Spoiled Brats

It has been two years since the United States had an economic collapse of historic proportions. We were on shaky ground, personally and nationally, and it scared us profoundly. Forgetting that the country had survived other economic meltdowns, we thought it was doomsday in America.

Since then there have been signs of a recovery, not as fast as our instant gratification tendencies would prefer, but slowly, if not always surely. Unemployment is still high at 9.6%, the exact rate it was in 1983 under President Reagan during that recession.

It has not been even two years since Barack Obama was elected president, and even less than that since he was inaugurated on January 20, 2009. He inherited a huge financial crisis, along with two wars, a super power country that did not have the power to provide health care for its citizens, and a nation held in low esteem around the world.

Remember?

It didn't take long for the Republican Party to start complaining about what Obama was or was not doing. They weren't ashamed to say they were going to do their best to obstruct whatever he tried to do. They did it with President Clinton, too, even shutting down the entire government for a time in 1994. Nothing surprising there.

What is astounding is how soon the very people who elected Obama began to pile on. He wasn't tough enough! He doesn't understand Washington! His advisors are giving him bad advice! He's not leading! He wants everyone to like him and you can't do that as president! His health care bill didn't go far enough! He just doesn't get it!

The twenty-four hour news cycle, with its hysterical pundits on both sides, feeds the frenzy. People who didn't even know they should be angry are riled up. People who should know better sit around at dinner parties shaking their heads in despair.

Can we stop being such spoiled brats?

Can we find another theme song rather than "The End" from the Doors: "We want the world and we want it N-O-O-W!?"

It takes longer than two years to dig out of the mess Obama inherited. That said, he has passed health care (which six previous presidents had failed to do), a stimulus package, Wall Street reform, reversed spending limits on stem cell research, has put relations with Russia on a positive track, is shrewdly managing our relations with China, is in the process of ending the unnecessary war in Iraq, and has restored respect for the United States around the world.

Not bad for less than two years in office.

But still our fellow Democrats can't get no satisfaction: "Yes, but he's going to make Democrats lose the House and Senate in the fall!"

Does anyone remember that President Clinton was blamed for losing the House (for the first time in forty years) and Senate in 1994 and still went on to have a successful presidency?

Apathetic Democrats are threatening to sit out the mid-term elections. That'll show 'em! The President calls that "irresponsible" and "inexcusable." He reminds us of what he said on his election night: He would not be able to solve all the problems of our country, nothing was going to be easy, he wasn't going to be able to please everyone.

Vice President Joe Biden cuts to the chase and tells the Democratic base to "...stop whining and get out there and look at the alternatives."

Yes, look at them and then stop giving them more ammunition.