I cannot recommend highly enough the opinion piece by Timothy Egan in today's NYT, titled "How Obama Saved Capitalism and Lost the Midterms." And for an extra helping, read as well Bob Herbert's piece - "Fast Track to Inequality" - of a couple of days ago.
My take on yesterday's elections? The GOP has succeeded in playing the fear-and-anger card to capitalize on the desperation of an electorate victimized by the greed and incompetence of major corporations and the financial industry. Ironically, to this point, it is those same "titans" of American capitalism who have benefited most from actions Obama has taken. Yet, it is also they who funneled millions of dollars to fund a GOP and popular-media campaign of fear-mongering and mud-slinging designed to both terrorize and enrage a terrified American electorate. Their ultimate goal? Turn them against a president who, after all, as Messrs. Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck et al. loudly insisted, could not be trusted. (After all, isn't Hussein his middle name? Isn't his father, after all, a Muslim African? Indeed, as Mr. Limbaugh once loved to sing, isn't he Barack, "the magic Negro?")
Well, it worked. So now, we collectively are saddled with a Republican-controlled House, with a Republican-invigorated Senate where the minority leader, the Honorable Mr. Mitch McConnell (the senior senator from the state that I long called home, much to my sadness today), has already made it plain that his purpose for the next two years will be, not to help Americans recover, not to work for the best interests of the country, but to destroy the Obama presidency. And House Republicans are already laying plans to do their part, by issuing subpoenas to any and all, launching "hearings" in which to tar the Obama White House with any brush they can lay their hands on - and in the process, of course, providing as much fodder as they can for the Fox News "experts" to incite even more hatred toward the man in the Oval Office.
And how the President is going to be able to navigate the shoals of foreign affairs, with Republicans constantly trying to torpedo him in this new age of winner-take-all, take-no-prisoners, give-no-quarter politics, is anybody's guess.
It's not going to be pretty over the next two years. Indeed, the adjective "disgusting" comes to mind.
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