Throw out government is the war cry of people too stupid to realize that they need government and too lazy to figure out a way to make it work.
We have an election coming up. What are we going to do about it?
With the election a little over a month away we are faced with the oft desired but usually chaotic existence of three parties. There are the traditional Republican and Democratic parties and then there is the Tea Party. No, the Tea Partiers aren’t Republicans, they are their own thing and they have brought with them their own candidates, candidates who have an agenda which, while it often coincides with that of the Republicans and occasionally, though not too often with that of the Democrats, is pretty much their own. It is unique in that it defies reality and logic.
Everyone thinks the Republicans are going to take at least the House and that well may happen, especially because of the Democrats penchant for screwing up elections but let’s look at what each party has to offer and then we can draw our own conclusions. But before we do, don’t forget one very important fact. No matter how you may hate congress and think they are all a bunch of screw-ups, they didn’t get there by royal decree. They are all there because enough people who are now bitching about them, actually voted for them in large enough numbers to get them elected. So to paraphrase; be careful who you vote for, you just may get him.
What the Democratic candidates want: Mainly to keep their jobs. Not that they all deserve them. Let’s take that clown from, I think it was Nebraska, who wanted the government to pay his state so he’d vote for the healthcare bill. Way to go buddy. That’s definitely the American way. This guy, who obviously had Al Capone as a mentor, has to go even if it means losing both houses.
What the Democratic voters want: All the stuff that Obama promised them and hasn’t yet delivered; an end to the other war, the first one; an immigration bill; Guantanamo closed, just don’t send all those terrorists to our state; an education bill. All were promised and after 20 months none have been delivered. Poor babies, will they have to wait forever?
What the Republican candidates want: Obama gone. A majority in both houses and the subpoena power that goes with it so they can stop the government from functioning for the next two years. They think it worked well the last time, at the end of the Clinton administration, and they think that it will help them stop Obama from accomplishing his goals and give them a shot at unseating him two years from now.
What the Republican voters want: Whatever Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh tell them they should want. That’s how the country got Bush & Cheney for eight years
What the Tea Party candidates want: Depending on which one you listen to they want to cut unemployment benefits because they think this will get people back to work (Rand Paul), they want the president to stop extorting money from BP and have US taxpayers pay the gulf damages (Joe Barton), they want incest and rape victims to be forced to have the babies (Sharon Angle), they’re glad there is global warming and want more of it (Ron Johnson), they want the derivative industry back and bigger on Wall Street (Pat Toomey), they want to take credit for the Stimulus package even though they voted against it (Roy Blunt), they want people to stop masturbating (Christine O’Donnell) speak for yourself baby. Yeah, they are a scary bunch but at least now we know where all the patients went when they closed the asylums.
What the Tea Party Voters Want: Well, they don’t want to pay taxes and they do want a reduced national debt. The last time we found someone who could pull that off we crucified him. They don’t want government but they do want social security, Medicare, police, firemen, schools and good roads. Who do they think provides that stuff? They are running a list of candidates who, if elected, will make the United States a laughing stock around the world. They’re mad as hell but they don’t know why or what they should do about it. Their choice of candidates proves that.
Obama, the fulcrum on which the election will probably turn:
Obama has actually passed an extraordinary amount of legislation in his first twenty months. His biggest problem is that he hasn’t been able to successfully explain this to the general public and he hasn’t been able to bring us back from the economic brink fast enough. The general public has failed to grasp just how successful he has been. Why is this? Is it because they’re not sophisticated enough to grasp just what is going on? Is it because they don’t want to understand because it doesn’t fit their agenda? Or is it because they are easily susceptible to the lies and half-truths of the far right?
A few facts about the country’s condition when Obama took office:
Credit had come to a standstill
Banks had stopped lending
Businesses couldn’t pay bills because their lines of credit had been stopped
GDP had dropped 6%
The economy had lost 1.7 million jobs
Net household income had dropped by $5 trillion the largest drop on record
The Bush administration put us in that position but for the last two years of it a Democratic congress really didn’t do anything to help. They didn’t do anything to worsen the problem, they just didn’t do anything at all and of course, that did worsen the problem. When Obama tried to dig us out of the hole the Republicans did nothing to help. Their only position was “No” and their only plan was to go back to the failed policies of the Bush administration, the policies that had buried us in the first place.
Before Obama had even had a chance to fully address the chaotic mess he’d inherited from Bush he was being attacked from all sides. Now this was to be expected from the bitter, disenfranchised Right but it was more depressing and infuriating to find it coming from those petty, discontented elements of the Left who weren’t bright enough to understand that he couldn’t solve all their personal gripes in the first 15 minutes he was in office.
It’s true that he missed the boat on one very important issue, not making unemployment his primary agenda. It’s also true, however, that in 20 months he accomplished more than Bush 1, Bush 2 and Clinton did in 240 months.