don't we just welsh on the debt if we owe it to ourselves?"

Unless someone explains this to people, they will think this is just politics as usual, when in fact, the GOP is trying to suicide bomb the economy.

If Obama is waiting on Boehner and McConnell to do the right thing, we're seriously screwed.

Oh, speaking of mutant bin Laden sharks:

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