It is always funny to me when opposite sides of the political spectrum attack each other and drag each other through the mud. This happens in spades during an election, but that is to be expected, of course — it’s do or die, you know? But it is always kind of ridiculous when one side keeps pestering the other, almost to the point of resembling the annoying gnat that just won’t stop buzzing around the other party’s face.
The gnat in this case is Sarah Palin, and the face she keeps flying around, like a bug, belongs to President Barack Obama.
On Monday, Palin brought her infinite wisdom to Fox News’ Sean Hannity and felt it necessary to call out Obama on the “failings” of his tax and stimulus plans, which are really still in their infancy.
“We told ya so,” Palin said, pointing the finger at Obama’s supposed failures. No, Sarah, we, the United States, told you so. It is clear to me now that this woman never really had a chance of winning, well, because she is crazy.
Being conservative or liberal isn’t really the question here in my eyes. I voted for Obama this time around, but I will be the first to admit that I voted for George W. Bush four years ago, so I’m not coming at this from a party loyalist standpoint.
It just seems disingenuous for Palin to start up with the finger pointing and name calling this soon into Obama’s presidency. Sen. John McCain fought a valiant battle during the election and I think many would agree that, in the end, Palin is who ultimately may have cost him the presidency. McCain and Obama really weren’t too incredibly far apart; Democrats just played a better game of chess.
According to Palin, however, it is nothing but doom and gloom ahead for the United States. She truly believes we are headed toward socialism, as she emphatically told Hannity on Monday.
“That is where we have to be blunt enough and candid enough and honest enough with Americans to let them know that if we keep going down these roads … nationalizing many of our services, our projects, our businesses, yes that is where we would head,” Palin said.
Sarah, this is the year 2009. Are you truly convinced that we are going to become the United Soviet States of America? While some of Obama’s ideas, including his tax plan, are no doubt pretty far left, it is a long time before we become a socialist country.
This is precisely where Palin gets everything wrong and why she wasn’t elected last year. Statements like these don’t win people over. The economy is failing and, despite Obama’s efforts, it is still unknown when it will turn around, whether now, next week, or in three years. But going on television and claiming “we told you so” while pointing the finger — when you yourself are a failure — seems somewhat odd to me.
Why not bridge the gap and offer help to the Obama administration? Why not throw party affiliation aside and work toward the greater good? As long as Palin continues on the “Down With Obama” bandwagon, she, and in a sense, the Republican Party, will continue to fail.
America’s future is uncertain, but if opposing parties can learn to work together instead of offering Doomsday prophesies and annoying needling, America can once again become the great and powerful country it was for so long.
Gerry Wachovsky is a graduate student and a columnist for the Summer Forty-Niner.
