LIBERADIO(!)

I haven’t been on “This Week with Bob Mueller“ (or “Mulleropoulos,” as we like to call it) in a while (darn that Representative Gilmore!), but the last time I was on, Steve Gill and I were poking at each other (and not in the friendly Facebook way) over big government vs. small government. Gill, while accusing all “liberals” of being for big government, said he was for making government small enough to drown in a bathtub. I told Steve that it wasn’t about big or small government, it was about smart government.

Fast forward a few months to a new president, a continuing economic downward spiral, and the same old accusations from Republicans. On steroids. “The era of big government is back,” said Congressman Marsha Blackburn. “The era of big government is back,” said John Boehner. “The era of big government is back,” said Lamar Alexander. ” “The era of big government is back,” said Steve Holland of Reuters (As Southern Beale says, “Thank you, Liberal Media!!!”)

Which makes one wonder (at the risk of channeling my inner Carrie Bradshaw) where were the snappy fiscal talking points when President Bush was “spending like a drunken sailor?” And where were the rallies?

I got my answer to these and other burning questions when I went to the faux Tea Party (there wasn’t any tea) the TNGOP threw on the steps of the Capitol on Friday to protest President Obama’s economic policy. All the people I spoke to were big enough to admit that President Bush overspent…too. However, not one had been to an organized rally in the last 8 years. Huh. Go figure.

But it was good to see that even post-election, President Obama continues to motivate people to get involved when in the past they *ahem* didn’t have the time…or something:

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At the end of the long afternoon filled with hyperbolic signs and shouts of “send Congress to Gitmo!,” I was left to wonder (at the risk of channeling that pesky inner Bradshaw again) if, as progressives and Obama supporters, we should organize a rally to protest eight years of near-total Republican government control and the fiscal policies they produced that resulted in one of the most unstable U.S. economies since the Great Depression? Then I remembered that we already had one. It was last November. And 69 million people showed up. Aw, snap!

More hypocrisy watch coverage of the Tennessee event Braisted at Nashville 21, Dru’s Vues, a Kleinheider Joint, and WPLN.