The Pendulum Swings

Today is Sunday so I think I can talk a bit about politics instead of markets. Don’t worry, I am not taking sides. While it is true the market has a monster pendulum  – called fear and greed – I have seen a bigger, more sinister one in the general population.

I know the view from my perch is partially perceived. I am older and hopefully a smidge wiser. I am certainly more informed than I was in my post-college days. Forget about the sweet bliss of academe.

Anyway, the 2000 Presidential contest was terrible. I do not recall much about Dubbya and did not see Gore as his polar opposite at the time. But the way the election was decided really set the people off in opposite directions. Again, I am not taking sides here.

My thoughts about 43 were not favorable but he did rally the country post 9-11. It was when people’s pocketbooks got shredded in 2008 that I think the backlash against anything related to elephants began. The tide sweeping 44 into office and flooding the congress with the donkeys was indeed a political tsunami.

The pendulum had swung to an extreme.

Then came 2010 and the Tea Party rode the pendulum to the other side. Or did it? It seems that those coming into power did not fulfill their promise and back went the pendulum. Occupy arose.

But thanks to the the economy, the pendulum started to move yet again. Enter SCOTUS on healthcare and the afterburners kicked in.

We’ve had back and forth in this country since it began. But over the past two presidents the magnitude of the swings seems to have grown exponentially. A Canadian colleague just asked in a Facebook thread, “Why is the US so divided and hateful? This has gone away past politics.”

Indeed.

I have no solution although I would support term limits in congress. Can our leaders actually do the work we hired them to do instead of working from day one on their re-election? Donkeys and Elephants are both guilty.

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