Change at any cost. Change of the guard. Bush and Congress thought they could scare the people into the bailout bill, just like with the Patriot act and the war in Iraq. Not this time. Maybe the American people do not care if they lose money, but rather want the government and markets to work properly. Maybe Americans are looking past the short term hurt and toward the healthy functioning of democracy and capitalism for many future generations to come. The government and the investment institutions all failed us, and maybe now we want them to fail so that better, more effective entities will take their place. Maybe we want to clean house and have new politicians and bankers. Maybe we are sick of all the ineffectiveness we have been seeing for the past decade.
Or . . .
Maybe we are just too stupid to see the bailout as anything but a life preserver for Wall Street. If so, no one really sold it as much more than that. The government was too scared to tell us the actual consequences of not passing the bailout bill, for fear that markets would respond poorly. But maybe they should have tried to educate the American people, so we would respond properly. Maybe they played the fear card one time too many.
Either way, America needs change!
