Obama: Compromiser or Victim

Political strategists are still debating the recent "compromise" President Obama has entered in to with Republicans, agreeing to grant a temporary extension of the Bush tax cuts for the top 2% of the wealthiest Americans. Obama has been excoriated by by many who say that he has unnecessarily capitulated to Republicans, breaking his campaign promises and, in the process, further damaging his credibility with his own party. Bernie Sanders from Vermont and others have stated that Obama should have taken this issue to the people. Then, there is the position that Obama should have stood firm and even risk unemployment and middle class tax cuts lapsing forcing the opposition party to acquiesce. The truth of the matter is that none of these options are viable. Obama has suffered from splits and indecisiveness from within his own Democratic party making him susceptible to Republican filibusters. On many key issues, the Democratic agenda has been thwarted and upended by the minority. What traditionally was meant to be used only in extremely sensitive pieces of proposed legislation, the filibuster has been implemented on both the most mundane and popular issues. Again, this is symptomatic of our failed political system. I, like much of the nation, had high hopes for the Obama administration, but the fact remains that if you put good people in a bad system, the system always wins.

Instead of attention to far-reaching implications of our various fiscal and economic policies, it seems that no politician can see past his/her next election. It appears that our politicians are so myopic that they can only see 2, 4, or 6 years at a time. While political points are won and conceded, the nation suffers. Our current form of democratic government simply does not work. Nations like ours are destined to learn everything the hard way and at great expense. If those that have died for our freedom and for our democracy could see the state that it is in now, I believe they would demand immediate resurrection so they may die for a nobler cause. How much longer do we believe that countries like China will continue to purchase our debt at the low interest rate that it is currently? How much longer before the United States has to crawl before the IMF and the EU asking for a lifeline? Are we to be the next Ireland or Greece? US fiscal and economic inaction are more a threat to national security than any terrorist base or any documents that have been released in the past months. In essence, the very configuration of our democracy is perhaps the biggest threat to our country and the world.

In ancient Rome, a dictator could be temporarily appointed in times of serious national calamity, mostly in times of war. This individual had the power to do what was necessary to quell danger and stabilize the nation. The most notable strength of this option is that it eliminated the "red tape." I suggest that the United States have a modified version of this. Our president is already in charge of the armed forces and can deploy them as he sees fit to neutralize and respond to a potential national threat. Why not give the office an extension of power to deal with a economic crisis of this magnitude? Perhaps our nation will have to become insolvent before it finally extracts the cancerous growths from its democratic body.