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Perhaps the most laughable lie consistently told by Republicans is that they favor limited government. They will tell you this just before they gain power and then proceed to create massive deficits expanding the size of government to new levels never seen before. Worse yet, their expansion of government does not refer to the number of people they help, rather it pertains to the expansion of power and wealth to the few while leaving the masses with less and less. Then they are promptly run out of office and Democrats are left to take the blame for their mess. Not to say Democrats are blameless because they are complicit puppets who have the power to stop this madness but they never do. They like it when the Republican Party implodes because it energizes Democratic voters who massively outnumber Republican voters. If we had a one hundred percent turnout in every national election, Republicans would never hold the White House or more than twenty-five percent of the Senate ever again. These are not data based numbers, rather my opinion, but my opinion does have some factual evidence to support it. Republicans are consistently trying to make it harder for people to vote, and when there is low turnout, Republicans usually win. High turnout usually means the Democrats win. Therefore higher turnout would logically give the Democrats even more votes and more power in Congress. The editorial in the Economist, a conservative magazine, agree with me.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/lexington/2012/09/art-voter-turnout
Since
the Republicans have such an abhorrent record on implementing limited
government, we must ask what they mean when they say they are for limited
government. They certainly aren't for
limited government when it comes to military expansion, illegal and warrantless
wiretapping of American citizens, subsidizing farming, subsidizing Wall Street
banks, subsidizing oil and the fossil fuel burning industry, subsidizing the
insurance industry, marriage rights, drug law enforcement, undocumented
immigrants, unlawful detainment of American citizens, and whether or not a woman can have an
abortion. In fact, the only time they
seem to support limited government is when the government is placing
restrictions on their corporate polluting friends. They don't like it when government helps and protects
the environment, the poor, the middle class, the elderly, disabled people, labor,
the financial markets, and the post office.
The Republican's ultimate goals have nothing to do with the size of
government. Their ideology does not have
anything to do with the Constitution or the framers of said document. The Republicans job is to maintain power and
control so they can move money allocated for the good of the public to their
friends in the private corporate world.
The goal of Republicans is to privatize everything that the government
currently does. Except, when private
corporations need help from the government, then the Republicans are the first
in line handing more of the middle class' tax dollars to the rich.
Now,
the Republicans can only fool some of the people some of the time, so they need
to find ways to stop the vast majority of Americans from voting. They know the masses vote won't be for
them. In the past, conservatives had
resorted to poll taxes, voter disenfranchisement, and voter intimidation. Hence the implementation of the Voting Rights
Act in 1965. The more power and control
the Republicans lose, the harder they fight.
It has taken Barack Obama winning the presidency twice to really make
them go off the deep end. Republican
governors all over the country did what they could to create unfair voter ID
laws, limit the availability of days and polling places, and in Florida in the
last election, voters had to stand in lines for several hours to be able to
cast their vote. Well in 2012, it still
didn't work, and they actually strengthened voter resolve. Even so, the vast majority of the poor and
undereducated did not cast a vote. The
vast majority of young people did not cast a vote. Republicans are still winning to a certain
extent.
If
control of government went by popular vote, the Democrats would control the
House, Senate, and the Presidency.
Republican governors have gerrymandered the districts in their state to
such an extent that they can still maintain control of government while losing
elections. While Democratic governors
use some of the same tactics, it isn't anywhere near the degree that Republicans
do it. Remember, Democrats need more
voters to come out, not less. I think we
would agree that more people involved in the political process is a good
thing. Well, it is a good thing as long
as you are not a Republican running for national office.
The
small versus big government tagline is something that Republican voters truly
believe exists. They believe that the
Democrats are trying to enact "wealth redistribution" by taxing the
rich and giving to the poor. It makes me
feel warm and fuzzy inside whenever I pretend this is true. But, facts are facts, and under the current Democratic
leadership the top two percent see their wealth grow exponentially while the
middle class and the poor slip further and further away. The current Democratic President has massively
slashed taxes and discretionary spending, and while we did have one tiny tax
increase on the top one percent, it simply brought them back to the tax level
they paid in 2002. Never mind that one
of the greatest periods of growth in the history of our country saw the top
marginal tax rate at ninety-one percent.
And, guess what? There were still
plenty of wealthy people. Everyone else
simply had a chance at a reasonably comfortable life (unless you were a
minority), but we can't have it all I guess.
The very wealthy have become more wealthy in every single decade in the
history of this country while the middle class has seen their income and wealth
at a lower level than it was forty years ago.
This trend is not only continuing under a Democratic president, it is on
steroids. In 2012, corporate America
pilfered another seven hundred billion dollars from the American people. If Barack Obama is a socialist, he is the worst
socialist who ever lived.
The
American people vastly agree that they want to see Washington get together to
solve their issues and problems. They
want to see Democrats and Republicans come together for the greater good. And, while the Democrats are not the ideal
liberal lions Republicans try to paint them as, at least when they come to the
table their goal is not to "make government small enough so they can drown
it in a bathtub." That is a direct
quote from Grover Norquist, the architect of the "no-tax pledge," a
pledge that several Republican senators and representatives signed saying they
wouldn't raise taxes under any circumstances even if it makes complete sense to
do so. If we are attacked, if millions
of people are killed or removed from their homes, if the damn sky falls, they
will still refuse to raise taxes to allow the government to operate at a sufficient
level. As liberals we must ask
ourselves, why would we want Democrats for one second to try to reach out to a
political party who makes no qualms about destroying the duly elected
government of the United States.
The
Republicans have been so egregious in their attack on government, in Michigan
the Republican governor, Rick Snyder, has passed two laws (one was struck down)
to actually allow him to appoint an emergency manager over a city or county as
he sees fit. That emergency manager has
complete control over the elected leaders and the people. They can remove any leader they wish and
replace him or her without the consent of the people. This is not just your normal power grab, it
is anti-constitutional treason. Not one
Republican senator or congressman has had anything negative to say about
it. Oh, and in case you were wondering,
yes, every single town where these emergency managers have been placed have
been predominately African American. Not
only that, twelve of the thirteen cities where this has occurred have stayed
the same or gotten worse.
So
I ask again, shouldn't we be worried when the president shows a greater effort
to work with Republicans on the budget than he does the Progressive
Caucus? Why are the voters insisting
that the President compromise with the same crowd who wants to give their
future retirement money to Wall Street hedge-fund managers? Why would they deem it acceptable that
Democrats sit down with Republicans when their budget is designed to steal their
money and property in order to make the rich more wealthy? If there were ever a real-world application
of "wealth redistribution" this is certainly it.
The
Progressive Caucus has a budget on the table that is designed to create seven
million jobs in the first year of implementation. It is also designed to have full employment
in this country within five years. Their
budget is designed to repair the crumbling infrastructure, education, the
environment, and American quality of life.
It is designed to do all of these things before we cut any essential
government programs. We can live with
short-term debt and deficit, but we can never pay down that debt if the country
isn't working. If America were a patient
in a doctor's office, the Progressives would have the cure for America's
disease, the President and moderate Democrats have the drugs necessary to keep
America medicated and limping along to a slow death, and the Republicans have a
gun to America's head just waiting for the President to allow them to pull the
trigger.
Looking
at America like a sick patient is a reasonable analogy because America does
have a long-term debt cancer. But, it is
a cancer that America can live with and still have a prosperous life. It isn't the first time we have had this
cancer, and we have kicked it before.
The problem this time is that America also has pneumonia also known as a
jobs crisis. If we don't cure the
pneumonia first, America will die long before the cancer gets us. Once America has mass employment again, then
we can address the long term debt with the extra money we will have. Because, unlike giving money to rich people,
when you give it to the poor and middle class they put it back into the
American economy. They pay taxes on that
money to the government. They don't
shelter it in the Cayman Islands ala Mitt Romney.
President
Obama has compromised with Republicans on almost every single piece of
legislature Congress has passed and he has signed into law. To reward his efforts, he gets a straight
party line vote time and time again.
That vote is usually preceded by an unnecessary undemocratic silent
filibuster. President Obama gave away
the farm in his first two years to the same group who systematically and
purposefully destroyed the American economy.
Despite their best efforts, in many ways the economic outlook of the
country has improved. But, it is still
very rough for those who have nothing.
They are continuously asked to sacrifice and give for their country and
fellow human being while the extremely wealthy are coddled and protected from
the nasty economy. They are protected so
well, their stock portfolios are through the roof not surprisingly right after
they talked many Americans into cutting and running after losing billions of
dollars. They took their homes and they
took their livelihoods. They moved their
jobs overseas. And, if that wasn't
enough, they decided to lecture America on personal responsibility all while
receiving over seven trillion dollars in unpaid loans and gifts from the American
government. But, no need to worry, my
Republican friends have sent their favorite "small government"
politician to Washington! I am sure Lucy
won't pull away the football this year.
So
Mr. President, you have a choice. You
can stand by the Progressive agenda. You
can reap the benefits of large job growth.
You will be remembered as the guy who lifted up the middle class and
poor. Or, you can give the Republicans
the cuts they want to Medicare, Social Security, housing, the postal service,
libraries, public works, health care, police and law enforcement, energy, and
labor. And, you can do it for a few
tax-loophole closings, but in the end, the American people are going to
remember that they crumbled while you were in charge. Also, you will barely receive enough
Republican support to pass their own plan.
Eventually the high voter turnout will be no more. Big bad Republicans won't be good enough to
scare people straight. The people won't
care enough to cast a ballot for the next guy who says, "Change has come
to America!"
