Time is of the essence as the danger rapidly approaches, so what is the Captain's plan? Does he provide strong leadership to confront the major problems that America faces? Not really. He and Congress waste more than a year haggling over health care reform, enact legislation for a very costly but largely ineffective new health care program that fails to include a critical public option and gives the insurance industry over 30 million new customers who will be forced to buy insurance whether they want to or not.
At the same time, he follows the Bush plan to bail out the reckless, unscrupulous, manipulators on Wall Street with hundreds of billions of dollars of yet more taxpayer dollars. As justification for these bailouts he and his economic advisers warn that if it is not done, then it could lead to a world economic depression; so the people of America, again fearing the danger ahead, buy into it. So Wall Street gets bailed out while the people of America remain in the throes of turmoil with no bailout in sight.
As the USS Titanic speeds ahead the ship's crew, aka Congress and especially the corrupt, incompetent Senate, is doing little to nothing to find concrete solutions to the massive problems at hand. The GOP filibusters almost 100% of any proposed legislation, the Democrats whine, moan, and remain clueless as to how to get anything done. And what is our good Captain Obama doing to try to break this massive gridlock? He has the presidential bully pulpit which he can use to blister the airwaves to tell the American people in clear terms why the business of the nation isn't being accomplished. He could, if he had the courage and conviction, expose the GOP as the party that refuses to follow the will of the American people; but he does not, so the gridlock continues and the problems go unsolved.
Whether we know it or not, that loud bang we just heard was a huge economic iceberg hitting the side of the USS Titanic. The ship is rapidly taking on water. Captain Obama has viable opportunities to turn the ship in a new direction; he does not. The Congress should now fully realize the extreme danger at hand and work together in a competent, rational manner to address the problems but it does not. Wall Street knows that it was the primary cause of our economic crisis but it is adamant that it will not accept any change. The Wall Street crooks are fighting tooth and nail against any financial reform or new regulation, and Congress and Captain Obama are bending to their will by significantly watering down the proposed legislation.
Trying to merely rearrange the deck chairs on our Titanic, i.e., using band aids to try to stem economic hemorrhaging is not the answer and will just lead to further turmoil. But as the ship takes on more and more water, our captain continues to tell the bridge to maintain full speed. What's happening in America is like a dream in which you are a passenger on the Titanic, hoping that you will wake up and, with a sigh of relief, realize it was only a dream. But, in the America of today, we are truly experiencing a nightmare of extreme proportions, one that seems to go on and on with no end.
Mr. Obama, that shining star that many of us supported for president, is proving to have no real vision, no new direction to take America; he is, however, very good at expanding much of the agenda of Bush/Cheney and taking it to a higher level. And that is the dilemma in which this nation currently finds itself; national stagnation and a downward spiral. The evidence is mounting that our president is simply not up to the job and that he is in way over his head. But he is still the captain and he still commands the ship.
Our captain knows that our ship is heading into this massive, impending disaster; he knows he should be using all his powers to reverse this fateful direction: wind down the wars, pour that money into nation-building (in America, not in Iraq and Afghanistan), rebuild our manufacturing sector, and save our states from bankruptcy. But, the hot breath of Corporate America and the Military-Industrial Complex, the owners of the ship, are breathing down his neck and he once again responds by saying, "Full speed ahead, stay the course."
And so we, the passengers, remain standing on the deck of the USS Titanic, full of fear, anger and mistrust, trying to figure out what to do, who we can turn to, how we can survive.
Michael Payne
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