Posted on 06/16/2012 1:03:10 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The Presidential election of 2008 was one of the most important in the history of the United States. The economy was on the verge of complete collapse, and decisions had to be made to ensure the economy did not fail.
Let’s imagine, if we can, how things would have been different if McCain had beat Obama. The McCain-Palin ticket offered something that could have made history. A female vice president of the United States would have been a huge step toward equality for women- especially in positions of power. Aside from that one historical marker that would have been positive (in historical context only), the country would have hit a brick wall.
Conservative leadership led to one of the most serious economic crisis faced in the history of the United States. The fallacy of “Trickle Down Economics” was beginning to expand the chasm between the ultra rich and the middle class. Wealthy “job creators” were given tax breaks during a time when the United States was carrying a surplus. President Bush had two options: Pay down the national debt or give tax cuts. He opted for tax cuts for the nation’s wealthiest citizens. This decision, compounded by the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the housing bubble bursting, sent the nation in a tailspin.
In order to try to save the economy, Bush had already signed the bailout bill before leaving office. Americans did not realize how serious the situation was and this choice created havoc from coast to coast. As the reality became more and more apparent, the election of 2008 became final. As we are using our imaginations here, let’s say that McCain won the 2008 election. This is where the beginning of the end becomes evident.
The Republican Party had embraced the “Trickle Down” fallacy, so McCain would support this ridiculous philosophy as well. Once the bailout money became available, McCain would not expend funds on the auto industry or banking system. Republicans believe in a so-called free market that will determine which businesses fail and which will succeed. It is necessary to note here, however, that a free market does not exist in the United States. A free market means there is no governmental intervention in the marketplace. It is essential to understand what this means. It means that when Republicans talk about their devotion to a free market, they are either confused over its meaning or they are lying, because we do not have one.
As McCain now has access to billions of taxpayer dollars and he embraces that silly “Trickle Down” philosophy, he is going to use that money to give more tax breaks to those good old “job creators." This means that the banks and the auto industry fail. When the banks file, the American dollar literally has absolutely no value overnight. We instantly become a nation trying to thrive with a barter system as a new economy is developing. Hopefully you have gold, silver and other items that are easy to trade. You will need them in order to get food for your family.
As Americans are beginning to panic because there is no stability on the horizon, something horrific begins to happen. The ultra wealthy 1% of the population begin to gather their wagons, so to speak. The most powerful people in the country are suddenly in a position of even greater power. Their ideal dream of a new royalty population in the United States has come to fruition. Elections are no longer necessary because the new leadership establishment will determine who plays those roles moving forward.
The American people are living on the streets and millions are starving. The new royalty leadership sets aside certain cities to create “Cities for the Poor”. These cities are driven by crime, violence and self-directed. The entry and exit is restricted. Envision, if you will, something along the lines of “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.” The poor are now disposable. The royalty rule the land. Good-bye, America, hello Thunderdome.
This b***h needs an enema.
“..Conservative leadership led to one of the most serious economic crisis faced in the history of the United States...”
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Yeah, Ronald Reagan really screwed up America, didn’t he with that horrible conservative approach. He accomplished nothing, did he? Oh yes, thank God Obama got elected — now everything is “OK in the private sector”, many millions of net new jobs, reduction of the Bush deficit, new industries flourishing, investments on the upswing with major confidence, an administration that really works FOR the people, a much stronger dollar, improved ally trust and confidence, a much stronger military, greatly reduced size of government and a greatly increased respect for the law!!
Yes, if McCain had been elected, none of this would have happened.
“The economy was on the verge of complete collapse”
A “complete collapse”? As in, no more stock market, no more market period, all the machines slumping into disuse, and i suppose mass starvation. No, that’s only what they wanted you to think. That, and martial law, with tanks rolling down Wall Street. Which is seriously what Hank Paulson wanted bankers to think.
What it would’ve meant had we let things go as we ought to have would be massive dislocation. Crumbling markets here and there, especially housing. Plummeting prices and wages. more people unemployed than usual. But the buildings and machines would still be standing. The know-how would still be there. Capital would not be so much depleted as the secret out in the open and everyone knowing how low it really was. But there still would’ve been capital, and maybe people starting to save again.
Instead we have a mad dash to keep the system exactly as it currently is, and the pretence that anything else would be suicide. Even in Greece they’re telling themselves if they can just stay the course and keep on spending things’ll be okay. And we are Greece, only richer and as such with a bit more room left to fail, also with a currency that the world pretends is worth something.
In Sept of ‘08 McCain was ahead in the polls for awhile.—maybe the Palin effect helped too. He went soft on Obama and also proclaimed his ‘suspend the campaign’ so he could go to DC and help fix the financial crisis. Then he meekly voted for TARP 1 and McLame was toast after that wobbly cave in.
In a free market society,under conditions where the government allows and encourages capital accumulation, rather than trying to destroy it,giving tax breaks to job creators such as businessmen and capitalists means that they are able to save more, which leads to more investment, which leads to more productive expenditure, which leads to more demand for capital goods and more demand for labor. More demand for labor leads to less unemployment and higher average money wage rates. More demand for capital goods leads to more production of capital goods and more supply of capital goods, which leads to a higher productivity of labor which leads to higher average real wage rates which leads to higher standard of living for the average worker in the long run. After a period of adjustment, even workers from a failed auto company will have a higher average standard of living once they find employment in conditions of higher employment and higher average real wage rates,produced by the economic progress of capital accumulation.
Too bad that McCain bought that “verge of complete collapse” claptrap, especially after his assertion that the “fundamentals of the American economy are strong, despite the ongoing financial meltdown.”
The meltdown should have been allowed to proceed to its natural culmination, and the fever would have broken soon enough, with perhaps less than a third of the dislocation that has already taken place.
But there is a certain mindset that wants to “fix” things, trying to maintain the status quo, even in the face of unsustainability.
Most unfortunately, it affects the political calculations of those who want to lead this nation, and it is accepted by a sufficiently large minority that it affects the election.
Perhaps America deserves the government it has.
“And we are Greece, only richer and as such with a bit more room left to fail, also with a currency that the world pretends is worth something.”
We’re a much bigger, heavier plane, on a much longer glidepath, but we’re still going down, even harder than Greece, if we don’t get rid of 0bummer&Co and reverse his destructive Marxist policies.
The scenario related to comrade obama being elected was much worse.
“he embraces that silly ‘Trickle Down’ philosophy?”
ALl we need know about the infamous “’trickle down’ philosophy” is that it thinks money is better spent by the people who earned it than by government. It must really get to libs, in the deep, dark moments of the night, when they realize that after all their foofaraw about fairness, after all their regulating and redistributing, wealth is still generated by capital and capital alone. It must get to them that most people still have to make their money by working, and that even if they work unproductively for government ulitimately their wages are thanks to production in the private sector.
It must get to them that however much they damn it, nevertheless they stand at the end of a system of production according to private ownership of the means of production, and that every cent they get comes from said system. However much that system is meddled with from the outside, there still ain’t any other game in town.
“there is a certain mindset that wants to ‘fix’ things”
I call it the Do Something motive. It is eternal and unrelenting, at least under the popular ideology that’s been in power for the last century-plus. It is why men like Lincoln, TR, FDR, etc. will always be considered our greatest presidents. Because it’s as if so long as they’re interesting, dramatic, and in short Do Something we don’t care what it is that they do. I fear this is why Reagan remains popular. Not that it was a good thing he pushed back against the 50-year New Deal/Great Society hegemony, but merely that his revolt Did Something.
I also fear Obama’s best chance, aside from the old identity politics standby of mobilizing blacks, hispanics, women, the youth, etc., is to paint Republicans as Do Nothings. You know, as in “Bush had 8 years to Do Something about rising healthcare costs, and where was he?” Tea Party obstructionism was Something in ‘10, but in future it could revert to Nothing.
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