A Shot Across the Bow

Evidently the Democrats took one in the gut. That is what we are to believe. That is not exactly how it looks from here. It was a warning shot. While it would be nice to get into the whole tap-dance about the demise of the Democrats reign of power, that is not the case.

The economy is sluggish. People are frustrated. They are also reacting in fear. They are being swayed by the assertion of something new and better from the right. They may remember, all too well, that Bush began an unnecessary war in Iraq, cut the top tax rates, gave peanuts to the rest of the citizens, and bailed out the banks in billions, but they are looking at the hear and now. Here and now looks dismal.

Those who are not working a scrapping by on a pauper's pittance. Those who authored this economy are still raking in big bonuses. The incompetent are being rewarded for incompetence. The banks and barons are still not funneling money into the economy. Investment bankers do not lend money on main street. Wall Street is doing well but main street is not.

Those who have been hired are taking it on chin. A person is considered lucky, if not "blessed," to have any kind of job right now. Employers, in the name of the Recession, are low balling employees (the bulk of the people in the U.S.) in wages and benefits. As pointed out in Wealth, Women and War, when adjusted for inflation the average worker gained one penny on the dollar from 2001 to 2007. Even that penny is gone.

Those who are surviving this recession are wondering if they are next to get the ax. Some of them have finally come to understand that, like a natural disaster, there is little rhyme or reason to what is happening. Being "good enough" has little to do with retaining a job, or finding a new one. The older one is the worse the prospects become. The young'uns are willing to work for less, so it is perceived.

Life is becoming harder. The hardship, however, is not natural, it is imposed by people who still grasp the idea of wealth entitlement without a shred of personal responsibility. Decision makers create the hardship through the decisions they do not have to live with. The rest of us have to live with their decisions.

President Obama ran on a platform of idealistic change. This administration, however, is using the same Wall Street crowd who delivered the nation to this juncture. The victory of Scott Brown in Massachusetts is not as much an endorsement of the G.O.P., but a censure of all that is still distorted in the U.S. today. Nothing has changed.