Britt Combs: Catering to the single-issue ding bats

President Obama has been in office a few short weeks and the old patterns are all firmly established. He talks a fine game. If you're a lover of inspiring talk, why, he's doing a great job. But then, you could say that about every U.S. president there's ever been; they all talk a good game.
But for all his hand-wringing and carrying on about ending the run-away spending of the preceding administration and how we simply must live within our means, it becomes increasingly clear with each spending bill; each bailout package, each earmark, pet project and "wouldn't it be nifty if" entitlement proposal, that he and his party pals in Congress are partying like it's 1999.
It's their turn at bat, they figure, and time for all the favorite Democrat projects to get their chance. After all, the Republicans got to go to war against the whole world and kill lots of foreigners when it was their turn, right? Fair's fair.
So now Democrats can raise taxes, punish achievement, grab the guns, research the stem cells, provide free abortions to third-world mommies, all the headline-grabbing hot-button issues that motivate their base of single-issue voters.
That's probably my main beef with these people who call themselves liberals and conservatives. They're never ever in any way liberal or conservative beyond the daily ritual of babbling a few meaningless slogans.
Choose life! Free health care for all! Global warming! Kill the Eye-rack-ees! Woman's right to choose! No blood for oil! If you don't love America you can get out! Burn Wall Street!
Pretty compelling, eh? Kinda makes you want to vote for me, doesn't it?
But ultimately the issue is more compelling than the solution. For example, let's just pretend that the abortion debate were settled once and for all, it's clear as a bell in the Constitution now, one way or the other. Can you imagine the negative impact that would have on politicians' fundraising efforts? And not just politicians and their parties. Huge industries accounting for literally hundreds of millions of dollars revolve around the abortion debate remaining hot.
Lawyers, writers, activists, leaders, preachers, doctors and psychologists by the hundreds have milked the debate for a very fine lifestyle indeed. You pick the committee or league or church that best echoes your sentiments on the matter and you send your money.
Can you imagine the number of folks who would be out of work if global warming were eliminated once and for all? No, it wouldn't just enable them to return to their regular jobs; this is their regular job. Al Gore makes a hell of a lot more money scaring you about the warming of the globe than he ever could "mending fences," as he calls it.
The fact is that the political action committees, the campaigns for a better America and a brighter tomorrow and the parties themselves would rather have the issue than the victory. Most voters are only motivated by one or maybe two or three issues. If the issues were gone they would not vote and they most certainly would not contribute any money.
View Washington through that filter for a spell and you will see clearly why the issues never ever change and why we are still arguing inflation and Detroit automakers and bank solvency (or rather the lack thereof) just like we were back in the 1960s and '70s and earlier.
This is also why we are doomed. We are governed by people whose only priority is to appease single-issue obsessed ding bats. If Obama had any interest whatsoever in reversing the trend of outrageous spending and snowballing national debt of the previous administration(s), he would take the bleedingly obvious step of curtailing outrageous spending and stop the snowballing national debt. Duh, my friends.
But no, the only thing that matters is doing well in the polls by bleating a few catchphrases. Do well in the polls, and when hell comes crashing down around us, just blame the other party. Keep those voters motivated and the money train will keep a'rolling. How depressing. So much for Obama's "new tone" in Washington. It lasted about as long as Bush's new tone, and Clinton's before him.
Why is it that the very people who ought to be ashamed of themselves never are?