Blissfully eating paste

The Washington Monthly marks an anniversary ― and sighs:

"Lehman Brothers collapsed on Sept. 15, 2008, effectively kicking off the most severe global financial crisis since the Great Depression, and in the process, taking what was a fairly mild recession and creating a prolonged economic nightmare. One need not be an industry expert to know that the crisis was created, in large part, by deregulation -- there was no cop on the beat to prevent systemic recklessness, incompetence, and fraud. And exactly three years later, Republicans who championed deregulation going into the Lehman Brothers collapse are still fighting for more deregulation. ... Republicans are awfully lucky most Americans don't follow politics closely."

But within that last line lies the problem. Who really is the worst actor here: The "Greed Is Good" Republicans ― or us? We, the people, have the power (via civil protest, applied pressure and the ballot box) to solve this economic conundrum. But because so many of us are utterly uninformed or indifferent or simply content to eat the paste we're served by politicians, we're blissfully driving ourselves over a cliff. It is probably unfair to ask Mr. Obama to drive this point home from the bully pulpit. Indeed, it may be an impossible burden for him to shoulder. I am reminded of a line by Michael Douglas in the American President about the sometimes feckless electorate: "People don't drink the sand because they're thirsty. They drink the sand because they don't know the difference." An Obamian clarion call for an informed citizenry may well fall on deaf ears because political edification has seemingly lost its virtuousness.

And yet ― candidate Obama's campaign message that "we are the ones we've been waiting for" resonated powerfully in 2008. Might it do so again? After all, thanks to recalcitrant (if not seditious) Republicans and a largely apathetic public, our body politic is shipwrecked. We, the people, are now Tom Hanks in Castaway. No rescue is coming. The only way off this uncharted isle is the raft that we and our imaginary friend "Wilson" have to build our ourselves. Obama's "we-are-the-answer" theme is worth pursuing again, even if it means grasping at straws. The alternative, our current path, is unacceptable and unworthy. America is better than this.