A Waste of Time

          I don’t often do it, but today I was traveling and wanted something to read.  Really.  I was bored and alone so I went into the airport bookstore and bought it.  I told myself, it was only for the articles, but even as I skimmed the pages of the magazine, I knew I shouldn’t have wasted my money and bought Time magazine.

          It has been years since I last purchased the other so-called mainstream news magazine, Newsweek.  The cover of the recent issue of that magazine depicting Michele Bachmann as a wild-eyed “queen of rage” shows how far left that periodical has slid.  On the cover of the Time magazine in my hand was the George Washington we see on the dollar bill, but the Founder had a black eye.  Also on the cover was, How the Tea Party Hijacked America.  With a cover that biased, I should have just put it down right then, but I didn’t, I opened it. 

          I flipped forward to The Curious Capitalist, a column by noted mainstream writer and editor Rana Foroohar.  In her article she criticizes the debt deal because, “it cuts government spending at a time when spending is needed most.”  According to Foroohar, when you spend yourself into a debt crisis, the solution is to spend more.

          Shaking my head as I finished that article, I turned the page to In the Arena, by Joe Klein.  His column informed me that, “the political system has gone catatonic.  This is not a problem of partisanship: it is a right-wing strategy.”  One sentence later he declared, “Most sane Republicans now suspect that the Tea Party is a political heat rash—uncomfortable but not fatal.”  The feeling that I had wasted my money grew stronger as he concluded with, “It’s time for Boehner to sequester the Tea Partyers in a rubber-padded romper room, and let the adults pass the (debt) deal that both he and the vast majority of Americans want.”  These sophomoric insults appear to pass for editorial comment in Time.

          Next came an article, The Debt Deal’s Failure, by editor-at-large Fareed Zakaria.  In the second paragraph of this supposed news piece, he informs readers that the Republicans are, “emboldened by the success of their bullying….”  Apparently when Democrats are unyielding they are principled, but Republicans are bullies.  He goes on to blame the Tea Party for “holding the debt ceiling hostage,” and he insists that policies such as holding the line on taxes and debt are “deeply un-American.” 

          At one point Zakaria states, “We (Americans) want big government but low taxes.”  Perhaps some Americans want big government, but many in the Republican Party and most in the Tea Party do not. The Founders envisioned a small federal government doing a few things, such as defense, currency and mail delivery.  Those things not specifically given to the federal government remained with the states.  If liberals want to change that, they should change the Constitution, not ignore it.