President Bush's Campaign for Listeners

Both on NPR and in the news, I have been hearing a lot about President Bush's proposed plans for the economy, and it makes me realize what a strange place he is in as president.

There are three men proposing different policies to deal with the economy, yet only President Bush is in a position where he must actually try and apply his policies. He is being forced to make pragmatic decisions; even though the nation is listening to either McCain or Obama- yet neither of the two must put their plans into action until they have actually been elected. Because of this, one could argue their plans compared to President Bush's are more idealistic, since their proposals do not have to gain the approval of Congress before they promote it in a campaign speech.

It almost seems as though Bush himself is campaigning- not for the election, but for the attention of the nation. The article stresses how frequently he has been touring, discussing the financial crisis. Somewhere between the idealism of the candidates and President Bush's current pragmatic approach, hopefully we will, as a country, overcome this crisis.

Not Captain, but...

Congressman Mark Kirk came to talk to my consumer class out of the blue today. I wish I had some record of this to share with you all out there, but I have only what I remember, so bear with me.

Congressman Kirk made it a point to separate himself from his party, first and foremost. He outlined for us the various groups (Planned Parenthood, various environmental groups, etc.) that backed him, despite being a member of the Republican Party. Answering one student's question, he also outlined what measures he voted on to limit governmental power over individual citizens.

Finally, after about twenty minutes of questions, someone finally asked a question about his thoughts on the recession and the bail-out. He said he voted in favor of the bail out, for fear that, and I quote directly, "I feared we might be facing another depression." These are strong words from a congressman, even if he was speaking to a high school class. It seems in perilous times even the authority can get caught up in the crisis and become atypically scared. It was the only time during his discussion with us that he seemed to be unsure of himself, and it was telling of how much the financial crisis affected him as a congressman.

The Fear Market?

While watching an episode of the Colbert Report, there was an interview with a woman named Naomi Klein, who has written a book called The Shock Doctorine: The Rise of Disaster Capitolism.

The idea behind her book in a nutshell was that our government exploits disasters, or in some cases creates them, to further their power and control. This episode mainly focused on the recession, and it was obvious that both Klein and Colbert felt as though this novel rang true during this time, especially.

Perilous times, she argues, make societies more submissive- she listed Katrina, the invasion of Iraq, and the current recession among others as moments in time when the government used this oppurtunity of a crisis to give themselves more power. The Salem witch trials could have easily made the same list as the aforementioned examples, as the judges and the girl's who gave their testimony soon became the deciders of who lived and who died in their community. What I wish she had mentioned, and it seemed she was cut short, was what she suggested we as American citizens should do to try and stop this from happening in the future. Hopefully, like in Salem, the government's reach will eventually catch enough attention that it has to stop itself.