However, this morning, as my new boyfriend was openly stating his clear and distinct rage for our current president, with only myself as his sounding board, I had to ask him what exactly is his problem with the current Commander In Chief. He unloaded an earful, and I tried SO HARD to just do my usual smile, nod, and stay silent routine. But, given that this is my boyfriend, it's just the two of us, and there's a certain level of trust here that I've never felt before, I couldn't stop myself from defending our president. I mean, after all, I *did* vote for him. (Yes, that's right, I'll admit that I am an Alaskan who DID NOT vote for McCain/Palin! And I'm not ashamed to say it, either, thank you very much!)
During our conversation, I could feel the tension level rise, so I quickly averted the conversation by pointing out that the conversational temperature had risen rather quickly, and that I typically don't have these conversations for this very reason, and then changed the subject. (As a side note, my boyfriend is so adorable - he actually referred to our conversation as our first argument - he has *no* idea, does he?)
But, this brings me to the point of this blog post.
Our country has been an independent country for 235 years now. We have had 43 presidents during that time. (Don't forget, that while Obama is the 44th, Grover Cleveland served twice!) We've had countless Senators and Congressmen during that time. To date, we've been involved in 21 acts of war, either directly or through intervention. The first year our country came into existence, we had a national debt. Debts incurred during the American Revolutionary War were reported as $75 million. This was in 1791. In 1864, the American debt reached $2.7 billion. By the time WWI was over, the national debt was $25.5 billion. From 1980 until 1992 (Reagan and Bush eras), the gross debt quadrupled. The net public debt quintupled. From 1992 to 2000 (Clinton era), the gross debt rose and fell several times, but all in all, Clinton did an excellent job, as the debt was $3 trillion at the start of his term and had only increased to $3.4 trillion when he left office. By the time George W. Bush left office, the gross debt had increased to $10.7 trillion.
Through the history of our country, going as far back as 1775 and the start of the American Revolutionary War, our country has proven time and time again, that in times of peace, our country does a great job at paying off its debts. It's only in times of war that our country finds it's current fiscal status slumping like no other. (This is a shining example of why Clinton's term was so great, as we only had the intervention in Bosnia during his terms). During Bush's terms, we've had the Invasion of Afghanistan and the Invasion of Iraq, both of which are still on-going well into the new presidential term - simply because a sudden withdrawal of troops and support for both countries would be one way our country could commit suicide if it so wanted.
Now that I've spewed all that information at you, the whole reason is just to say that it's simply delusional to think that ANY elected president could simply step in, fix the national debt, correct everything that needs to be addressed, especially in a time of war and conflict, and to do it all in 4 short years. Our country has been in a steady and continuous downward spiral for a very long time now, despite the few terms we've had where it didn't really move much. It's never really gotten better, really, but the spiral did manage to stall a few times. So to expect this man, who has said from the very beginning of his campaign that it just wasn't going to happen overnight, to suddenly fix everything, and I mean EVERYTHING wrong with this country, is simply unrealistic by any means.
Oh, and let's not forget that this president doesn't exactly have what one would call complete power over our country. Every decision has to be made through congress. It has to pass through the great House of Misrepresentatives before it can go anywhere. To place the blame solely on the shoulders of one man is simply foolish. Remember people, this why our great country was founded to begin with... To take that kind of sovereign power away from one person and to ensure that every person was represented properly with adequate rights for all. Oh yeah, and because they didn't want to pay taxes. There's that too.
So, do you think I was right to change the subject? Dropping this kind of rebuttal during a discussion usually leaves people standing there with their jaws hanging open, eyes wide open in shock, stammering for something clever to say in response. Keep in mind, I'm the cute little girl who never says much during conversations, but can make you laugh pretty damn easily and never takes anything too serious, so when I suddenly drop these little bombs on people, I usually leave them in a complete state of shock.
Which, when I think about it, is actually quite fun. Maybe that's really why I do it.
Love Always,
Teh Best Mom Evah!!!!
