Electorate's short-term memory
Well, the GOP outspent the Democrats by a more-than two-to-one margin and that cash paid off big time!
Sixty House seats went to Republican candidates, and GOP water-carriers claimed six seats in the Senate.
It was, by all accounts, an historic vote because of the turnout (huge for a midterm election) and the number of seats won by the minority party.
But, well, fact is, the Democrats let this kind of thing happen, actually fueling their own demise with bonehead political moves and short-sighted strategies that leave voters cold. The health care bill was a mess designed largely by Republican House members to sink under its own bloat. And the Democrats mindlessly voted to pass the thing, without much thought or examination of its particulars.
They (Democrats) put me in mind of abused, terrorized dogs.
Eager to please their GOP "masters" for the sake of harmony or deal-making, Democrats roll onto their backs, pee on their bellies and whimper for affection, even as they their GOP "owners" beat and brutalize them.
It's sad, really. The GOP is ruled by mean-spirited, callous, greedy plutocrats who could care not at all for the suffering of the "common man;" yet the electorate, seemly hypnotized by GOP rhetoric, votes for the sadistic sociopath who beats his "dog." Weird!
How else can one explain our electorate's propensity to vote against its own best interest?
The Republican agenda, loudly proclaimed by its proponents, is to destroy social programs that help the nation's least wealthy, and bolster the "rights" of the wealthy – to the exclusion of the majority's needs.
Republicans fought against pay raises, despite the fact that middle income Americans had not seen an increase in pay for more than 20 years and whose paychecks fell behind the cost-of-living index 10 years before.
The Republican goal of dismantling the recently-passed health care bill will, if they're successful, put health care delivery back into the hands of the insurance industry.
And that means that people whose incomes don't exceed at least $1 million annually will find themselves dying on filthy gurneys in the halls of overcrowded hospitals because their insurance claims will be denied without recourse. Why should we pay for the health care of someone else, eh? F$@# 'em! That's the GOP motto.
And when the needless dying begins in earnest, the idiots who voted to put the Republicans back in power will still blame it on "liberals" despite all the facts pointing to the exact opposite conclusion.
Voters are like a drunk who knows that booze is killing him, but still raises his shot glass, toasts the wonder of life, and sucks down the 90 proof poison.
People, it seems to me, cast their votes based on delusion, not reasoning.
It's a pretty good trick though, I must say! One cannot help but admire the chutzpah of the GOP. They lie right to the camera. And if they're caught in a lie, in most cases, they simply claim "not to recall" whatever signature or audio or video evidence is put forth to support the accusation of lying. And the faithful public sighs and retorts, "it's those damned liberals ruining the country!" As if to say, if only we'd let the GOP lie and lie and lie and get away with it ALL THE TIME, things would be great. But those damned liberals who exercise their quaint notions of honesty, clear conscience, and loyalty to the Constitution and to the people they serve gum up the works!
Trickle-down economics was proven to be fallacious reasoning. It doesn't work because the rich like to hold on to their wealth and don't give a damn if 30,000 or 100,000 people, or more, lose their jobs because of downsizing or moving a corporation to a foreign country that offers slack tax laws, non-existent environmental laws, and plenty of cheap labor. But a lot of people still cling to the notion that Ronald Reagan's "trickle-down" trick was the best thing since sliced bread, even as their pink slips are arriving in their mailboxes.
Well, congratulations to the GOP and its candidates. It will be interesting to see whether they make anything of their political wins, or whether, as history shows, they'll revert to type and trample the poor, middle class and disenfranchised people in our nation, while sipping champagne on Lear jets that fly them to their latest tax-free, corporate junket.
Sixty House seats went to Republican candidates, and GOP water-carriers claimed six seats in the Senate.
It was, by all accounts, an historic vote because of the turnout (huge for a midterm election) and the number of seats won by the minority party.
But, well, fact is, the Democrats let this kind of thing happen, actually fueling their own demise with bonehead political moves and short-sighted strategies that leave voters cold. The health care bill was a mess designed largely by Republican House members to sink under its own bloat. And the Democrats mindlessly voted to pass the thing, without much thought or examination of its particulars.
They (Democrats) put me in mind of abused, terrorized dogs.
Eager to please their GOP "masters" for the sake of harmony or deal-making, Democrats roll onto their backs, pee on their bellies and whimper for affection, even as they their GOP "owners" beat and brutalize them.
It's sad, really. The GOP is ruled by mean-spirited, callous, greedy plutocrats who could care not at all for the suffering of the "common man;" yet the electorate, seemly hypnotized by GOP rhetoric, votes for the sadistic sociopath who beats his "dog." Weird!
How else can one explain our electorate's propensity to vote against its own best interest?
The Republican agenda, loudly proclaimed by its proponents, is to destroy social programs that help the nation's least wealthy, and bolster the "rights" of the wealthy – to the exclusion of the majority's needs.
Republicans fought against pay raises, despite the fact that middle income Americans had not seen an increase in pay for more than 20 years and whose paychecks fell behind the cost-of-living index 10 years before.
The Republican goal of dismantling the recently-passed health care bill will, if they're successful, put health care delivery back into the hands of the insurance industry.
And that means that people whose incomes don't exceed at least $1 million annually will find themselves dying on filthy gurneys in the halls of overcrowded hospitals because their insurance claims will be denied without recourse. Why should we pay for the health care of someone else, eh? F$@# 'em! That's the GOP motto.
And when the needless dying begins in earnest, the idiots who voted to put the Republicans back in power will still blame it on "liberals" despite all the facts pointing to the exact opposite conclusion.
Voters are like a drunk who knows that booze is killing him, but still raises his shot glass, toasts the wonder of life, and sucks down the 90 proof poison.
People, it seems to me, cast their votes based on delusion, not reasoning.
It's a pretty good trick though, I must say! One cannot help but admire the chutzpah of the GOP. They lie right to the camera. And if they're caught in a lie, in most cases, they simply claim "not to recall" whatever signature or audio or video evidence is put forth to support the accusation of lying. And the faithful public sighs and retorts, "it's those damned liberals ruining the country!" As if to say, if only we'd let the GOP lie and lie and lie and get away with it ALL THE TIME, things would be great. But those damned liberals who exercise their quaint notions of honesty, clear conscience, and loyalty to the Constitution and to the people they serve gum up the works!
Trickle-down economics was proven to be fallacious reasoning. It doesn't work because the rich like to hold on to their wealth and don't give a damn if 30,000 or 100,000 people, or more, lose their jobs because of downsizing or moving a corporation to a foreign country that offers slack tax laws, non-existent environmental laws, and plenty of cheap labor. But a lot of people still cling to the notion that Ronald Reagan's "trickle-down" trick was the best thing since sliced bread, even as their pink slips are arriving in their mailboxes.
Well, congratulations to the GOP and its candidates. It will be interesting to see whether they make anything of their political wins, or whether, as history shows, they'll revert to type and trample the poor, middle class and disenfranchised people in our nation, while sipping champagne on Lear jets that fly them to their latest tax-free, corporate junket.