Obama, Congress, and “Disappointment Was My Closest Friend”

Disappointment seems to me to be a particular poison pill of our times. Rarely though do we hear of it mentioned as compared to other feelings. Disappointment is a “fine whine” of a feeling, cultivated, nurtured for years, and buried within the confines of one’s own heart or soul. However, when one looks under the anger, or the rage, or the addiction, or the rationalization or the self-justification, one finds almost always that that is where disappointment lives.

One of the few areas in which disappointment is openly stated with some frequency concerns the economy. Of course, any time a Republican is the occupant of the White House the media reports all economic news as a disappointment no matter how positive. Recently, tax cheat Treasury Secretary Timothy Giethner commented that the annualized two percent growth rate in the United States Gross Domestic Product, a key measure of the economy’s health, was disappointing. According to economists, a growth rate of less than three percent in GDP ensures that no significant reduction in unemployment can occur. In other words, the two percent growth rate in GDP is not only disappointing, it is anemic Doing the math, President Obama’s administration has underperformed by one third or to truly understand how big a failure that is, speak of it this way: a 33 percent shortfall.

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Those results are more than disappointing and anyone with any objective perspective clearly would conclude that Obama does not deserve to be retained for so missing the benchmark. Now I believe Obama should be seen as a tremendous success because he is a socialist here to destroy this country and in that regard he is achieving, which of course is very disappointing. Congress is terribly disappointing. Mostly the Democrats in Congress continue to print money to pay for entitlement programs that rob my children of the opportunity to enjoy prosperity in the future. By passing things like ObamaCare and other national mandates, Congress removes power from local control and the states. It is truly disappointing that a solid 40 percent of the country believes in the Welfare State and shifting resources from the producing class to the dependent class. That is why the Wisconsin recall election victory of Scott Walker was so gratifying because the people rose up, if only briefly, to say, “No,” to the voracious appetite of the public sector unions and the entitlement mentality. Watching Europe and the European debt crisis is disappointing. While Europe burns to the ground in government debt, the happy masses watch the European soccer championships, which interestingly feature all the sad sisters of fiscal irrectitude, the PIIG countries: Poland, Ireland, Italy, and Greece. It’s disappointing that U.S. Sen. John Kerry, and so many others in the so-called American Elite look to Europe, and for that matter China as a model for solving problems in the United States. Come to New York and you can meet thousands of people who have left the many countries of Europe and even China to find opportunity and a better life in the United States. Why do they come here: for economic freedom and personal liberty. I think of the words of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address:

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

And as further stated in the Declaration of Independence:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

It is truly disappointing to live among people who when they read those divinely-inspired words don’t receive a chill up their spine, as I did when I wrote them, or even worse scorn them as archaic and out-of-date. Another disappointment is that we now live in a country in which any discerning person would deem it impossible to participate in today’s popular culture. The title of this column, “Disappointment was my closest friend,” comes from a song called Higher and Higher by Jackie Wilson, released in 1967. It’s a devotional song expressing love to a one in a million woman, but it rings like Gospel music and praise of the One Above. Now America has always had its faults; nothing and nobody is perfect. However, the sentiment of the Jackie Wilson song seems genuine, and although not achieving the standard of righteousness, it is uplifting and inspiring. As I’ve written before, today’s popular culture has descended in less than 50 years into vulgarity that defies description. How far we have traveled from Kate Smith singing “God Bless America,” in the 1940s when she rallied the country to defeat the Axis Powers: the Nazis, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan. Perhaps why President Reagan was such a popular president was his sunny disposition. Disappointment did not seem to be in his character despite that he had many difficult life experiences that could have caused him or any person to sink into despair. Tellingly, Reagan was raised and educated before the 1960s, which was an America although riddled with fear due to the Cold War, was also one in which people believed the Cold War was worth winning, could be won and would be won, which it was under Reagan’s watch. I found four quotes on the internet about disappointment that I particularly like:

“You must make a decision that you are going to move on. It won’t happen automatically. You will have to rise up and say, ‘I don’t care how hard this is, I don’t care how disappointed I am, I’m not going to let this get the best of me. I’m moving on with my life.” – Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential. “It was one of those times you feel a sense of loss, even though you didn't have something in the first place. I guess that’s what disappointment is: a sense of loss for something you never had.” – Deb Caletti, The Nature of Jade. “Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy – the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and expectation.” – Eric Hoffer.

And finally, from Pittsburgh legend, Fred Rogers, who from all accounts was genuinely the person who he appeared to be on his television show, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood:

“Part of the problem with the word ‘disabilities’ is that it immediately suggests an inability to see or hear or walk or do other things that many of us take for granted. But what of people who can’t feel? Or talk about their feelings? Or manage their feelings in constructive ways? What of people who aren’t able to form close and strong relationships? And people who cannot find fulfillment in their lives? Or those who have lost hope, who live in disappointment and bitterness and find in life no joy, no love? These, it seems to me, are the real disabilities.” Fred Rogers, The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember.

So be of good cheer, and don’t forget to come over to the Sunny Side of the Street.