Hey there folks...
Yes I am still alive and kicking. I know, I have not posted in a while. Sorry about that. I don't really have a good excuse other than
"well, I've been busy...ya' know?" Which really isn't all that good of a reason. Truth be told, after watching the start of the U.S. 2012 Presidential election campaign kick off last month, with the Iowa straw poll. I wanted to blog about it, but every time I would try to write something, I'd just get annoyed and develop a headache.
Why? Because, as the 2012 campaign begins, it looks like United States is once again poised to prove our stupidity to the rest of the world.
The current crop of Republican GOP candidates are at best, mindless dolts who honestly think destroying the middle class, and turning America into a third world nation of a few have-it-all's and a mass of have-not's is a good idea.
Or, they are at worst, Anti-American right wing theocratic wingnuts, who truly hate our freedoms as much as any Islamic extremist ever did. At this point, it is honestly hard to tell which is the case.
The most recent Republican to throw his ten gallon hat into the ring is current Texas Governor, Rick Perry. Who, among other things, thinks creationism should replace teaching evolution in schools, and thinks that God is telling him to run for President.
People over here on this side of the Atlantic ask me if the Republican Party could be even remotely serious about nominating "another one". Meaning another Texas Governor with a frail grasp on reality and a penchant for confusing the voices in his head with divine instruction. I'd like to assure them that America is not THAT stupid, but the most recent CNN Republican presidential poll, suggests that at least, on the Republican side, America may be just that stupid...
According to a CNN poll released this week, Perry has a commanding lead among Republican voters nationally.
The rest of the crop of GOP candidates is just as much fun. You have former Pennsylvania Senator Rick
Santorum, and Minnesota Congresswoman
Michelle Bachman. Both of whom think the greatest crisis facing America, is all those Gay couples getting married. According to both Santorum and Bachman, recent moves towards marriage equality in the U.S. are responsible for; (among other things...) Unemployment, the recent earthquake that rattled the American East Coast, Hurricane Irene, and bad weather in general.
Not to be left out, Perry, along with former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney; ( who up until Rick Perry joined the field, was himself the GOP front runner). Quickly signed on to a
"pledge" by the right wing hate group "The National Organization for Marriage", basically promising to ban all civil rights for LGBT Americans, and make fighting for those rights a crime.
If that isn't enough fun and frolic for you , according to the entire GOP field, ALL forms of
government regulation are bad.. very very bad. Especially anything that regulates what corporations can do to their employees, their customers or the environment. Oh, and anything that protects workers, consumers or the environment is now referred to as
"job killing" in all GOP/Fox News talking points.
Along those same lines. Anyone who is in the top one-tenth of one percent in terms of income in the United States, according to the GOP should not have to pay taxes.
The reason being , the uber-wealthy are all magical
"job creators". And paying taxes might hurt their feelings, and then they wouldn't create all those wonderful jobs that they did during the Bush years thanks to those magical tax cuts... Oh, wait, I guess that didn't actually happen.
Not ones to be held back by facts, the GOP candidates are once again preaching the gospel of
"trickle down economics". If we just give more money to those who already have lots of money, then it will all somehow
trickle down to everyone else. (Remember that one from the Reagan years? )
But according to the GOP, we can't
require the "job creators" to use all that money to create jobs, because that would be unfair. So when the top one-tenth of one percent takes all that money and just pockets it, creating no jobs whatsoever, folks like Perry and Ron Paul will insist it's not really their fault, it's (wait for it... ) according to GOP hopefuls, all that
Government Regulation that has gotten in the way.
These people are seriously insane. So if the current 2012 GOP field is so utterly wacktacular, why am I worried? Simple, I am worried because the American electorate has a ridiculously short attention span and a track record voting against their own best interests.
Add to that, the painful truth that President Obama's first term has been one long experiment in poltical weakness.
The Republican Party discovered early on, the sad and very inconvenient truth that President Obama, is a good man, an intelligent man, who is
very weak. President Obama is not a Leader, he is a negotiator, and not a very good one. On issue after issue, from Health Care Reform, to Wall Street Reform, Congressional Republicans, found that President Obama, would accept a really bad agreement, if they simply threatened to leave him with no agreement at all.
As a result, the GOP learned very quickly , that it was all too easy to back the President into a corner, where his natural urge to "find common ground", meant he would abandon his stated principles and simply give in. All the while making very eloquent statements about the value of bi-partisanship.
So now we have the beginning of the 2012 election campaign where President Obama's one major accomplishment, health insurance reform, is in fact a motivating issue for
Republicans, who are now campaigning on the "
I promise to repeal Obama-care" bandwagon.
Obama-Biden 2012, will be a tough sell to many Americans, who vote based on one question and one question only;
"Are you better off now than you were 4 years ago?" The answer for far too many Americans is sadly,
no.
It doesn't bode well, when the only real answer the Obama Administration has come up with so far to that stark reality, is to say;
"But...think how much WORSE it COULD have been if we hadn't been here!"
It's like telling someone who is unemployed,
"Hey! At least you don't have malaria!" Factually true, but unhelpful.
My fear is President Obama will simply campaign like he did in 2008, and the American electorate will do exactly what he told them to do back then... Vote for change.
