The irony of this shouldn't be lost on the fact that the far-right tea party movement of the republican party is running on an "anti-government sentiment" despite controlling the house, senate, supreme court and majority of governorships (I refuse to refer to the tea party as a separate entity than republicans because they only support republican candidates).The consequences would be dire; decades of "progress" lost. Obamacare. The very mild tax reform done by Obama. Gone. Those "loop holes in tax laws" (which, by the way are things like day care and mortgage exemptions). Gone. Environmental laws (Cruz has attacked already). Gone. The deal with Iran. Gone. Roe v. Wade? Equal rights' for gays. Anti-Muslim laws. Help for refugees... the list goes on and on.
If you think I'm trying to scare you - I am. We are this close to this happening. Republicans will never lose the house (check out the way the house districts are drawn in red states with blue areas). Senate will be tough to lose as well because there are a lot of small states population-wise that are republican states. This is a long-term (more than 10 years) thing.
Republicans are voting on fear and "gut". Us non-republicans can continue to point out that our most recent example of a Republican president was George W. Bush (an utter failure), and we are right; but they will only link it to "Obama blaming things on..." arguments. Republicans aren't voting as libertarians (check out Rand Paul's numbers) or as moderates (sorry John Kasich). The voting is emotion. I heard one interview with a democrat caucus attendee who was torn voting for Hillary Clinton and said "his heart said Bernie and his head said Hillary and he went with his head." These republicans who all vote, trust me, ALL VOTE, will all be out there voting against moderates and liberals, they vote with the gut, the fear and the heart. They vote for a Christian ideal (not the type of Christianity shown by Pope Benedict, the kind driven by love, but the kind of Christianity of Phil Robertson).
A lot of Republicans are older. They are not in the primes of their life anymore. They can't physically or mentally do what they used to do. The brain naturally blames someone else (muslims, atheists, liberals... whatever.. it's always someone else's fault). The ideal 1960s America never existed no matter how many times you vote for candidates that are going to cut your pensions, raise your relative tax rates vs. the rich and start numerous military conflicts rather than try to negotiate a peace. Sorry.
And you non-republicans... that's what you are up against. Obama isn't the anti-Christ, he's sort of a mediocre-to-decent president... no single payer, Git-Mo is still open and the government is no more transparent than it was under Bush. But for most people the economy is better, there are jobs (albeit not high paying ones - but I'm sure a corporatist republican government would just kill the middle class more than Obama anyway). No party, democrat or republican is going to produce a better president than Obama is now, especially not in the first two years of the presidency when Obama was not a strong leader. This is the time to start looking very hard at Sanders and Clinton - who can win the general election. Clinton did not cut Obama badly in the primary. She's been soft on Sanders thus far, even softer than she was on Obama. Hillary isn't my ideal president because she is a corporatist (just as much as Obama is). Sure, we'd love Sanders but is that just unrealistic at this point?
I'll paint the bleak picture of a full-republican government control in 3 years from now. No Obamacare... health care companies have no competition so premiums are higher than ever. The rich are richer than they were under Obama. The poor are poorer (but they'll have no trouble getting guns). We are likely at war and still running up a debt. Gas prices are higher because of the war. We are one nation on the evangelicals image of God.
We are screwed.
We are that close to being completely screwed.
No comments:
Post a Comment