Soon after Ronald Reagan took office, the air traffic controllers threatened a strike. President Reagan said that if they did strike, he would fire them. The air traffic controllers, understandably, thought he was bluffing. After all, if they went on strike and he fired them, air travel would be messed up for months. Reagan couldn’t afford that. So they went on strike.
And he fired them.
Air traffic was messed up for months. Flights were disrupted. New controllers had to be trained. But what did we learn from that? We learned that if Reagan said he would do something, he would.
Right now I am wishing that President Obama had some of Reagan’s attitude. The Republicans won’t extend tax cuts for the middle class unless the rich people also get their tax cuts extended. Fine. Don’t extend the tax cuts for anybody. I’ll pay more willingly if I know that rich will also be paying more. I’m tired of the continuing class warfare in this country where the people on the bottom always lose and the top two percent always win.
Besides, if the tax cuts end, the deficit will be reduced and the effect won’t be all that great anyway. Don’t take my word for that--read Paul Krugman’s column in the New York Times today. I don’t want to compromise. I don’t want to be reasonable. I want some lines drawn in the sand.
I don't know what to do anymore. He has no backbone at all. I think he fails to understand that with certain types of bullying opponents you must defeat them first. Then compromise.
ReplyDeleteI am going back to full on anti-war mode. Everything else is useless.