Cross-posted at Winning Progressive
As you probably heard, John Boehner (R-Tanning Salon) today released the Republicans’ “pledge” to inflict America with a warmed over version of the Bush Administration policies that drove our economy into the ditch. The plan has been widely panned, as demonstrated by these reviews that were collected by Speaker Pelosi’s office.
Nothing more really needs to be said about the pledge. But I did want to highlight one line that I found quite amusing coming from Republicans: “Rising joblessness, crushing debt, and a polarizing political environment are fraying the bonds among our people and blurring our sense of national purpose.”
Rising joblessness? That was caused by the Bush Recession and Republican opposition to any effort to overome it. The economy has actually been creating jobs recently (though not fast enough), as shown in this chart.
Crushing debt? Reagan and Bush both caused the debt to skyrocket and the Republicans want to add another $1.3 trillion to it for tax cuts for the wealthy elite.
A polarizing political environment? A party that is aligned with tea partiers and birthers really cannot talk about polarization, especially when they have rebuked every Democratic effort to reach across the aisle.
I did note that the Republican plan says “Draft” on it. I guess that means after the election they’ll add their plans to privatize Social Security and eliminate Medicare.
Wanted to let you know the formatting appears ok on all your recent diaries. Seems there was just a weird glitch with that one diary.
Keep up the good work.
Thanks. I appreciate you letting me know!
OK here as well (Firefox).
Most Americans do not take seriously the old adage that “the Republican Party is the Party of the wealthy”. Unfortunately many middle class Americans identify with the correctness of obscene wealth as their own personal envy obscures any sense of distance in class between the super rich and their own pathetic positions in American society. The irony in the situation of these folks lies in the fact that while they yearn to be embraced by the oligarchs of American wealth, the very collective that they so fervently worship is busily preparing to cut their heads off, discarding them as so much disposable trash. The tragedy is double for it has been written before.
I recall many years ago a group of similar middle class Americans counted themselves among those proud supporters of Richard Nixon’s call for “Law and Order” before he was elected President. Nixon vowed in his campaign speeches that if elected he would “take back America’s streets”. I argued with many of my fellow workers, most of whom were engineering personnel, that Nixon was a dedicated Republican fiscal conservative and if elected he would kill the very contracts that was keeping them employed. In spite of my arguments, they organized and hosted pro-Nixon rallies right up to the general election. Less than 12 weeks after he was sworn in as President Richard Nixon issued an executive order mandating huge budget cuts to NASA. Simultaneously all of those previously enthusiastic Nixon supporters started cleaning out their desks and emptying out their offices as they prepared to leave the facilities. Since I was included with them, I didn’t have any time to stand around and “I told you so!’ All of the pre-election bravado was replaced with long sour faces.
From my perspective, if college trained normally responsible people failed to discern the possibility of “reaping what they sow” when they went to the polls; then I hold out little hope that the current middle class voting population will be able figure out the true motives behind the Pledge to America from the Republican “Baggers”.
The reason why the middle class Republican/Libertarian/Baggers are so belligerent is they assume that a future Republican orchestrated bankrupt America will somehow magically exclude them and the personal welfare of their family members. It’s what I call the “Daddy Warbucks’ syndrome”. You know, it’s that servile attitude which clings to the notion that the King will always take care of his faithful dedicated subjects.
Never before in the history of the United States has so much responsibility been placed upon the shoulders of the individual voter. With the oligarchy of wealth in control of the virtually all of the communication media and channels here in America, American voters will have to make wise decisions without the usual support one expects in a Democracy. In addition to being bereft of reliable truthful information, they will also have to overcome the two of the most deadly sins for a voter, i.e., “ignorance”and “apathy”. As America has proven in her history, nothing is ever impossible.
Progressives need to turn out and vote. We can’t sit this one out.