Sunday, November 02, 2008

How will Conservatives spin the global financial meltdown?

The above from Mike Luckovich of the AJC might be aimed at Dubyah plus it is a touch dated yet I'll extend this to Conservatism in general. While home recently I listed to right wing radio courtesy of Alabama Representative and Alabama GOP Chairman Mike Hubbard's radio station WANI News Talk 1400 and was amazed at the blame being hurled about. From troubles of Mc$ame to the economic collapse to ..., blame was placed on the media, poor people, elites, liberals, Clinton, and even Bu$h. Never ever was Conservatism responsible. In fact, the problem was generally not enough right winginess.

Charles Duhigg and Carter Dougherty share in the New York Times From Midwest to M.T.A., Pain From Global Gamble and it is a gem. Local school districts in relative affluent areas of Wisconsin were trying to make a little money on the pension funds and also try to avoid raising taxes. That rising health care costs were eating into retirement funds is also noted. These relatively sophisticated school board members, even if a little sloppy and trusting, turned to an Irish bank that had relocated from Germany due to Ireland's low corporate tax rate and got in a global mess that stretches from here to Canada to Ireland to India and then back to New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority.

This is one but one story yet illustrative of the world in which we live. Challenges abound. Complexities are certain. Yet Conservatives just seem to want to let the markets work their magic. From Bu$hCo on down, they are masters of the blame game. They can take something that ought to fully discredit, or at least significantly damage, their flawed philosophies and turn it into an attack on alternatives. They are always on offense. John Gunn

UPDATE ~ Perhaps six hours later - David Goldstein and Kevin G. Hall of McClatchy filed this one back on October 12th but is worth revisiting. Their Private sector loans, not Fannie or Freddie, triggered crisis had one comment reading as follows:
Shorter right wing: Republicans cannot be held responsible for ANYTHING they did or did not do when they had absolute power over every branch of government, 2002 - 2006. Sure, the Republicans had the Presidency, the House, and the Senate, as well as the Supreme Court. But hey, there's no way they could have possibly stood up to Barney Frank. I mean, what are all 3 branches of government compared to Barney Frank? And pay no attention to the Credit Default Swap Market wholly deregulated by Phil Gramm's December 2000 Commodity Futures Modernization Act, because they'd rather blame housing for lower income earners, black people, and immigrants for the chaos they gleefully caused & rode for 7 years.

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