Lately, I've been reading a lot of commentary from folks who mention they are "proud Democrats", and supporters of President Obama.  As much as I recognize the need to identify with others who share similar concerns, part of the problem I see with this country is that whole 'red team, blue team' mentality.  It's something a lot of Obama supporters play into quite readily...and to what end?

Yes, G.W. Bush and Co., were a band of war-mongering idiots - but too many Democrats are using their 8 years of hellish rule to paint all Republicans as the same nefarious creature.  The reality is the Republican party is having as much of an identity crisis as those across the aisle.  

There are those nasty neo-Cons who've ruled the GOP roost for the past 20 or 30 years, and they're finally finding themselves challenged by new blood in the form of true conservatives and libertarians who have a real understanding of economics, and some solid ideas for digging us out of our current mess.  But are they being heard by self-proclaimed Democrats?  No, it seems most of them have taken to plugging their ears, and just automatically assuming that if the suggestion comes from the right, it must be "evil".  So instead of an informed public waking up, we have a good portion of the country blindly throwing their support behind the President and his merry band of Keynesians.  This sad fact is hurting this country, when we could be healing it so much faster.

I recognize that Bush was a terrible President, but don't you think prudence should win out - and the platform should matter more than the political brand name?  Sometimes someone on the 'red team' can criticize the Obama administration's handling of the economic crisis without it having anything to do with rhetoric, racism,  or sour grapes.  Sometimes the critics - the true conservatives, the libertarians - have good points, but they fall on deaf ears because few are willing to see past their partisan blinders enough to consider what's being proposed.

Now, I'll grant...there have been some REALLY idiotic ideas, and some awful Obama-bashing put forth by what remains of the Republicans old guard.  Unfortunately, a lot of the Republican party remains in a pro-Bush, neo-conservative strangle-hold.  What's funny is that all of these Bush devotees are every bit as supportive of big government, and socialistic spending as their counterparts across the aisle - they're just as clueless, but thankfully they are not the only people in the Republican party with a voice.  Self-professed Democrats would do well to remember that good ideas are not only the sole domain of those on the 'blue team'.

Case in point:  A lot Democrats talk about the "feeling" that Obama's victory instilled in them...the new optimism...the "hope" for real change.  Yet this is the same crowd that has largely demonstrated they have no clue on how an economy works; for if they did they wouldn't be so gung-ho to grow the size of government even further than the back-breaking level it's at now; and at a time when we simply cannot afford to add to the burden. 

Somehow many Democrats fail to see the corollary between a nation - tattered, and bankrupt - and a massively outsized government with everyone from the individual to the multi-national corporation sucking off the federal teet.  I get that Bush was horrible...but that doesn't mean you throw all good sense out the window, and cling to next sturdy pole...the platform matters.

Which leads me to another annoying sentiment quick to the tongues of lefties everywhere, this notion that capitalism, or an overly free market, was the partial or total cause of our un-doing - which is out-and-out nonsense.

The problem is, for decades now, capitalism/the free market, has not been allowed to work because Washington, D.C. has consisted of one huge revolving door of corporate CEOs, and government policy-makers moving between roles.  The two sides, public and private, have worked in collusion with one another from administration to administration under a system of 'corporatism' that's continued to this day.  Health care is a one example where this is the case.

The very reason so many people are up in arms over health care, and worried that not everyone is covered, and worried that they'll go bankrupt if they ever need a bulk-load of urgent care is because they've been living in a system that has seen government, and big companies (Big Pharma, Big Insurance) work together to ensure that the cost of care is too much for the 'little guy' to bear without loading up on onerous amounts of debt.

The solution, then is not to allow even greater amounts of government control over health care...the solution is to get the government out of it completely.  Get rid of the huge subsidies, and legislative guarantees that government doles out to the massive drug and insurance companies.  Force service providers to compete on the open market for consumers, and you'll see the prices come down, as they should - the need for debt decreases - the bankruptcies and foreclosures subside...this is how it should work.  But don't you dare criticize the President's health care plan...if you do it means you're a crazy Bush-lovin' Republican.

Regardless, at the end of the day, this country is broke.  There is no more money in the government coffers.  All that's happening now is we keep going with new stimulus money continually pumped out from the Federal Reserve - but at what cost?  Certainly, many people are happy to have the help, but they fail to see that by the Fed printing as much as they have and they are, they're merely stealing from the future to pay for our consumption today.  This is an unsustainable pattern that eventually will result in the complete loss of our purchasing power as the dollar devalues further and further down.  Spending more money on bureaucracy and wars will not solve this problem.

So, who's to blame for this mess?  A lot, if not most, Democrat voters will lay the blame at the foot of George W. Bush, and he deserves at least some of it...but so does the administration before that, and the one before that, and so on, and so on - this phony bubble economy didn't get this way overnight...nor did it all come from the previous eight years of wasteful spending.  This cycle of continuing the massive American bureaucracy has been around for decades, and now finally we're witnessing it unravel.  What's the U.S. debt load up to now?  $12 trillion?

And here we have all of these Obama supporters, including the President himself proposing that we add to the government's burden with health care for everyone?  AND add 'x' number more troops to a useless war in Afghanistan?

I'll say it again...this country is broke - the tank is empty...we can't keep this level of spending up without making the consequences more dire for this generation, and the ones that will follow.  This isn't partisanship talking...this is just plain common sense.