Stop Voting for Republicans

My parents were good people, but they might have let sleep with used dry cleaning bags and eat lead paint.  I can’t say for sure.  But even a guy dropped on his head a few too many times can see that voting for Republicans is a bad idea.

Never mind that the GOP openly declares a war on America, pitting “makers” against “takers.”  (That’s you, Grandma, you miserable leech. And thanks for the cookies.)

I won’t name names, but I  hope no one has forgotten the GOP presidential debates already or the goofy things some people say about race, Muslims, pregnancy, and such.  Shut it down!

We are not shutting down this ignorance.  Just the opposite.  We are supporting it.  Tell me, since when is it a good idea to ignore fact and history to the point of wanting to restore a more desperate era 100 years in our past?

Give me a good reason — just one! — why we should follow Boehner, Cantor, McConnell et al down that rabbit hole.  Just one!  Please post it in the comments below.  (I am still waiting for a list of cool Republicans, too…chirp, chirp.)

Let’s look at the most recent GOP scandal:  The Sequester.

Here you have a situation forced upon the president by an entirely uncooperative GOP-controlled congress and they put the blame on the president.  This happens in school yards.  It shouldn’t happen among adults.  What’s worse about this is they get away with it!  Americans have to stop being so plainly stupid.

Republican leaders cannot be as stupid as the American voter.  They see that their policies are destroying opportunity in America, breaking down the American economy, and destroying generations of progress because that is precisely what they want to do.  They want to destroy the America that has done so much for so many and rework it into an “objectivist” utopia where men stand opposing each other at gun point from their tar paper compounds.

Where’s Bachmann’s Thought Police When You Need Them?

Read a newspaper, talk to your friends, go walk down the street…are things better or worse?  More than 30 years of less is more has not worked.  When you strive for less, you get less.  You don’t have to be the smartest guy in the room to see this.  More than smarts it takes courage, a person needs the guts to trust his own experience in the world.

Until someone can present intelligent conservative arguments — ideas organized around reason and facts — I have no more time for backwardness of the GOP.  Our decline is not a bi-partisan issue.

Let’s start by seeing how GOP policy has contributed anything positive in recent decades.  Anything?  Should be a simple enough assignment, but the answer is lost in the emptiness of GOP rhetoric.  There is none.

 

Related articles

• Senate GOP expected to filibuster Democratic plan to avoid sequester as House GOP twiddles thumbs (dailykos.com)
• Mitch McConnell Openly Filibusters Sequestration Replacement Bill (tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com)
• Americans hate Republicans as much as Daily Kos readers do (dailykos.com)
• No one hates Republicans more than we do. Except for other Republicans (dailykos.com)
• GOP rebranding effort hitting a few snags (dailykos.com)
• New Poll Shows Majority Of Americans Think The GOP Is ‘Out Of Touch’ And ‘Extreme’ (addictinginfo.org)
• Why do more and more Americans despise the GOP? It’s the hypocrisy (eclectablog.com)

Debt Ceiling and Fiscal Hostage Crisis: A better analogy

During his press conference yesterday, President Barak Obama explained that Republican demands requiring a match in future spending cuts to cover an increase in the federal debt ceiling is like finishing a meal a restaurant and leave without paying.  This is an imperfect analogy.

“If we don’t cut the cookies next time, I’m not paying today.”

While it is true that people and businesses do indeed negotiate debts and payments after the fact — something many Republicans certainly would be familiar with, perhaps routinely in business for some — the United States government does not, or at least historically has not.  The Republican caucus — again making the mistake of thinking about government as if it were a big private business enterprise — seem to be willing to extend this practice to our fiscal policy.

Republicans are willing to do this not because it is smart practice, but because it helps them achieve their broader goal of cutting government.  Plain and simple.   That simply compounds the disaster the GOP is set on creating for the United States, indeed the world economy as a whole.

There is a somewhat better way to make the restaurant bill payment analogy, nonetheless.

What Republicans are doing is demanding lower future costs in consideration of current payments.  It is even more nuanced than that, however.  Republicans are not saying reduce the current bill or we are leaving and not paying, they are saying sell me less next time I dine at your restaurant or we are not paying.

Imagine you’re the restaurant owner.  You’d think:  Well, ok, order less next when you’re here next time and I’ll gladly serve and charge you less, but pay me now for what you just ordered.

In my previous post I explain why it makes sense for the GOP anti-government strategy to order big and then play games with paying.  It all has to do with tricks to cut government, a failing strategy that ultimately damages our immediate economic recovery.  (NB:  The economy is not the GOP concern nor is the deficit.  Less government is their goal.  Running up debts and deficits actually serves that goal.)

But, in essence, Barak Obama is absolutely correct.  Republicans want to renege on contracts and promises already made unless future contracts conform to their wishes.  Ok, fine…the GOP wants the future to be different, but rather than demand lower prices for what they already have ordered they can simply order something less expensive in the future.  If you look at the restaurant analogy, one has nothing to do with the other.

 

Related articles

• Starving the Beast or Foie Gras? The GOP Deficit Hostage Strategy (mbcalyn.com)
• Republican Senator: GOP Should Hold Debt Ceiling Hostage As Leverage For Medicare Cuts (thinkprogress.org)
• Krugman: Republicans Are Engaging In ‘Hostage Taking’ (huffingtonpost.com)

Starving the Beast or Foie Gras? The GOP Deficit Hostage Strategy

If Republicans hold the position that they will not raise the debt ceiling unless it is matched by future cuts, does that give the GOP incentive to raise the debt ceiling?

Illustrating GOP Tactics

Consider it this way:  Presuming a perpetual state of debts and deficits is not the long-term objective of either Democrats or Republicans, but spending levels are, if Congress raises the debt ceiling now, it provides a short-term concession for a long-term gain.  Dollars approved to pay for accrued debts equals dollars cut from future public investment.  Raising the debt ceiling is, therefore, a perverse way of achieving the “Starve the Beast” strategy.

Or maybe a better analogy should be called a foie gras strategy.  Feed the Golden Goose before slaughtering it and eating its fattened liver.

But in this case we’re really looking at faux gras.  The people of the United States — the collective efforts and benefits of its government — is the Golden Goose being fattened for the slaughter.  Once the goose is dead, no eggs.

In real time…right here and right now…the Republican caucus is threatening to sabotage our nation’s economic recovery based on spending decisions which Congress has already approved.  It is a manufactured funding problem turned into a political tool.   Furthermore, it is bad policy based on bad economics.  Why do we tolerate this?

Related articles

• “Fundamentally Stupid And Dangerous”: The GOP Debt Ceiling Strategy Is “Hostage Taking” (mykeystrokes.com)
• Republican Senator: GOP Should Hold Debt Ceiling Hostage As Leverage For Medicare Cuts (thinkprogress.org)
• Paul Krugman Tells It Like It Is, Calls Debt Ceiling Negotiations ‘Hostage Taking’ (VIDEO) (mscyprah.newsvine.com)
• “Catastrophically Dangerous”: What Happens If The GOP Shoots The Hostage? (mbcalyn.com)
• Business leaders back Obama, not GOP, on debt ceiling (maddowblog.msnbc.com)
• Boehner: debt limit ‘not the ultimate leverage’ (maddowblog.msnbc.com)

 

Raise the Taxes

Two reasons why we should raise taxes.  First, there is little evidence that keeping taxes low will lead to faster economic growth.  Second, we NEED to raise the taxes.

Let’s start with the need.  Over recent decades this country — largely under conservative principles — has managed to under-fund government even as it raised costs (wars, medicare benefits, tax cuts).

Grover Norquist is the news quite a bit recently for his simple-minded anti-tax pledge.  We need to be aware of this.  In the church of small government, Norquist is pope and too many conservatives bend down to kiss his papal ring.

All these so-called independent and intelligent conservatives cower before Norquist.  Impressive.  And it is important to be aware of the pledge, but the goal of the pledge is the real concern.

Lower taxes are not necessarily bad, in fact everyone would agree that lower taxes would be a good thing, if the tax rate were fiscally responsible.  However Grover Norquist’s goal is smaller government for the sake of smaller government.   Conservatives don’t cut government programs because it is a necessary and unfortunate evil, they cut government because less government is their long term goal.

Not Relevant

Why, for example, do Republicans propose raising the age of Medicare benefits qualification?  Because they want less Medicare, if they must have it at all.  (Curious coming from a party that ran against Obama just two months ago warning that Obama would eliminate Medicare!  Truth and facts mean nothing to the misleading political right.   It’s disgraceful.)

So why reduce the taxes?  The argument goes that it will create jobs and growth.  Republicans will tell you that jobs and growth are their long term goal.  If we have growth, tax revenues will increase, and we will be able to pay down our deficit and maintain our government programs.

Republicans are funny.  The anti-intellectual party claims to rely on common sense.  Even here they seem unable to set things straight, however.  Common sense would tell you that the anti-tax, less-is-more approach to economic growth hasn’t worked all that well.

We have the tax cuts which the GOP is fighting to save — we have them RIGHT NOW — and we have had them for years.  Nevertheless we managed to fall into our recession, have struggled to recover from the recession, and job growth remains sluggish.  Ask your favorite GOPer:  If these tax cuts work ,  if more money for “job creators” creates jobs…well, where the hell are the jobs?

Not Relevant

Republicans either know nothing about market demand, the labor market, and the global economy or they are dismal liars.  Sadly, I think the party of the right is both.  They are misleading the public, and in doing so leading us right over the cliff to achieve their anti-government goals.

If you are, in fact, worried about the future for your children and grand children — a politician’s favorite trope — don’t vote for anti-future Republicans.

Let’s apply common sense to the tax cut argument.  First, we see that the tax cuts don’t work, not for the fiscal and economic problem we have now.  Look at what we have with cuts.  Second, look at what higher tax rates did to economic growth in the past.  It didn’t seem to hurt it.  Our most robust years coincide with higher tax rates.  How does that square with GOP rhetoric?

We need to close loopholes, raise some taxes, and find some savings, but all of this alone will not erase our deficit and eliminate our debt.  It won’t alone save the economy.  The numbers don’t add up.  We need growth.  If the economy regains its once-upon-a-time growth, the deficit and debt problems we face will go away rather easily.

Currently the private sector is not supporting the economic growth we need.  Demand for what the private sector can supply is low.  Money needs to circulate again in the consumer markets.

We do, however, need investments in infrastructure, research, education, and other public sector projects that will support future economic growth.  This is government’s role — i.e., our role as the people — to invest in these projects.  It is the derided Keynsian approach to economic stewardship and most economists argue it will have long-term benefit.

Relevant…to the GOP.

So why don’t we do it?  Well, once you get through the misinformation from conservative politicians, it all comes down to what you want government to be.  The right wants less of a government that serves the people.  Government for them is the problem, remember?  It is a problem because they don’t like it.  God, knows why, but I have ideas on this…it is an ideological one, primarily a bastardized theological one, leading with SBC corruption, but that’s another story.  The lemmings are about to go over the cliff, regardless of the ideological influences steer them.

Raise some taxes, but focus on stimulus spending, and we’ll save the future and can even save the misguided.

Related articles

• Conservative Leaders Urge Tough Line on Fiscal Cliff (cnsnews.com)
• Do Tax Cuts Lead to Economic Growth? (nytimes.com)
• Starve The Beast:  Fiscal calamity is the GOP’s plan to shrink government (post-gazette.com)
• Grover Norquist Makes a Fool Out of Himself By Demanding Reagan Era Tax Rates (politicususa.com)
• The Top 4 Whoppers Norquist Tells To Keep Republicans From Defecting (kaystreet.wordpress.com)
• Republicans speak loudly about standing up to Grover Norquist’s pledge, but carry a little stick (dailykos.com)
• Grover Norquist: Beware of a second tea party wave (washingtonpost.com)

If American is Really Going to Become Another Greece it’s Thanks to the GOP

Michele Bachmann might still be hiding under a rock somewhere, but her people are running an ad attacking candidate Jim Graves which they base on — surprise, surprise — bad economics and misunderstood numbers.

I think this one is fun! And funny…only because it is true, perhaps?

In her attack, Bachmann claims that each American owes $51,000 on our Federal debt.  Well, no, not really.  Or maybe I should say, not necessarily.  If we elect Republicans this, that number could very well go much higher, for example, but even then it isn’t the case that each American will get a bill for $51,000 — or higher if the GOP prevails in November.

First of all, the number Bachmann uses divides public debt by the number of people in the United States.  Say there 300,000,000 million people live in the United States, there are not 300,000,000 shares of debt equally divvied up.  I’m surprised, in fact, that the GOP doesn’t whine that the rich will pay more and the very poor will pay less.  But never mind…It won’t be paid back this way.

If Democrats wrest control from the regressive right we could  look forward to a growing economy which would make paying the debt easier.  Economic growth — and inflation — would change the debt in real terms.  Twenty years ago we grew out of debt.   Economic growth changes the value of assets and liabilities in real terms.  Think of it Bachmann’s number this way, somewhat in reverse:  If you had $51,000, would it be worth more today or in 1900?

Bachmann also perpetuates the false claim that this debt is the fault of Democrats.  Sorry.  We had a surplus before unfunded wars, tax cuts, subsidies, and Medicare prescription gifts erased the surplus. We don’t have a spending problem in this country as much as we have a funding problem.

Take the classic Republican way of running up our debt, cutting taxes while raising expenses.  George W. Bush’s mistake in Iraq, for example, wasn’t paid for, in fact it came with tax cuts!   Sounds absurd, doesn’t it?

But look at Mitt Romney — another Republican — he is running on a platform of increased defense spending while promising tax cuts. Do you see a pattern? So how do facts — economic growth and surplus under a Democratic leadership — square with GOP rhetoric?  They don’t.

Here in Minnesota, Erik Paulsen, another poorly-informed GOP “numbers guy”, is misleading poorly informed voters with the same disinformation…

And so is aging John Kline, another GOPer…

There’s a pattern here that is repeating across the United States, and often you hear these conservative politicians warn that the United States is on its way to becoming “another Greece” unless they are elected. Obviously facts don’t bother Republicans…Look at Greece, austerity has weekend the Greek economy.  It hasn’t helped it.  You cannot argue with this.

Fortunately, we’re not Greece.  We manage the US Dollar, still the world’s default currency.  This gives the United States a unique advantage and opportunity, one that we are squandering under misguided austerity arguments.  Data and expert analysis, both here and abroad, argue for the opposite of austerity policies.

So why keep pushing the austerity argument?  People like Bachmann, Paulsen, and Kline cannot be that stupid, can they? Well, maybe they can.  At the very least it is called cognitive dissonance.  Even most of the GOP political elite are not among those most favored by GOP policies…unless they’re afraid of gays and foreigners.

All of this stupidity is really simple.  Conservatives have a chance to roll back government, their real goal.  Financial security for the middle and working classes doesn’t interest them.  Why should it?  The interests of the future serve those who need not worry about backward fiscal policy.  That is simply the price that must be paid to destroy a government of the people, by the people, for the people.

How American is that?  Is sounds kind of Greek to me.

Related articles

• The Austerity Trap (ypervasi.wordpress.com)
• Romney’s Economic Model (nytimes.com)
• Mitt & the Austerity Lies (theyouthcaucus.com)

One More Post About Politics and Then I Am Sticking to Dreams

After this post — for my health and my sanity — I am steering clear, as much as possible, of politics.  Hereafter I am writing about dreams.

But let me make my non-dream thoughts perfectly clear.   The country is in ruin.   Republicans offer no solutions, only petulance and blame.  Republicans need to go.

I know we are all busy, but it doesn’t take a lot of time to sort this out.  Take an hour or two on a Sunday morning and watch the news shows.  Republicans live in a twisted, dark world that makes no sense.  None.  I don’t understand how anyone can watch these programs and see things differently.  Of course there are the ignorant and perhaps they can be forgiven, but I don’t know if we can have patience for that anymore.

On NPR this morning, for example, Boise Public Radio interviewed a mix of people about the upcoming election.  One participant owns a contracting business and she said she cannot hire new workers because of uncertainty and regulation.  She blames it on Obama.

If she plans to run her business based on the wisdom of GOP politicians, my guess is her small business isn’t going to amount to much.  If there is a contract to be gained, you’ll hire people.  But this business owner has been brainwashed by her party’s leadership to think stupidly.  It is sad, and unfortunately ignorance is a powerful obstacle to growth.

The real blame rests with the bad people running the GOP today.  I don’t think it is out of line to question their motives.  Destroying our government has been a long-standing goal for the extreme right.  As the extreme becomes more mainstream we increasingly find dishonesty in conservative rhetoric.

Look, you cannot be informed of the facts and make claims that our nation’s problems belong to Obama and his four-year term as president, a term that saw absolutely no cooperation from Republicans on any issue.

Moreover, I find it hard to believe that you can have any tenure in politics and not see the trends that started with guys like Reagan, Bush, and (yes) triangulating Clinton bearing the blame for where we are today.

Contrary to the facts, Republicans argue that we are over-regulated and over-taxed under Obama and thus we have our national decline.  It is a laughable argument, but one that dishonest conservative politicians preach as gospel and too many followers suck it up as fact.

Our decline began prior to 2008 when we in fact did start a mad rush to dismantle regulation, lower taxes, and get involved in loads of other problems like wars, defunding social services, and privatizing our government.  Government doesn’t serve the people anymore as it did a generation ago.  It serves the few, the corporate interests, and the politicians gaming the machine.

Listen to a Republican speak on Sunday morning.  Flip the channels.  Do it at random.  It is all the same.  Their rhetoric is despicable, I dare say anti-American.  Who do they serve?  They certainly doesn’t serve the meek followers like the Boise contractor who doesn’t understand how economic demand affects hiring decisions.  How does the pursuit of proven failure help the dying middle class which is seeing its fortunes float to an increasingly isolated few?

Is what we are doing today good for future generations?  That is the question that should be asked.  Better generations before us took pride in building a strong and well-functioning society.  We seem to be going in an entirely different direction today, one where you each looks after himself and we all suffer for it.  Is that America’s exceptionalism?

Republicans know better.  Not even the conservative mind can be so hopelessly empty and unsophisticated.  But they wouldn’t be on the national stage selling their lies if they didn’t have an audience of believers.  That is the problem.

Related articles

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• Republicans hit Obama from all sides on response to Benghazi attack (conservativeread.com)
• Clinging To Nonsense: The GOP POV Is Usually Wrong And Thus Irrelevant (addictinginfo.org)
• Ex-GOP Sen. Larry Pressler on supporting Obama: “Veterans very offended” by Romney (salon.com)
• George Romney’s Real Civil Rights Record (thedailybeast.com)
• Voter registration scandal widens (salon.com)
• Who Purveys the Myth of a Small Government GOP and Why (lewrockwell.com)

 

Choosing a GOP Rally Song

Tom Petty Might Have Something to Say About This

We’re getting into election season and we can count on the anti-progressive GOP hijacking the good work of progressive artists to give their campaigns some much-needed excitement and energy.   In fact riling aging rockers is the most consistent thing most Republican campaigns do in America today.

Already this year Romney had to stop using K’naan’s “Wavin’ Flag” at his rallies and Gingrich was asked to stop playing Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger.”  Republicans running into flack from musicians unhappy with them playing their music at rallies is almost a joke, and a yawner at that.  Perhaps it is time the Republicans stop choosing songs from progressive rockers (What’s wrong with Nugent’s “Wang Dang Sweet Poontang”?) and choose from a body of music more fitting to their political message.  I would suggest fantasy.

And seeing that Republicans are all about family, why not choose a family fantasy, one with exciting, colorful images that – on the surface – appear simple.  That is, after all, what the GOP is all about today.  Shallow fantasy that’s easy to swallow.

So my choice for fitting GOP fantasy songs come from the classic film “The Wizard of Oz.”

They’re all great, we only need to choose which would be best.  When you start looking into it, that isn’t the simplest choice to make.  Really, any song from that classic will work, but let’s look for the best.

Let’s start with “We’re off to See the Wizard.”  It kind of sets the theme of the film after all.  It is a brief synopsis and quick overview of the story, kind of like reading Cliff’s Notes.  GOPers will be familiar with this approach of inquiry and fact.

“We’re Off to See the Wizard” ideally fits the GOP message, just because, because, because, because…just because.  You see “We’re Off to See the Wizard” really doesn’t say anything.  There isn’t any reason to believe that the Wizard is either wonderful or even a whiz of a wiz.  He just is one because of the wonderful things he does.  And what does the Wizard of Oz do?  I don’t know.  He just is a whiz of a wiz.  Just because.  And that is precisely the GOP message.  No ideas, just follow us just because…because, because, because.  You get it.  Call it the Whiz of the Wiz trope.  It fits.

I would stop right now and say you can do no better than nominate “We’re Off to See the Wizard,” unless…of course, you consider “If I Were King of the Forest”.

I hate to say it, but Dorothy looks a little Republican in this shot.

Showing that even a cowardly lion may aspire to kingly influence is right in line with GOP individualism, is it not?  All you need to do is puff up your chest, swish your tail and soon both mountains and chipmunks will bow and genuflect.  You don’t really need any plan for greatness, it happens on a wish.  You don’t need a sound economic strategy for a stronger future, for example, you just declare yourself an expert and that’s it, regardless of how wrong you are.  The key is making oneself king.  Pish posh about anything else.

You can see that the choice will not be simple.  Let’s make the decision even more difficult and consider another.  (Any Oz song will do.  We’re looking for the best.)

Don’t overlook the Tin Man’s tender tear jerker “If I Only Had a Heart.”  Of course that classic absolutely must be in the running…but only for its irony.  The Tin Man, after all, wants a heart so he can be “kinda human.”  Whoa!  That hits it.  If today’s Republicans were kind of human, well, we wouldn’t be racing toward ruin under conservative obstructionism and hostage taking.

But it is the irony angle that I like.  It is on par with Sarah Palin trying to co-opt Heart’s “Barracuda”.  Nice try, Fish Lips, but the only thing Palin has in common with a real barracuda is a vacant stare.

Which brings me to my conclusion.  To have a heart, understand irony, be courageous, and NOT be seemingly confused when Tom Petty asks you to stop using “American Girl” without his permission also means you have intelligence.  (At least a little.)  And thus I stop at my choice, my clear winner:  The Scarecrow’s “If I Only Had a Brain.”   This is the most obvious choice for many reasons and in the song I would like see take the lead over all others.

There isn’t a word in the Scarecrow’s song that doesn’t fit the essence of today’s Republican Party, not a word.  It exists as if it were tailor made for the modern conservative campaign.  It is direct and honest – which, of course, poses some problems for any legitimate tea drinking conservative – but perhaps it is time that conservatives come out of the closet, so to speak, and embrace their shortcomings.  They might come out as more sympathetic characters.

scanned from 1900 Wizard of Oz book (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Clearly the song works.  Think about it.  Whenever I hear even the first cackle of Michele Bachmann’s voice, for example, the Scarecrow theme begins to jingle in my thoughts.  It is a pleasant song so this offers a bit of a musical refuge from the loony nonsense stuffin’ head Bachmann inevitably speaks.  Everyone wins.

And if conservatives won’t embrace the song, why shouldn’t the rest of us?  I imagine choruses of better Americans standing in unison, supporting the conservative delegation with a little musical cheer, kind of like caroling, but different.  It isn’t difficult.  “If I Only Had a Brain” is easily hummed or whistled.  In fact, I have developed multiple variations of the theme for my own entertainment.  You can, too!  Hell, lead a “If I Only Had a Brain” group in your community.  Hum a song and save your country.

Below are the words to “If I Only Had a Brain”.  Check them out and tell me if I am wrong in my choice.

I could while away the hours, conferrin’ with the flowers

Consultin’ with the rain.

And my head I’d be scratchin’ while
My thoughts were busy hatchin’
If I only had a brain.
I’d unravel every riddle for any individ’le,
In trouble or in pain.
With the thoughts you’ll be thinkin’
You could be another Lincoln
If you only had a brain.
Oh, I could tell you why The ocean’s near the shore.
I could think of things I never thunk before.
And then I’d sit, and think some more.
I would not be just a nothin’ my head all full of stuffin’
My heart all full of pain.
I would dance and be merry, life would be a ding-a-derry,
If I only had a brain.More lyrics: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/w/wizard_of_oz/#share

Related articles

• Quote of the Day: ‘We Republicans Don’t Have a Lot of Songs to Choose From’ (littlegreenfootballs.com)
• Punk Rock Band Insults GOP Senate Candidate (huffingtonpost.com)
• Sarah Palin Robocalls For Texas Senate Candidate Reportedly Sent In Kansas (huffingtonpost.com)

Iowa Caucus = Tea Party = Who Cares…

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...

I haven’t an editor, an agent, or a future so I might as well say it:  Who gives a flying rip what a bunch of hayseeds from Iowa think about who will be the best choice for a GOP candidate for president of the United States?  Hallelujah and so on…thank god  that overall we are smarter than poorly informed Tea Party patriots living amongst the corn in Iowa.   (Sorry Iowa.)

The Iowa caucus is an embarrassing fraud.  Perhaps I was a little mean-spirited and snobbish to refer to GOP Iowa caucus goers as hayseeds (but they are GOPers, after all…cut me some slack), however it is hard to see how one of the nation’s most politically, economically, and ethnically homogeneous states represents the interests and opinions of country’s conservative citizens.  Seriously…isn’t anyone shrugging this off?  Who cares?

When you look at the GOP options in Iowa, you have the politically right competing with ever more extreme layers of the conservative right.  It is a shameful mess.  Some candidates, like Iowa’s Michele Bachmann, are simply side shows if not freak shows, but even the mainline conservatives vie with one another for the right to kiss the creamy lumpy ass of a Tea Party misanthrope.  Tell me why we should care about that?

Anyway, once the campaign for a GOP candidate gets away from this pathetic charade, a real and more diverse segment of American society will decide who the real players will be.  This is why guys like Mitt Romney have little to celebrate or fear from an Iowa farce, win or lose.  Conservatives will select a guy who literally looks Republican, sounds convincingly conservative, and doesn’t piss off more people than he — yes, he — pleases.  That’s Romney.

Look, these people are sheep…and being a disciplined herd of sheep has served Republicans well.  They literally have marched this country lock-step off the cliff of prosperity into despair.  Why shouldn’t we expect them to march on behind another milquetoast guy like Romney (maybe with exciting Pawlenty panting at his side)?  The bottom line is the Iowa caucus is a flim flam shim sham…anyone who cares, cares too much about political theater.

Let’s get to the convention and watch these puppets punch it out.  Until then, I am supporting the Ron Paul independent ticket.  Go Ron!

Related articles

• Maddow: What The Undecided Iowa Caucus Really Means (huffingtonpost.com)
• Does the Iowa Caucus Matter? (myfoxphoenix.com)
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Super Losers

Super Losers.

It is no surprise that the congressional “Super Committee” did not propose a plan for reducing our national deficit.  And it is time to stop pretending this is a bi-partisan problem.  It isn’t.  The GOP is to blame.  Period.

Republicans are beholden to special interests, not tax paying Americans.  Anti-Americans like Grover Norquist have hijacked our government and call the shots.  There is no comparison on the Democrat side.  None.

For decades this country has not had a spending problem, it has had a funding problem.  As taxes have been cut, our public services have been gutted.  The results have been disastrous.

More and more people are either in poverty or dangerously close to it, as many as 100 million or more.  Real wages for most Americans are flat or in decline.  Meaningful economic growth increasingly happens overseas, leaving Americans with fewer prospects for the future.  Still conservatives tell us that we need to continue to do more with less even as they support policies that give more to people who have the most.

On almost every measure, America is in decline.  Yet Republicans want us to believe that the policies they support — the very same policies that have ruined so much — are the solution to the very problems those policies create.

If we are going to square our nation’s bottom line, we need a balanced and intelligent approach.  This includes taxes.  We need to invest in our future, not cut it.  Republicans haven’t any interest whatsoever in a balanced solution.  They want everything their way.  You cannot negotiate with this kind of ignorance.

The solution is in the future and as it looks like it needs to be Repbulican-free.

Related articles

• Steve Kroft To Grover Norquist: ‘You’ve Got Them By The Short Hairs!’ (crooksandliars.com)
• Sen. Bernie Sanders: Democrats, Stop Caving In (huffingtonpost.com)
• Republicans Campaign On Failure Of Super Committee (huffingtonpost.com)

Making Us Proud to Be Americans

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Republicans have a way of making Americans look…well, stupid.  You know I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, show me an informed and intelligent Republican and I’ll show you a liar.  It is difficult to see it any other way.  Facts and reality mean nothing to them.  Experts are ignored.  Seriously, I mean who has time for people like scientists and economists, right?

Two quick points then I have to go and lose money in a poker game.

First, the quality of leadership in the GOP clearly is in decline.  Even Republicans have a tough time supporting this round of  GOP presidential candidates.  Republicans are beholden to myth and superstition.  They answer to a political dogma that is illogical as much as it is against decades of progress in this country.  You might call them the real anti-Americans.

But second — and more importantly — these knuckleheads are supported by millions of American citizens living with the consequences of their political backwardness.  This is called cognitive dissonance, a fancy way to say stupidity.  Voting against your own best interest doesn’t seem all that wise, does it?

Take Herman Cain, for example.  He supports a tax plan that will raise taxes on almost everyone who is likely to vote for him if he is given the chance to stand as the GOP candidate for president.  The irony here exists at several levels.  Crazy contradictions in rhetoric and action.  Republicans claim to oppose tax increases, but even as Cain promises to raise taxes he remains popular.  He’s a tax and cut Republican.

And that anti-expert, anti-intellctual streak that runs through the Republican horde is likely serving Cain well, too.  Today, for example, Cain incorrectly suggested that the Taliban is in Libya and threatening to take over governing there.  Never mind the mistake.  Who cares?  Republicans do this all the time.  It’s almost a perverse form of due dilligence among conservatives to find a story and get it wrong.

I don’t know…the story about Cain’s misunderstanding of Libya really rubs me the wrong way today.  It is an enough is enough situation.  As a Democrat, I’m almost offended that the opposition has become so misguided and careless.  Where are the responsible grown ups over there?  Stop putting clowns on the stage and start taking things seriously.