The End is Near

Here you are! Happy New Year!

Cruising through the multitudes of year's end reminiscences, I came across Balloon Juice's commentary on conservatives' upside down view of the world. All the errors that have brought us to the disasters we are in seem negligible there in upsidedown land, while Democrats do them the favor of occasionally behaving deplorably.

Right up front, let me say, the worst error of the year was Alan Greenspan's decision to ignore the laws he was given to enforce, and wait for the market to self-correct. (My comment at Balloon Juice is number 28. There are some excellent answers there.) He has admitted to being wrong, but the entire world is in financial catastrophe because he followed ideology rather than the rule of law. Hopefully, that lesson has been learned for all times.

In his end of year retrospective, John Hawkins lists the seven biggest political blunders of the year. They are as follows:

7.) Pundits blowing the outcome of the democratic primary in New Hampshire.
6.) Eliot Spitzer
5.) Blagojevich
4.) Rev. Wright
3.) The Edwards affair
2.) Hillary’s sniper fire story
1.) McCain bailing out the financial industry.

So, to recap, five of the seven biggest blunders of the year were committed by Democrats, one was committed by the media (who Hawkins considers a de facto member of the Democratic party), and one by John McCain. One can only imagine how well the Democrats would have done in November had they not made so many mistakes, amirite Mr. Hawkins?

What a weird world view movement conservatives have these days.

We've been having a discussion at The Sideshow about liberal blogs that for years have pointed out the errors of right wing ideology in general, and deregulation specifically. Of course at the cab you have had Diane's and my critique of the use of the U.S. government to fight against public interest in such varied areas as the economy, food safety, abstinence only programs, corporate welfare, health care, and every other area I can think of. We are hardly alone, there are many fine minds that have expressed their warnings about the disasters the ideologists in power were bringing down on us.

Astonishment at the incredible blindness of the right is not enough to express here at year's end. Instead, we need to be resolved that they will be punished for damage done in full knowledge that they were violating their trust, their oath of office, and the laws of this country. Substituting a belief in their higher powers of divination, in contradiction of those who wrote the constitution and the laws, has led to worldwide disaster.

Declaring that 'no one could have anticipated' that breaking our carefully drafted laws would result in catastrophe isn't justifiable. It's not just great material for comics. It is crime, and they will need to be prosecuted.

The Rule of Law demands that crime cannot be allowed to pay off the criminal.