The Oil Spill As A Metaphor For Obamanism

Ok. What I'm about to write may turn out to be some of the more controversial stuff I've ever put on this blog. I'm working this out as I write it (which is after all, both the wonder and the horror of blogging), so stay with me.

I've had a sinking feeling since Barack Obama became President that he and his administration were determined to permanently alter the political landscape, that the detrimental impact of their policies and actions would be huge, pervasive, long lasting, and very difficult to reverse. Even more than this though, I've had a feeling of powerlessness, that no matter how hard guys like Boehner, McConnell, Ryan, and Cantor work, they are really only just monkeying around on the edges; that the best we can hope for at this point is slowing down the decline and hope that they can minimize the damage to the country until such time as we are able to reverse things at the ballot box. Do you see where I'm going with this...?

The oil spill by itself is a calamity of epic proportion. The technical challenges associated with stopping a leak at 5000 feet below the surface are mind-numbing. Any suggestion that "the government" should step in and "take control" of this strains credulity. Do we REALLY think that this kind of expertise resides in the government? No. It resides in the brains of smart, rough men and women who work in private industry and who are paid massive amounts of money to perform this dangerous, rarely needed and incredibly difficult work. The charges I hear leveled against BP are amazing--we are watching a great company disintegrate before our very eyes. Do we really think that they aren't more motivated than ANYONE to plug this leak?

But because of the direction of the country, the oil spill has double the impact on me. Every time I think about the spill--unrelenting, massive in scope, devastating to whole swathes of our population, a cleanup of YEARS duration to follow, absolute powerlessness to stop, good men and women doing everything they can to reverse it--I cringe. I know in my heart that someday the gusher will be plugged somehow. But every day that it continues, I get a little more disheartened.

And so it is with our government, and so it is with our country. When I see the President stand in the Rose Garden with the Mexican President while both run down an American state trying to enforce federal law, I grow disheartened. When I see the Mexican President repeat that performance in the well of our legislative chamber to the thunderous applause of the Democrats, I grow disheartened. When the Democratic Congress and Administration pass "financial regulatory reform" that does NOTHING to address Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac--two organizations DEEPLY enmeshed in our financial crisis, I grow disheartened. When the Congress kvetches once again about extending unemployment benefits with no way to pay for them, I grow disheartened.

I know that this will all end. The Republicans will take a chamber of the legislature, they will eventually retake the White House. The oil leak will eventually be plugged. The shoreline will eventually be cleansed.

In the meantime, both the spill and this government will cause inestimable damage for years to come. So you tell me. Is this an apt metaphor?