Commonsense & Wonder

Jeff at ProteinWisdom writes Obama's big economic speech:

Let me save you some time:  Obama needs four more years because, well, Bush.  Those two years of super majority Congressional control by Democrats, and that supersized stimulus Obama used to transfer over private sector money to those who helped his campaign?  Ignore that. That, too, was Bush’s fault.  The takeover of private industry that screwed investors and rewarded unions, and the pushing through of the wildly unpopular (and unconstitutional) individual mandate at the heart of ObamaCare, using every procedural gambit and combination of bullying/coaxing/bribing to secure the votes — with not a single Republican supporting the thing?  Bush.

You see, the problem with the economy is that the rich are getting tax breaks — Bush! — and these greedy rich don’t want to pay their fair share (except for the Democrat rich; who really really want to pay more in taxes).  And in an economic downturn of the kind Obama inherited (from Bush) — which is the worst since the Great Depression (again, pretend the economy Reagan inherited from Carter never happened; and if you can’t do that, at least have the courtesy to pretend Reagan wasn’t able to turn things around in his first term, and that 1984 “Morning in America” re-election campaign was just a figment of our collective historical imaginations) — tax breaks for the rich need to be paid for by somebody, because otherwise the government is deprived of the revenue it needs — and is entitled to, as a matter of course, the government being the proper owner and subsequent font of all monies, which it doles out morally and with much largess — to fund the bureaucracies that helpfully guide us daily with ever new laws and regulations intended to nudge us into becoming better citizens of the State.  Which is why Obama never signed on to the extension of those cuts.  Except, you know, that one time.

Electing Romney will guarantee the country’s return to the failed policies of tax breaks for the rich (BUSH!) — and of course, ensure the great suffering of autistic children, along with the molestation of the elderly and the dirtying up of the air, the water, etc., which Obama and his cohort are battling by sending out unmanned aircraft to fly over privately held farmland, looking for evildoers.

Is that what you want, America? Dirty airwater and autistic molested elderly?

Of course you don’t.  Look:  Obama has met some headwinds.  Economic headwinds.  European headwinds.  Residual Bushheadwinds. The economy was far worse off than he believed when he took office (thanks to Bush), but it’s turning around, slowly but surely.  I mean, just look at how many jobs Obama has created!  4.3 million of those suckers!  Look at how wonderfully government-run auto companies are doing!

Do you really think now is the best time to change course — just as we’re nearing that turnaround, and the beautiful Utopian vision of Hopenchange that lies behind it is but one critical election away?  Are you sure you want to go backward when you can trust Obama and the progressives to take you forward!, to a magical place of fundamental transformation, where everyone is treated fairly, and the government looks sternly and suspiciously upon speculators and the rich and private cultural instigators like, eg., churches, who try to lure you away from the safe and soft bosom of government with the hoary promises of opportunities you don’t really want, liberties you don’t really need, and a free will you don’t really have?

Obama and the Democrats care about the working folk.  They don’t want to see the kind of income disparity that exists in this godforsaken capitalist hellhole, where social Darwinism rules the day, and the poor are never really given a fair shot (or provided with a fair share).  And that’s just what the Republicans will usher in, with their TEA Party extremism and their hatred of government — which, let’s face it, is  the last best hope for mankind, and the only thing that stands between you and the vulture capitalists looking to exploit you for your labor.

Things are turning around.  Trust Obama.

The fact that the government now accounts for 25% of GDP  (add in compliance costs at another 11% and the real scope of government is now 36cents out of every dollar of GDP) shouldn’t alarm you at all:  because government is good and moral and righteous and protective of you, while the “market” is cold and dispassionate and will run your hapless ass over with its merciless indifference.  So the more the government controls, the less is left out there to be misused by a market that has no centralized planfor how to make your lives better (and more fair).

Do you really want to trust in something you can’t completely control?  Because that’s what the free market is — and the GOP wants to deregulate it, take the muzzle off it, give it a wider berth, allow it to rage more freely.  Whereas the left — good, moral, compassionate, occasionally stern (but it’s a tough love) — is the bulwark against unfettered consumerist anarchy, insisting on a fair and equitable yield from the market so that every American gets a fair share and has a fair shake.  For fairness.

Also, Bush.

The decision is yours, America.  And besides — what’s up with the Mormons, anyway?  I mean, “marvelous”?  How unhip is that —particularly when I give you Jay-z and that horsefaced chick from that one show where Kim Catrall is always getting gloriously fucked by some bellhop…?