Almost every weekend I head on out to one of the local casinos and participate in one of the local poker tournaments. You typically have to show up early to get in for these things so you spend a good chunk of time before things start talking to other players. Normally this means lots of sports, poker stories, and play strategies. Not this last Saturday.
This last Saturday the one and only subject of conversation was the upcoming wall street bailout. Now the politics in a room full of poker players is as jumbled as the play styles. You have everything from people who are in love with Bush and his policies to ultra lefties. That is not what was surprising.
What was surprising was the 100% unanimous agreement that this bailout is a really bad idea. The nicest thing that was said the entire morning was that this was a reverse robin hood. Stealing from the poor to make the rich richer. We all came to this conclusion from widely different points of view. The conservatives felt it was unneeded meddling in the free market while most of us progressive types were up in arms over the lack of oversight and accountability.
At the end of it all when the tournament started three things had been settled with absolute certainty. First this bailout is a terrible idea. Second that while there probably is a need for some kind of help, there was lots of disagreement on exactly what that help should be, but given the varied political backgrounds that was to be expected. We were all just sure that the proposed plan wasn't it. Thirdly any politician, even if they were our own reps, who even thought about voting for this plan didn't need to be sent back come next election.
The point of all this? People are at their breaking point. If you, me or anyone we know blew 2,000 dollars on a bad land deal in Arizona and went to congress hat in hand they would laugh us out of the building. And yet these wall street smucks are asking for and will probably get billions. That has people pissed off and rightly so. It smacks of cronyism and corruption and no amount of prettying up is going to get rid of the stench. So take note congress critters. This bailout issue is not going to go away any time soon and your vote will be remembered and you will be held accountable for it. If not this November then next. So for once don't play politics as usual and do what is right.