Obama's Changes

Some people on the left are criticising Obama for not making faster and more radical changes in US policy and the economy. I'm going to ignore for the moment, the extremists on the right who say he has done too much, as their credibility is nearing zero and their main spokesperson and idea generator is none other than Rush Limbaugh.

So has Obama done enough? It's pretty disappointing, if you look at it objectively. And yet he still has high approval ratings, and most people are willing to give him time to get things moving in the right directions. Most people understand that America is a big ship and can't turn on a dime.

But yet there is this nagging feeling that Bush managed to get his things done with plenty of speed. But I'm not sure this is fair. First of all, not much happened with the Bush administration until September 11. And most importantly, it is easier to make a mess than it is to clean it up. For example, you can wreck a car in a second, and it takes a month to rebuild it at a body shop. I expect it to take longer to set America back on track.

Actually, my only question is why do Americans, with such regularity, vote in the Republicans? Every time it's a disaster in the making. With the Republicans in power, the environment is destroyed, the rich make out like bandits, people lose jobs, the economy eventually tanks, wars are escalated, and so on. Finally Americans get so worn down they vote the Democrats back in to fix it up, which always takes more time than you would like.

American politics reminds me of a binge personality. Somebody who works all week to make a little money - that's like the Democrats in office. Then on the weekend, the Republican side of the personality comes out. It's party time, get drunk, break all the rules, get in a bar fight, pick up some prostitutes and get the clap, gamble away all the money, and get sick and hung over. Come Monday, the Democrats get back in and have to cure the hangover, then earn some money for the next weekend.