Voters are angry We can see this and polls tell us the same story but what are they angry about? This is the question that tells us which Americans are worried about their country and which one are worried about their personal projects.
69% of all voters say they are angry about the fact that government works only for those in power and does nothing for the average guy. 77% of Democrats are angry with the system and 63% of Republicans feel the same way but that’s where the similarities end. The GOP voters are angry about illegal immigration, religion slipping out of public life and the acceptance of gay and lesbian rights while only 12% of Democrats agree with them and the rest feel that the economic failure of the system is to blame for most of our ills,
This difference shows the basic chasm between the voters of the two parties. The Democratic voters want the elections to solve political and governmental problems while the Republican voters want the election to solve their personal problems. That shows a significant difference with how each group views the role of government. What the hell does government have to do with religion slipping out of public life? Religion doesn’t belong in public life. Religion is between an individual and his God. The founders of this country specifically tried to keep religion out of government when they wrote the constitution. What these evangelistic voters want is really a Christian caliphate. They want Islam, with a crucifix.
The point of this article is not to assail the personal wants of this or that voter but to point out that many of those on the Right have voted for certain congressmen because they have addressed these personal wants instead of addressing the problems that stall the nation. In doing so, they got the kind of congressmen they thought they wanted, and what they ended up getting, the heart of The Freedom Caucus is now busy saying no to everything in sight and keeping the government from functioning. So now the voters are angry again, but instead of looking to those candidates who could represent good government they are once again looking to the insult comics or the religious fanatics to get what they want.
Trump and Carson with their appeals to the immigration fanatics and the religious true believers are the flavor of the day. Carson who wouldn’t know the truth if it were nailed to his nose and Trump who thinks that all he has to do is say it and it will happen are the emptiest of barrels but the far, far Right loves them. It boggles the mind that Carson, smart as he is supposed to be, is dumb enough not to understand that by running for president, he has exposed his entire life to serious scrutiny. Every time he gets caught in a silly lie he tries, unsuccessfully to wiggle out of what he has previously said or published. He still, despite his crumbling stature, has the backing of the true believers. That in itself is unbelievable as is Trump’s popularity with the base, despite his inability to formulate any kind of plan other than “good management,” for the future.
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The President drove the last nail into the heart of the Keystone Pipeline the other day and it brought the whole controversy back into the news. The GOP made a big stink; the principal argument being that it would cause the oil to be moved by rail and therefore endanger towns along the route. This is a theory with some validity, having been illustrated last year by the oil train that almost destroyed a whole town. This would be a valid complaint if it were not for the premise that this particular oil should not even be extracted from the ground. Yes it’s dangerous to transport by rail but it’s just as dangerous through a pipeline that runs through the largest aquifer in the Midwest. Anyone who has done even minimal study on pipelines, knows unequivocally, that it isn’t a question of will pipelines spring a leak but how big a leak will they spring.
And in answer to the critics, no, this move will not, by itself, save the planet but it will be a part of what will hopefully, be a united front against all drilling for oil. Fossil fuels are bad for the planet, period. You don’t have to be a scientist to understand this all you have to be is a person trying to breathe next to an oil or coal furnace. The only reason we are still using fossil fuels is that they make more money for the greedy oil and coal barons than does the switch to solar or other less poisoning fuels. That will change but we can’t just sit around and wait for it.
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The big debate went from how to deal with the Middle East to how to deal with refugees. We have not, in this instance, done our job. Despite the attacks on Paris we should take in more refugees. The number 65,000 has been mentioned. This is nothing in a country of almost 350 million people. This is like adding two people to the audience of a Stones concert. The rabid Right has already attacked the idea of taking in these poor souls and now after the Paris attack they will be frothing at the mouth, but the reality is that we have the resources and the money to set up holding areas until we investigate each and every one of these refugees before admitting them. Marco Rubio has brought up a valid point when he stated that there is no way to investigate many of them because there is no longer a functioning Syria to call. This is true but it doesn’t eliminate the ability we have to hold said refugees in a humane environment until their backgrounds can be checked by whatever means. If they cannot be checked, we will hopefully return them to a country that has been freed of war.
Sure we’re speaking about refugee camps and that’s never good but it’s better than where they are now. And let’s be realistic about our cowardly fear of terrorists. No terrorist is going to put himself into one of those camps for two years in the hope that he will get into the country, when all they have to do is get a tourist visa and fly in to one of our many airports. Patience is not usually the virtue of the fanatic.
We are currently spending billions on Homeland Security and safely handling refugees is part of their job. Maybe they could cut down on some of the duplicative operations on which they waste so much money and use that money for a functional purpose.
Marco Rubio, who doesn’t want to let in any refugees, wants to spend another trillion bucks on our military budget. Maybe instead of adding more battle ships and growing the regular armed forces we could use some of that money to protect the homeland and bring in some safe refugees.
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The fact that we haven’t leaned anything in regard to how to deal with an al Qaeda or ISIS is made brilliantly clear by listening to Jeb Bush this Sunday (Crock of shit alert!), when he spoke to destroying ISIS and then showing the rest of Islam how to live peacefully. He obviously didn’t pay any attention to his brother when h was in the White House.
If there is one single lesson to be learned from Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria it is that we cannot destroy a nation and then expect it to follow our lead in rebuilding.
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I see where a female terrorist was blown up during a raid in Paris. This is the most mystifying aspect of the whole Muslim religious war. Islam is a religion that despises women, treats them like dirt or worse; slaves. Why would any woman give up her life for this degenerate creed?
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It drives me crazy when a serious reporter like Chris Jansing, a woman who is definitely making her reportorial bones with her on-screen coverage of the Paris attacks makes a deliberately stupid statement. I’m referring to her swipe at Obama for calling ISIS the JV. One would have thought she was intelligent enough to know that ISIS was the JV when Obama referred to them as such.
One would also think that she was smart enough to know that junior varsities grow up to be varsities. That is and always has been the way of the world. This snarky low blow has become typical of those members of the Right who have actually learned to read, but I am surprised and disappointed to hear it coming from a reporter who seemed to have great potential.
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We hear a lot of baseless noise from the Republicans about how they would do a better job with the economy but all one has to do is look at the numbers to know they are just blowing steam. If you look at the last four Presidents, two Democrats and two Bushes you see some amazing numbers. Bush senior grew jobs annually by an average of 600,000, Clinton 3,800,000, Bush the smaller by less than 100,000 and Obama, climbing out of Bush’s disaster, still by 1,250,000. Those are pretty stunning differences, especially if you listen to the malarkey coming out of GOP mouths. The overall unemployment rate dropped more than 3% during Clinton and Obama administrations but it rose 2% during Papa Bush’s term and 3% during Dubya’s. The Republicans like to say that government’s don’t create jobs, the private sector does, but the only jobs created during either Bush term were government jobs. So I guess if we want any good news about employment we had better elect a Democrat next year.