Economy-sized Dread

Ok, all of you who are scared crapless by the current state of the economy, raise you hand.

Anyone who doesn't have their hand up is either:

1. Independently wealthy
2. Lying
3. Not paying attention

I grew up believing that another Great Depression could not happen in my lifetime. Supposedly, the economists had it all figured out and, while we may have bumps in the road called recessions, we would never again face the economic devastation that we did in the 1930s. Maybe not.

I am hardly an economist so I may not be qualified to speak about fiscal policy or monetary policy. But I am pretty aware of my surroundings. And I don't like what I see. All around me I see people being laid off, programs being cut, and retirement accounts being drained like a leaky backyard wading pool.

My hope pretty much rests in Barack Obama coming to our rescue. He's a smart guy and he seems to have a bunch of smart guys and gals on his team. He has a plan to pump a lot of money into the system to do things that should be done anyway.

But partisanship may get in the way. Already the Republicans are dusting off the Herbert Hoover game plan and working on ways to kill Obama's plan. It's not like the Republicans have a lot of credibility. After all, it was their Greed is Good philosophy that got us into this mess in the first place.

But I am less worried about fixing blame for why the economy tanked than I am about getting the economy back on its feet. I just want the politicians to be solutions oriented.

I propose that we all make a pledge to vote for politicians of either party who work collaboratively to solve this issue. And let's make a pledge to vote against politicians of either party who insist on putting their own re-election ahead of doing what is necessary to ease the pain.

Hell, we could even start our own political party. We could call it the All for One and One for All party. Who's with me?

Raise your hand.