Tonight, leaving work, I overheard a lifetime Republican and a Democrat talk about the election. I couldn't believe my ears as the middle aged white men, both straight, were talking about the financial implications of the past week. And out of nowhere, the Republican said, "They've ruined this country more than Al-Queda ever could have."
The implications of this crisis - and talk of a major recession, the likes of which we haven't seen since the Great Depression are particularly ringing true with reports that Washington Mutual is diving immediately.
Financial crisis? Dollar tanking? Gas at more than $4/gallon? Houses foreclosed? No healthcare? High unemployment? Katrina? Name the last good story we've heard. Name the last major achievement in science.
For a while, I've preached the need for us to find more community, to disavow our tendencies to "bowl alone" and to learn how to sacrifice before we have to. And yet, it's almost mandatory. Times are bad and they're about to get worse...
And yet in Virginia, a lifelong Republican recognizes that it was the GOP that did this. He reminded us that it wasn't HIS party - his was a party of fiscal conservatism with less social conservatives. But yet, he knew that it was the current incarnation of the GOP that did this and they needed to be stopped.
Senator Barack Obama will not solve all problems. He is not your new bicycle. With a recession and few options, we will need to merely survive - let alone find a way to prosper. And yet without a Democratic President and Congress - well, can you imagine if they had privatized social security?
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