It’s that time again – time to make resolutions we won’t keep, spend two weeks writing the wrong date on checks and to look back on the year we’re leaving.
As for 2012, it can’t end quickly enough. It was an awful year for many reasons. Let me count just a few of the ways:
The Fiscal Cliff
This column is due to my editors by noon on Saturday, so there’s a chance Speaker of the House John Boehner has cut some horrible deal with President Obama to avoid the over-hyped fiscal cliff since I submitted it. If that happens it will be yet another reason to gleefully put this year behind us.
This “cliff” is a creation of government that came into being because those in Washington couldn’t accomplish the simple task of being remotely responsible in the past. Those same people are now desperately seeking to avoid the simple cuts they agreed to just a year ago. Only they can’t even agree with themselves.
These politicians of both parties still have no plan, and most have no desire, to deal with the real fiscal problems facing the nation – out-of-control spending and the crushing national debt. The automatic sequester cuts they desperately seek to avoid are but a drop in the bucket that collects drops to make drops in the bucket of government spending.
As for Congress, not since the Twilight Zone: The Movie have so many elderly people played kick the can. Only they’re playing kick the responsibility can on a dead-end street and quickly running out of road. They hope we don’t notice, and judging by this year’s election results, most people don’t. But just because you hadn’t noticed the glass door you walked through doesn’t mean you don’t end up on your backside all cut up and everything. And just because you don’t acknowledge the basic laws of economics doesn’t mean they don’t apply to you.
In case you can’t tell, I don’t have a lot of faith the people who created this mess can solve it. I don’t think they’ll act any more rationally than the people most hurt by President Obama’s policies did on Nov. 6, when they voted to return him to office.
The Media
The only thing worse than Barack Obama’s performance as president was how the wealthy throne-sniffers in the media covered him and covered up for him. Survey after survey showed the Democrat Media Complex was as trustworthy as a junkie hooker jonesing for a fix and swearing that cold sore was nothing to worry about.
Even still, Obama was re-elected by 50.9 percent of the American public who find logic a bridge too far, facts a difficult concept and educating themselves too time-consuming, yet make sure their DVR never misses any show featuring a Kardashian. To say society is being dumbed down is to insult both the dumb and the concept of down. And all year long these fellow travelers in the media were all too happy to keep people’s desire for pap satiated.
If ignorance is truly bliss, 50.9 percent of Americans are the happiest people in the world.
On the plus side, this year saw the end of Newsweek, so it wasn’t all bad.
Andrew Breitbart
This year, we lost a warrior and a leader, and those of us lucky enough to know him lost a friend. The news of Andrew Breitbart’s tragic sudden death hit like a ton of bricks. But while he’s no longer with us, the citizen journalism movement he created and the bravery he instilled in millions of previously silent Americans lives on and grows each day. No victory will ever replace not having your friend around, but we are all better for having either known or simply known of him.
For a glimpse of who Andrew was as beyond the bombast, do yourself a favor and listen to him on the Adam Carolla Podcast by clicking here (or download it from iTunes). Andrew was on the show promoting his excellent book “Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save The World” and the two hit it off right away. They talked politics and pop culture, liberal Hollywood hypocrisy on taxes and Andrew’s love of John Waters movies. They also talked about Arianna Huffington, unions, the failure of communism, sports and the Los Angeles in which they grew up and what has happened to their once thriving and beloved hometown.
If you were lucky enough to be a friend of Andrew’s, this podcast is a great trip down memory lane and a chance to hear the man we knew when the microphones were off and the cameras gone. If you didn’t know him, this is a chance to get a glimpse of the man himself and I highly suggest you take it.
At the end of the show, Carolla has added a clip from the day Andrew died and his reflections on the man and the time they went to dinner and to see the movie Thor.
Andrew is dearly missed, but he lives on in this site and in the spirit of the millions he inspired. Listen to Andrew talk about why he fought and say, “I feel like a kamikaze, but I cannot leave this country like this. I cannot say I didn’t fight.” No one can say Andrew didn’t fight for his country. Our country is better off for his having lived.
Take this chance to be inspired all over again.
Of course there was a lot more that happened this year, both bad and good, but I’ll spare you the details and save that for a book. As for what to expect in 2013, aside from anything the Mayans ever said about anything being laughed at for the rest of eternity, your guess is as good as mine. But one thing is certain – we’re in for fight.
Happy New Year.