Slippery Slopes to Conspiracy

Hmm. I didn't realize today was the birthday for the Bill of Rights. I actually came to love teaching about the Bill of Rights to my politics classes. They're essential to our lives as Americans, but prone to misunderstanding, largely because the wording of some of them are quite cryptic. But I do find it interesting how they are limits as to what government cannot do rather than guarantees of what a citizen may do.

So it seems the tax deal President Obama and the Republicans struck last week has disintegrated into yet another partisan squabble. Finally Hannity and the New York Times agree on something: they both hate the bill. But it's funny to hear of how the former assails it as an attack on the wealthy while the New York Times op-ed page runs a column as to how it (namely, the modification of the inheritance tax) is just more evidence that this country won't move toward ways of redistributing wealth.

So we have a tug of war - the tax bill is either a socialistic attempt to redistribute wealth or another egregious example of how we don't have the guts to redistribute wealth. Gee, and I thought it was just a hasty, expensive, desperate, kick-the-can-down-the-road compromise.

I'm starting to tire of the grand conspiracies offered by both right and left. Could some politician please offer something more positive and purposeful. I can't remember the last time I heard a political figure sell an idea to me as an investment in making the country better. More on that whole investment line of reasoning later. As for now, bed.