Liberalism, as an idea, may not be the enemy that I think it is. However, government is. They have continued to chip away at our liberties and our pocketbooks. George W. Bush made it a point to chip away at our liberties in the name of safety, and Barack Obama has made it his mission to chip away at our pocketbooks.
Everyone thinks that the bailouts were needed because of the "too big to fail" crock. A free market economy, allowed to function, with limited government intervention would have sorted through the wreckage and guided itself out of the recession. Meaning that the banks/airlines/or any other business that were weak and had made poor decisions would have been bankrupted, while the strong businesses that had made good decisions would have weathered the storm and absorbed the market share of the recently deceased competitors. All of which would not have cost taxpayers a dime.
And yes, the argument can be made that all those companies would have laid off so many workers and then there would have been catastrophic consequences. I would think that the other companies, to include upstarts into business, would have at least partially filled the void and created new jobs for those out of work. The other half of my argument is, when did Americans become so dependent on their government that they would actually think that it is the realm of the Federal government to provide you with a job?
I think you are correct in part, that a balance is needed. However, the swings back and forth are not what this country needs. A balance is one thing, a pendulum swing from one end to the other is something completely different. Spending any amount of time traveling this great land will reveal a glaring inconsistency in liberal thought. Most people want the government in their life as little as is humanly possible. Most people would like to have as little of their earnings as possible taken by Uncle Sam.
And finally, in regard to your last admonishment that I can either run for office or work on the campaign of someone I believe in. The latter half is true. I could work for those candidates I believe in, except there's one problem. I have a full time job. I donate to political campaigns, I keep up with politics, and I vote in every local, county, state and federal election that comes along. That's about the best I can do, given the fact that I have to support myself and ensure that I'm not living off the government tit.
Could I really run for office? I don't think my employer would be very happy about me taking a few months off to pursue another job. Nor do I think that the thousands of dollars required (on a local level) or the millions of dollars required (on the state or national levels) are falling from the sky. So let's be serious. The only people in this country are the wealthy, or political operatives that can get the party and its resources behind them. And since we are only getting that sort of person in office, the results are a government that is firmly detached from its constituents and beholden to whatever interest it is that got them elected.
As far as presidents go...I skewered every president that has served since I've been writing this. So far that's just GW and Mr. Obama. Both of whom, are huge disappointments. As presidents so often are, or in the case of my lifetime, always are.
Bush put this train on the track and Obama is shoveling coal into the fire as fast as he can.
When will someone out there realize that what's happening in this country is hilarious because it can all be traced to one thing. Government. Make no mistake, I don't wish an overthrow of the government. Not hardly. But anyone who has seen the government working for the past 8-10 years knows this. Anything that the G gets a hold of, they fuck up. Its as simple as that.
Define Insanity: doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result.
American insanity: Looking to the government for solutions when the government cannot even manage to spend less than it takes in.
Balance that!
