Without a doubt, these past five months have seen veritable tectonic shifts in the world of national politics. What started out as a recovery year for the once-again-defeated Republicans will end with the death rattle of President Barack Obama’s legacy, and with it the chance for another midterm coup against the Democrats in the Senate.
The semester began with all eyes planted on Egypt and Syria. In Egypt, the people’s revolution came full circle, as the Egyptian military responded to the overwhelming demands of the populace and removed Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood from power.
In Syria, we finally learned that Bashar al-Assad had, in fact, used chemical weapons.
But the rebels might have too, so there’s that.
After weeks of childish begging, the administration finally conceded and chose against intervening in the Syrian civil war.
This was largely in part due to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who, in an act worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize, gave us a get-out-of-war-free card by recommending that the international community take control of Assad’s chemical weapon stockpile.
Remember kids, toppling regimes and droning civilians will get you further with the Nobel Committee than actually promoting peace ever will.
Our nation also had to contend with the debt crisis. Culminating in a partial shutdown of the federal government, the decision to not bow to the administration was seen as extraordinarily unpopular. MSNBC pundits had a field day. For a time, the Tea Party brand was wounded everywhere that isn’t a red state.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, led the charge against raising our debt ceiling. However, when met with obstinate Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and the president, who both refused to acknowledge the need for a debate, Cruz was left holding the electorally damning bag.
U.S. citizens were also able to learn more about the horrendous, unconstitutional and downright creepy things that were happening over in Fort Meade, Md. It came to light that our National Security Agency, or NSA, has been violating the privacy of anyone who uses the Internet, particularly Google and Yahoo! users.
So basically everyone.
Even worse, we learned that the NSA experimented with the viability of tracking the cellphone locations of American citizens for intelligence gathering purposes. Just days ago, it was also discovered that the government is actively tracking 5 billion cell locations abroad on a daily basis.
Big Brother sure is busy lately.
Then we came to the big one — what half of Americans have been dreading since its passage and signing into law — the Obamacare rollout.
With more than a year and $600 billion to complete healthcare.gov, the means by which we are expected to enroll in the exchanges, most expected a smooth start, with only a few hiccups here and there. What actually happened was a disaster worthy of direction under Michael Bay.
Plagued with error messages and constant freezing, the website could barely handle single-digit traffic, much less the thousands of people naively hoping that the federal government would keep its word.
What’s more, Obama’s much-filmed promise, “If you like your private health insurance plan, you can keep your plan. Period,” turned out to be a bold-faced lie. With millions already losing coverage on the individual market, it is estimated that anywhere from 50 to 100 million will lose coverage once the employer mandate kicks in next year.
So what remains is an increasingly unpopular president, a government that is further infringing on our civil liberties, politicians who are chomping at the bit for another Middle Eastern war and the prospective loss of millions of health insurance plans.
Merry Christmas, indeed.