Twelve months ago to the day, Barack Obama looked out over a National Mall that represented a 70 percent overall approval rating, and support from most political factions. How both political extremes dashed that promise of hope.
One year ago, our nation was briefly if blissfully united. Nearly 70 percent of Americans believed that Barack Obama would make a great president, Karl Rove was penning odes to his “Team of Rivals”-style Cabinet picks and more than a million people braved the cold to stand on the Washington Mall to listen to the new president’s inaugural address promising “a new era of responsibility.”
Today, the Tea Party protesters will attempt a national day of strike against businesses they accuse of “funding socialism” by advertising on MSNBC, CNN, or donating to Democrats. “We will not become tax slaves to pay for a government-run health-rationing scheme,” its organizers declare, continuing their year-long confusion of losing the ’08 election with living under tyranny.
Hard-core partisans like play-to-the-base politics. They profit from it personally and professionally.