…maybe even more years than that.
I think this bit of commentary is telling, not simply because of the horrific outcomes it predicts (which are entirely likely), but because even I…a person who is left-leaning and largely votes Democratic…didn’t know some of this stuff (like, oh, the fact the budget deficit that the Republicans were bitching about was actually less than George W. Bush’s budget deficit).
As has become usual, the Democrats manage to get stuff done for the American people, and fail to effectively tell them they did it. Instead, they let the right-wing set the media agenda and stir the American populace into a frenzy over GOP and Tea Party fantasies that have little to do with reality.
After two years of being in the minority and managing to grind much of the political process to a slow crawl, now the GOP is set to bring it to a dead halt in a mission of destruction. And right now, they have the support of many working-class/middle-class/poor Americans who haven’t yet clued into the fact that the only thing they’ve accomplished in the mid-term elections is to make everything worse.
Beginning with their own well-being, their own future, their own livelihoods.
We’re so screwed. I hope Bob Cesca is wrong in that commentary I linked to above. I really do. But after two years of saying “no” to President Obama even on issues the GOP supported in the recent past, does anyone with any kind of critical thinking believe they are going to be level-headed NOW?
A looming zombie apocalypse a la “The Walking Dead” would almost be a relief at this point, given the specter of an America with a bunch of ass-hats holding the majority in the House and wreaking havoc simply because they hate the President…and for no good reason.
And if the GOP manages to turn our slow economic recovery into a decline by trying to bring back the policies that caused the economic meltdown in the first place, who do you think they’ll blame?
Yeah, the black guy. And all those “socialists” and “fascists” (aka, just about anyone who’s a Democrat)
God help us all.
As a sort of follow-up, here’s a great article about subsidized daycare from a woman that many Tea Party members and other Republicans would probably call a “welfare queen” who poses a very well-reasoned argument why daycare, like public school, should probably be free, why it would be good for society, and why people like her sometimes need public assistance. (Do come back after you read it…I have more ranting below)
http://www.truth-out.org/a-welfare-queen-answers-back60563
What boggles my mind is how many Republicans (especially Tea Party supporters) probably need subsidized daycare themselves (and possibly get it, even though they wouldn’t call THEMSELVES welfare queens) but have no problem voting into office people who will gut these kinds of programs despite their potential value to society and the economy.
Criticizing programs like these, which should be expanded rather than cut, only happens because people allow themselves to be spoon-fed crazy notions like somehow fiscal responsibility means lowering the taxes on the rich even more without giving anything back to the people who helped make them rich.
Recently, I was amazed listening to a radio spot to hear how many people think that the idea of raising taxes on people making more than $250,000 will ruin the country. So many of these people thought that as many as 20% or 25% of people in the U.S. make $250,000 or more, when in fact less than 3% of Americans make that kind of money. The Republicans have people convinced that regular people are going to be hit hard by a tax hike to people making $250,000 or more. Amazing.
Under Obama, the government talks about giving relief to the 97+ percent of people who do most of the work in this country, and a bunch of folks get worried that the economy will be tanked if the the 2% or 3% who hoard the vast majority of the wealth (and do so by denying regular folks things like raises, health insurance, time off, etc.) have to pay a real amount on money in taxes instead of being coddled by the government.
Way to go, America. Let’s keep shooting ourselves in the foot by giving power and voice to those who most want to take all of our power and voice away from most Americans.