Last evening, I was listening to a compilation from Trojan Records. For the uninformed, Trojan Records was a classic Jamaican record label releasing Ska, Rocksteady, Reggae, Dub and every which way the genre twisted. If you could imagine the might of Stax, Motown and Blue Note Records as one entity, it would give you an idea of the magnitude by which Trojan ruled over Jamaican music. Suddenly, an old Wailers track (pre-fame Bob Marley) came on. It was the classic Lee 'Scatch' Perry produced track 'Small Axe'. Jamaica had it's fair share of political instability, and 'Small Axe' was Bob Marley's politically tinged allegory of the people as the sharp small axe, cutting down the tall tree of political leaders down to size.
So if you are the Big Tree We are the Small Axe Ready to cut you down
However, a preceding line is what truly inspired me to ponder and write this article.
Why Boasteth thyself Oh, evil men Playing smart And not being clever? I said, you're working iniquity To achieve vanity
While I don't consider Obama to be an evil leader, he is certainly vain. When history writes about Obama, it will be that of an impatient vain junior Senator from Illinois who couldn't wait. Upon barely serving a number of weeks in the Senate, he aspired to the top job in the White House. So Obama tested the waters and received considerable recognition, far beyond what any candidate would expect based on Obama's political experience at the time. A clever man would have acknowledged their own limitations and count this first attempt as a dry run. A clever man would be encouraged to know, any future Presidential aspirations may stand a good chance. However, Obama's impatience won out and he pushed aside Hillary ignoring the road ahead. While Obama is capable of playing smart, he's certainly not clever and this is why. Obama overlooked the factor that Democratic Administrations and tough economic times don't work so well together.
Democratic Administrations tend to require economic boom periods to function. LBJ enjoyed a post war economic boom which allowed him to implement his Great Society programs. Carter came into tough economic times and was unable to swim in these waters. Clinton allowed the markets to correct themselves and the Republican controlled Senate to balance the budget. During the Great Depression, the Democrats had FDR at the helm, but he was hardly a miracle worker nor was he an economic maestro. Had WWII not rolled round, FDR would've been long removed before his 3rd or 4th term. It's been said that early on during Obama's opening 100 days, he followed the FDR playbook in dealing with the economy. That was sort of true only to a point. In reality, FDR prolonged the Great Depression by putting people to work in the form of investing in infrastructure, i.e. building dams, roads and bridges. At the end of the day, once the work was completed the people were still out of work. Until now, The Obama Stimulus emphasis was towards entitlement payments, not infrastructure. Either way, the same result is achieved prolonging the crisis with nothing to show for it (unlike the evidence of 'FDR-like' infrastructure).
Just recently, 200 Billion dollars of TARP funds re-appeared, Democrats salivated at the thought of putting people back to work on (you guessed it) new infrastructure projects. Once again, the dust is blown off the FDR playbook but without a war on the horizon and with term limits in place (and the chance of being voted out of office), Obama will certainly run out of time implementing the FDR infrastructure concept. With almost 25% of Obama's first term completed, little has been achieved unless you count the failure of the Pelosi/Reid penned 'Stimulus', the endless Obama globe trotting, holding umpteenth town hall meetings, and attempting health-care reform. Reagan had to endure almost half of his first term with dire unemployment rates and low popularly polls. Until the upturn took place, Reagan's focus was working on fixing the economy, and the end result was apparent. In comparison, Obama is only now attempting to deal with job creation and improving the economy with an extremely token 'fly by night' attempt in the form of a job forum. One has to wonder, how has Obama's impatience really helped America?
If Obama hadn't let his rampant impatience get the best of him, he would've stayed in the Senate a few years, and gained some experience that he was severally lacking. He would've stepped aside in 2008 to allow Hillary to take the reins on a dismal economy and also take the eventual fall. He would've allowed the subsequent Administration to restore the economy, make all the hard decisions and complete the heavy lifting. He would've allowed them to serve their term and then taken a run at the White House. If he was successful, he would enter office with a strong economy, a large surplus to tinker with, and an affluence minded society completely susceptible to reform. But Obama was not clever to think of that concept. In tough times, people will tolerate political parties they don't agree with so long as they play the role of 'Fixer'. When Carter failed to navigate the economic icebergs, The Reagan Repulicans played the role of the economic clean up crew. When Massachusetts started to sink, Mitt Romney was sent into office to fix the mess. After his job was completed and he resigned to campaign for President, the Democrats with Deval Patrick stepped back into office. When England was in danger during WWII, the public allowed unpopular Churchill to help them defeat Hitler. When WWII was won, England voted Churchill out of office.
While the ballot results from November 2008 clearly was a win for the Democrats, they also inherited a 'Big Tree' in the spot were they had planted the seeds of hope & change. Meanwhile, conservatives sharpened their 'small axes' and started chopping without waiting until November 2012. As Bob Marley pointed out, an achievement in divine vanity wont stop the public from chopping. Obama's impatience was his undoing, precisely from the moment he threw his hat into the ring.
Craig Edwards
enjoy the needle drop