To the Editor:
David Brooks suggests that the country’s move toward political
conservatism is a result of the Obama administration’s liberal agenda. I
don’t think that shift has much to do with President Obama’s agenda
(liberal or otherwise). It is the result of the catastrophic economic
situation and rampant deregulation that were left at Mr. Obama’s
doorstep on the day he took office.
Unfortunately, the body politic in our country has a short memory. It
prefers to hold a president accountable for the economic and
environmental disasters when he has been in office less than a year and a
half.
Neil Stein
Brooklyn, June 22, 2010
Note from KBJ: We have a strict-liability political system. That means the president get blamed for bad things that happen on his or her watch and praised for good things. Fault has nothing to do with it. Where was the letter writer when George W. Bush was being blamed for everything under the sun?
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 