The Crisis Politics

"This is the same example of turning crisis into opportunity…" Barack Obama

"A crisis is a terrible thing to waste." Rahm Emanuel

What can you do in a "crisis"?

You can pass "historic" spending bills that the majority of the public doesn't approve of.
You can get the pre-screened media to toss you softball questions at your press conferences.
You can get Hollywood to make silly, bizarre, and disturbing little propaganda adverts.
You can try to take control of the national census.
And you can do it all in under a month.

The will of the majority, a free-press made up of professional staffers and political skeptics, the levels of political insulation ensuring objectivity in the calculation of voting districts and constituencies, cornerstones of our representative democracy, have all been assaulted in less than a month. Plus we have Hollywood celebrities urging greater conformity to our illustrious leader.

One of the big pushes in the highly touted and revamped white house website is the expect more site. Expect more? Just how much more can people expect? How much more are people willing to tolerate?

As Ellis Washington said back on Dec. 20, we must not blindly believe this lie: "Free-market capitalism, conservatism, Christianity are all failed ideologies. We've got to evolve beyond these anachronistic and exclusionary ideas of the past and chart a bold, new course for the America of the 21st century." Pretty words, false geniality, and the audacity of ego does not create truth, nor are they hallmarks of good leadership.

Remember Theodore Roosevelt's words: "To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."

As a note: Roosevelt's quote will stay at the top of my blog, regardless of who is president or what party he/she belongs to.