An era has officially ended

My and wife and I have been life-long Republicans, though we have been uncomfortable with the current administration. My most recent comments, of course, leave little doubt as to the direction I have been heading since 2004. But today the Republicans have finished the job of converting me into a Democrat, at least for this election cycle. House Republicans rejected a bill that everybody found distasteful but necessary (one rep called it a cow patty with a marshmallow on it). One of the reasons cited by a handful of Republicans was a speech by Nancy Pelosi that blamed the crisis on the Bush administration. Even on the surface that’s infuriating because of it’s pettiness. But, worse, those same politicians obviously think the administration is wrong because the administration has pushed mightily for this bill. So they are upset at a critique of the administration that came, predictably, from the other party while they themselves have a serious disagreement with — get this — the administration.

All this while Rome was burning. As a result of our representatives’ inability to accept the recommendations of some very smart people and their own colleagues, the stock market experienced its biggest single-day point loss ever, with the values of stock dropping — in one day — over 1.1 TRILLION dollars. This single-day loss is more than half again as much as the rescue plan might cost over a couple of years. And that plan will likely recover much of the expenditure. (I say “will” because it is going to get passed at some point after everybody is done pouting — it, or something very like it — it has to.)

It is time to fire these leaders. Fifteen of the nineteen Republican representatives from Texas rejected the bill. This administration and anything that resembles it needs to be tossed out the airlock. I predict here and now that unless this is reversed in the next day or two, McCain will experience one of the most crushing defeats in the history of modern presidential politics. The race has been looking close. But this now has the makings of a huge landslide as even moderate conservatives reach the breaking point and lose all patience with a party that is so out of touch with reality.

There were comments from news organizations about people being angry that taxpayer money would be used to correct this situation. But people have got to be much angrier that the people we hired for just such an occasion have so utterly failed in their responsibilities to do what is absolutely necessary. They may be playing to their local constituents. But this is playing out on a global stage. Our financial futures are dependent on global confidence. When our leaders pull this kind of last minute stunt, the markets won’t care how it plays in Peoria.

And when the financial systems collapse, will radical conservatism prevent the average citizen (from both red and blue states) from looking to the government for help? Of course, not. There will be a hue and cry about how our leaders failed us. And it will no longer be about which party should be in power but about whether our form of government even works at all in its current form. And that, folks, is really scary.