CRS
Chandler, Arizona, United States

There's an old saying. If you don't want someone to join a crowd, you ask them, "If everyone were jumping off of a cliff, would you?" Well, I have. So my answer would be "Yes". True story.
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I'm Going to Defend Obama, I'm Just Not Proud of It

Monday, February 13, 2012

this entry brought to you by raphael saadiq, "heart attack"


A few weeks ago I defended Obama, and I felt really embarrassed about it.

Two coworkers were talking about his trip to Arizona (this was in late January), and loudly complaining about Obama. I didn't want to step in.

It's not that I'm reticent to weigh in on politics when I know the people talking. If they're strangers, obviously I stay out of it, but if it's coworkers, I don't see the problem with stepping in for a moment, especially if they're loudly talking about it next to me.

But. In 2008 I was an avid Obama supporter. I even bought an awesome Obama shirt. It's 2012 now, though. My Obama shirt is still in semi-circulation in my wardrobe, but I have a pages long list of complaints. I do still support him, but when liberals who have turned sour complain about him I find myself agreeing much more than I don't. It's fair to say this is a disappointing President, to the point where one wonders if there's any use in even participating in politics.

But you know the stereotype of Obama supporters. I didn't want to speak up because I felt like it would seem typical. Of course Chris is sticking up for his Black Jesus. Of course. You know how those Obama people are.

But I'm also a fan of the truth. So, with much trepidation, I corrected someone.

"...And did you see Obama during the State of the Union" continued a co-worker, "taking credit for all those jobs we gained? Just because Intel [the biggest employer here in Chandler] added a few hundred jobs doesn't mean he has anything to do with it!"

"Well, to be fair," I butted in. "Every president in the history of America has taken credit for job growth. It's kind of what Presidents do."

"That's what I mean!" she said. "All these guys just sit up there and do nothing, and then take credit for the good things that just happen to happen when they're around, as if they had anything to do with it!"

This was much closer to an argument I could agree with, and was also an argument closer to the truth. So we continued from there, moved on to how politicians still want to waste our money on war, still can't get the fucking roads fixed, still screw education, things that were much more true.

Still. There was a lot more I wanted to say on the subject, but I didn't want to get too far into it. If I did, however, feel like giving the more thorough version, I would've said this:

Actually, you're right. Politicians do take credit for things that they might not necessarily have any right to take credit for. But.

For the past four years, and particularly in the past year, right-wingers and media wonks have been repeating over and over that even talking about raising taxes on the rich-- even having it a part of the national discourse-- creates "uncertainty in the market". Because rich people, utterly powerless to have a spine, aren't sure if they can safely invest their money if, god forbid, their taxes return to a level they were in a decade of historic growth. How can they create new jobs if they're not sure that the government is going to swoop in and raise their taxes?

This is an argument I've heard over and over and over again. Uncertainty in the market. Obama is bad for the economy because his tax proposals create uncertainty in the market. Do a Google search for "Obama tax proposal uncertainty in market". Even talking about it makes investors uncertain!

Except our economy grew. It had the most growth since 2005. Unemployment is the lowest it's been in years. If Obama's tax plans create such horrible uncertainty in the economy, how come Obama has been proposing these tax plans for three years and yet we've got record growth? Clearly Obama's tax plan not only doesn't create uncertainty, it actually can create an environment for the economy to thrive. But perhaps that last statement isn't true as of yet; there is undoubtedly no evidence up to this point of a correlation between Obama's tax plan and economic growth. But it's quite clear that his plans haven't hurt the economy if somehow it managed to grow despite this rampant "uncertainty" people were so afraid of. So no, Obama didn't specifically go out and hire all those people to work at Intel. He did, however, create an environment where Intel wasn't too afraid to do so. And, because of that, I honestly feel like Obama can take credit for it. If your opponents won't shut up about how you're bad for the economy yet the economy grows in record numbers either because of you or even in spite of you, then you've still won.
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with love from CRS @ 1:13 PM 

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