Used And Abused

We take so many things for granted: a soft, clean bed when we’re tired; a drop of water when we’re thirsty; a praline when we’re feeling peckish; bread when we’re hungry. All this comes to mind while watching Volker Schloendorff’s “The Ninth Day” (German; ’05).

Water is a weapon; food is a weapon; oil is a weapon. We thought it couldn’t get any worse with Bush in office. It’s worse now, and we’re already desperate for a turn-around - after midterms; after 2012. Have we finally hit bottom? Or will our slide continue? Oil is spilling into the Gulf. Fish and birds are dying. Industry is dying. Cities and towns – entire States; the country – are going bankrupt. Services cut. Taxes are up. Public services are struggling to meet ever increasing demand.

Turn-around in November; 2012. New York’s Andrew Cuomo is saying all the right things. Scratch a little deeper and you find he’s joined at the hip with public sector unions.

No budget in New York yet; no federal budget till after elections. Uncertainty. Dead canaries in the mines; on Wall Street; in the stores along Main Street that are closing their doors forever.

People are waking up – even those who initially supported President Obama’s agenda. I found it fascinating when this past Tuesday the influential Business Roundtable issued a critique of a whole host of Obama/Democrat initiatives, concluding, “In our (BRT’s) judgment, we have reached a point where the negative effects of these policies are simply too significant to ignore.”

Much of America – including business leaders – had been up front shilling for the administration on a variety of issues, believing it best to play ball with what they perceived to be the new reality in Washington. They enthusiastically propagandized for ObamaCare, for ClimateCare, fiscal overhaul, stimulus, etc., believing they could escape the consequences of such potentially disastrous policies by striking deals (with the devil). They did so, often at the expense of support from their own members. AARP, AMA, Big Oil, Religion and Wall Street come immediately to mind. Every one of these is now beginning to have second thoughts. They are beginning to understand that they have been used shamelessly. Red-faced, they now realize that the lowly rank and file had been ahead of the curve all along.

This is how governments fall – when trust between the leadership and those faithfully paying the dues is broken. At that point the leadership becomes illegitimate. In our country too, the unions will find that they are being used and abused; that ‘equality’ in Obama’s view does not mean equality with the fat cats on any American Street but, rather, equality with ‘the workers of the world’, some, earning less than a dollar a day. They will find that their living standard, far from rising, will fall. And all this, despite having carried the water for an administration that is only out for itself.