Politics makes strange bedfellows

I can hardly believe this, being a liberal Democrat and all, but during the recent furor over the apparent collapse of the worldwide capitalist financial system and the proposed bailout, I find myself in periodic sympathy with the conservative Republican members of the House who have apparently blocked it’s adoption, at least for now.

Only periodic sympathy, mind you. I find myself, still, fluctuating between figuring that something really does need to be done and this bailout would be better than nothing, and wondering why us taxpayers, who have our own troubles, should be expected to bail out the fat cats that created this situation in the first place. I worry that the burden would be too much and would cripple the government for years to come. I wonder where the money will come from, anyway: the government will have to borrow it, since we’re already in a deficit situation, and if the money is there to lend to to the government, why are they (the talking heads on TV) telling me that the whole problem is that there’s no money available to be borrowed? And then I wonder about the free market rhetoric generally spewed by the very people now asking us to bail them out–it looks a whole lot to me like failure and accountability are good for us but not for them. And I’m tired of hearing the “if we don’t bail them out, they’ll take their marbles and go home and none of us will be able to play” on accounta they own most of the marbles. I’m also tired of the “it’s gotta happen NOW” pressure–reminds me way too much of how we got pressured into the war in Iraq.

And then I think, maybe they’re right, and we really do need to bail the &^&%s out, because if they fall, they’re going to fall on us and we’ll all get squashed. So maybe the best we can hope for is for Congress to put enough limits and safeguards into the bill to keep the bailout from dragging us all over the cliff anyway. And of course (being a liberal Democrat and all) having some measures in there that might help some of the little people who have already been pushed over the edge.

So I’ll end with a little prayer, taken from one that hangs on my staircase wall:

[fill in the blank with your favorite divine entity]:

to my life give beauty, to my body give strength,
to my work give goodness, to my house give love,
to my spirit give peace, to my elders (leaders) give wisdom.

To our leaders give wisdom, indeed. They’ll need it.