Is it any wonder that this massive bailout bill failed? This is what happens when the general public is constantly blasted with one "crisis" after another. Eventually, the people will rebel. They will stand together and say "Enough!" Just a brief look at the last eight years shows a pattern of deceit that had to fail.
Since nine eleven our government leaders have fluctuated between telling us all is well, and shortly thereafter that we are in crisis. When we were hit on that dreadful day it shook americans to their very roots. It flat out scared most folks. Suddenly our world could be shaken by nineteen arabs with some money. Overnight our world was very, very small.
George Bush responded by telling us to shop. Carry on as if nothing had happened. To do anything else would tell the terrorists that they won. Their purpose was to disrupt our way of life, don't let them. Then the Department of Homeland Security was created with it's creative color threat code. That is when the administration put us on a yo-yo. One day up, one day down. Depending on how the political wind was blowing, we would have raising and lowering of the threat level. This went on until the public just stopped paying attention. I mean, after being told to cover our houses with plastic and duct tape it just got to be ridiculous.
In fact, seeing the great lever of power that fear represented, our leaders have used this to bleed off our civil liberties, add torture to our defense portfolio, and "chicken little" us until we no longer believe that the sky will fall. These guys are the "little boys who cried wolf."
Is it any wonder that this bailout bill was rejected by the public? A flood of calls to congress were running 99 to 1 against this package. And even though the president and all our congressional leaders warned us that the sky will fall, and John McCain felt it necessary to "suspend" his campaign and rush back to Washington, the bailout failed. We no longer believed them.
Did we just vote against our own interests? The problem is that we simply don't know. We don't trust our leaders. We never have trusted the golden parachutists of Wall Street. Who do we believe? Why was everything o.k. last week when this week a crisis? There are just so many questions that most of us have no idea what is really going on. And now, when we really need our leaders, we can't trust them. And when they really need us to trust them, the trust is not there.
Right now I realize I don't know much. But I do know that no matter what happens from all this hullabaloo, hopefully our leaders and future leaders have learned the lesson of honesty. And just maybe, things will be a little more transparent in Washington. And even if there is another great depression, if we become a nation of government of the people, by the people and for the people, it might be worth it.