Doomsday Scenarios

This popped into my head the other day while listening to some talk radio. Michael Medved, I think it was, or it might have been … I don’t know, Rush or either of the Dennises, Prager or Miller. Not sure. But anyway, I realized this listening to the host go on and on about the immanent and widespread possible collapse of the American economy.

I call it the Law of Equality of Doomsday Scenarios.

Simply stated, it’s thus: It’s never, ever as bad as partisan commentators make it out to be.

Remember the hysterical ranting of the left over the past two Bush terms? How Bush was worse than certain unnamed fascist dictators? How the Patriot Act would target innocent native-born law-abiding citizens? How the war in Iraq was turning the entire globe against us?
Didn’t exactly turn out that way, did it?

So now I’m listening to another set of moonbats – this time conservative talk radio – stating how economic apocalypse is upon us. Not much from them during the past couple of years when Bush was spending more money than a drunken Democrat. No, but now we’re teetering at the brink of financial chaos: be it jobs, homes, credit cards, medical insurance, you name it, Obama is out to sabotage it.

Don’t get me wrong. I think Obama and his policies are wrong for this country. Terribly, terribly wrong. But we’ll survive. If things are still bad in three years, he’ll lose the election.* A good corrector will be the mid-term elections. I’m predicting something similar to the ’94 Republican sweep, with Obama forced to govern like Clinton did (as a true moderate) for the majority of his term in office. Were those years so bad for us?

Yeah, I know, there’s arguments and statistics and damned statistics to turn my simple, uninformed-by-choice observations this way and that and prove I’m wrong. But I don’t need the hypertension that comes with daily monitoring of How Bad Everything Is. Life is too short, and I’m trying to enjoy it just a little bit more.



* I used to think this, but now I’m not so sure. To me, I see a smooth talker who fooled a lot of folks into thinking he had all the answers to all the problems. That’s not what I’m seeing or sensing, but what do I know? I’m just trying to save my soul and make a living writing SF.