That's the last line by the J.K. SImmons character in the hilarious Coen brothers film, Burn After Reading. It's also an appropriate epitaph for the decade about to end. Some of the things we did learn....most of them things to not do again.
- When people who hate you talk freely about blowing up airplanes or flying them into buildings, you should not ignore them.
Do we really need to say any more here? One favor liberals can do for themselves is to take threats and enemies seriously. You don't have to be Dick Cheney to be tough. In fact, Dick Cheney isn't all that tough, he's just demonstrative. - Conservative economic policies do not work.
Conservative policies in general don't work, but their economic policies have been especially disastrous. 2010 will mark 30 years since the election of Reagan, and that is when conservatism--after rising for the 15 years before that--firmly implanted itself as a governing principle in this country.
The result: a few people have gotten rich, most people work harder to keep less and have less (mostly in service of the aforementioned few who are rich), we have a mountain of debt that will constrain our society for a generation, we're less educated than we used to be, we are losing ground to most of the countries we compete with, our health is worse, and our civil liberties have been attacked and subverted. - Don't waste time negotiating with conservatives.
They are just out for themselves. I have always thought bipartisanship is a load of crap and grossly over-rated. The health care "debate" proved that once and for all.
Politics is about interests, not ideology. Ideology is a mask. I'm a liberal because I believe liberal policies generally help more people than conservative policies do. When I say most conservatives are out for themselves I mean that they want to pursue policies that will benefit their own, very narrow set of interests--usually interests benefiting the few and the powerful. When I look at the conservative establishment, I see a group that is fat, well-funded, and dedicated to self-preservation at the expense of others not like them.
In that sense, I'm proud to call myself a "liberal elitist." - We need radical reform in the financial sector.
My biggest disappointment with Barack Obama is that he is protecting some of the most blood-sucking and arrogant money sharks to ever walk the earth. The banking system needs radical change. The government must have the authority to seize huge bank holding companies, and we need to break up any large organization deemed "to big to fail." Most importantly, we need to banish the notion that financial innovation is important. It isn't. Prudence is. - Don't believe the predictions of "experts," especially economists.
I find it laughable that every time you hear an economic report, it is always couched in terms of whether it was above or below "economists' expectations." Economists' expectations on both the macro and micro levels have been consistently proven to be usually wrong. So why put so much stock in them? Why not let some sportswriters set their expectations for the economy, and we follow those? They're just as valid. - Don't borrow more than you can afford to pay back.
It's not necessary to add to this point. - Don't try to get people to borrow more than they can afford.
I will add to this point. When I started my professional life during the 1970s, I worked for the credit union industry. In those days, credit unions were especially vigilant in defending people against predatory lenders. Lots of credit unions were military based, and they existed in large part to protect young service members from loan sharks, pawn shop operators, and small loan companies charging outrageous rates of interest.
Even credit unions, unfortunately, have sometimes drifted away from their core principles. When people borrow more than they should, they are foolish and often reckless. But if you devote yourself to getting people to borrowing more than they should, you are downright evil. - Never give up hope that change is possible.
It's very easy to be cynical. It's easy to believe that there are no differences between Republicans and Democrats, between liberals and conservatives, between a bill that is bad and bill that is only better but not perfect. But differences are real, and one side or the other is going to prevail.
In the next 10 years, I hope that if I'm still maintaining this blog that there will be many liberal victories to celebrate. I believe there will be.
