Category Archives: Tea Party

The selective memories of the “Leave It To Beaver” crowd.

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Attribute it to a loss of brain cells from using too many drugs in the 60s.  Or maybe it’s the result of the two martini lunches of the 70s.  Or perhaps the champagne parties celebrating the investment returns from the 80s and 90s.  But the people who look back so fondly at the America of the “Leave It To Beaver” and “Ozzie and Harriet” days in the 50s have it all wrong.

They remember an America of a thriving middle class with white picket fences, big cars with fins and lots of chrome, and hula hoops.  And they’re furious because they think that a “socialist” President is taking it all away from them.  They whine that they’re overtaxed, underemployed and our budget is overspent.  So they’re joining the Tea Party to take their America back … with guns if necessary.

One wonders how they missed the fact that the top tax rate in the 1950s was more than 90 percent as compared to a highest rate of 35 percent now.  How could they forget the oppression of African Americans who were segregated and denied the right to vote?  How could they forget the days prior to adequate birth control when young women who became pregnant weren’t allowed to finish their high school education?  How could they forget the talk of coat hangers and back-alley abortions prior to women gaining the right to a legal abortion?  How could they forget the Cold War which threatened to annihilate us at any moment?  And how could they possibly ignore the fact that it was so-called conservatives who de-regulated Wall Street and the oil markets? 

It was conservatives who led the U.S. into “globalization” and the race to merge thriving companies into mega-corporations who would export our jobs.  It was Reagan who led the fight against labor unions that negotiated decent wages and benefits.  It was Reagan who cut taxes for the wealthy while raising taxes on the middle class by eliminating tax write-offs for interest payments on cars, credit cards and other purchases.  And it was Reagan and George W. Bush who presided over the greatest deficit spending in U.S. history.

All of that is conveniently forgotten by the Palin-led and Fox-fueled Tea Party types who now blame all of our problems on a black President and Democratic Congress.  How ironic that the Tea Party labels as Socialists, Communists and Nazis the very people who are fighting for the middle class … who are trying to end 30 years of upward wealth distribution by creating new green jobs, cleaning up our environment and rebuilding our failing infrastructure. 

If the Tea Partiers succeed in throwing out the current government, they want to rewind the way-back clock to days when there were only white people on their block.  When there were no Americans of non-Christian faith (except the Jews, who were tolerated because, after all, Christ was a Jew).  When the only Latino they had to confront was Ricky Ricardo on “I Love Lucy”.  When they were free to discriminate against anyone; women, people of disabilities, the elderly, gays, the homeless … the list was almost endless. 

I lived through those days.  And as far as I’m concerned, the only people who could possibly long for a return to those days likely fit into three groups:  Bigots, racists and the memory impaired.

Small government = Big fraud

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In 1980, Ronald Reagan declared that the government is the enemy of business and our citizens.  And led by the “Great Communicator”, Republicans set about down-sizing government by eliminating “red tape” and regulations; an effort that continues to this day.  It’s a tantalizing argument.  After all, who wants their taxes to go toward unnecessary bureaucracy? 

Unfortunately, that argument neglects one very important fact:  For a government or, for that matter, any organization to operate efficiently, it must have some way to enforce its rules.  Without enforcement, the criminals, the unscrupulous and the greedy will prosper at the expense of the law-abiding.  By gutting Government regulation, Republicans have encouraged runaway greed. 

Want a few examples?

The financial collapse of 2008 and current recession were the direct result of gutting the Glass-Steagall Act which created firewalls between financial investment institutions, insurance companies and banks of deposit.  The housing crisis was the result of a lack of oversight with regard to mortgage lending.  The estimated $80 billion in Medicare fraud is made possible by the fact that there are precious few regulators.  The run-up in oil prices in 2007 was the direct result of Republican deregulation of the commodity markets.  And the rampant fraud in military and construction projects in Iraq and Afghanistan was the result of no-bid contracts with little to no oversight.

The list could go on and on. 

Yet despite all evidence to the contrary, conservatives continue to push for more deregulaltion.  Why?  For some conservative legislators, it may be a misguided and misinformed philosophical decision.  However, the cynic in me is more likely to believe that our representatives are paid to push for deregulation by the large corporations which contribute to their campaigns.

What else could explain why the conservatives in Congress continue to fight regulation of our “too big to fail” financial institutions even after their misadventures nearly led to the collapse of the world economy?

The New Definition of Conservative.

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Upon listening to Republican economists and some of the speakers at the CPAC convention, I think I better understand their vision for America. In a word, it’s bleak. 

These people not only want to prevent health care reform and reduce national debt. They want to block any further government programs to save or create jobs. They want to allow market forces to “correct” the economy. Of course, they want to eliminate even more regulation, cut taxes and shrink government. Finally, they want to eliminate “entitlement” programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

Imagine what their vision would do for most Americans!

By most estimates, unemployment would rise to more than 15 percent. Of course, there would be no safety nets to help those without jobs or homes. Large corporations would continue to grow by swallowing weaker ones. And since corporations would be unregulated, they would not only influence Congress. They would virtually own it.

Hmmm, I always thought the definition of conservative is to preserve, save and protect. But to these people, it seems to mean quite the opposite.

Snarky Palin good at criticizing. Not so good at leading.

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Palin’s speech before a Tea Party convention of hundreds clearly points out two things.  One, Palin is really good at delivering snide criticisms of the political left.  Witness her comment directed toward President Obama, “How’s that hope-y, change-y thing working out for you?” 

It was a typically snide Palin comment sure to excite the anti-Obama, anti-progressive, anti-government, anti-everything crowd.  (In other words, the Fox News Channel viewers.)

In a Sunday morning interview on Fox, Palin broadly hinted at her candidacy for president in 2012.  It’s a candidacy unlikely to go very far, which brings me to my second point.  Palin has shown absolutely no ability to lead.  Yes, she has become the de facto leader of the rabble who call themselves the Tea Party.  And it’s true that she served as mayor of a small town in Alaska.  But almost anyone with a pulse could serve in such a capacity. 

The true test of her abilities became apparent after she was elected to the office of governor.  In that office, as demonstrated by recently released emails, she apparently spent much of her time looking for ways to defraud the state of Alaska into paying for travel for her family and rent for her personal home.  In addition, she took nearly 6 months off to run as McCain’s vice-presidential candidate.  During that time, it seems her only official acts as governor were to defend herself against a large number of ethics complaints – many of which were confirmed.  Then, after achieving some notoriety during the campaign, she quit the office for a book-signing tour of a book she didn’t even write.  More recently, it was revealed that she pirated funds from her Political Action Committee in order to purchase a large number of her books.

It has long been said that un-informed voters get the government they deserve.  Keeping that in mind, if Palin ever becomes president, or even a congresswoman, U.S. voters will deserve the disaster that’s sure to follow.

New poll proves that Republicans are stupid, crazy or both!

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A new Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll of those who identify themselves as Republicans confirms what many of us have long suspected:  Republican voters spend far too much time watching Fox “News” and listening to Rush Limbaugh.  But not even the most cynical among us could have predicted the findings of this poll.

For example, 58 percent of Republicans are not sure President Obama is a natural-born U.S. citizen. 

31 percent believe that the President is a racist who hates white people, and another 33 percent say they’re not sure. 

63 percent of Republicans think Obama is a socialist. 

24 percent of Republicans believe Obama wants the terrorists to win, and another 33 percent aren’t sure. 

21 percent of Republicans apparently believe that Obama was elected only because ACORN stole the 2008 election, and a whopping 55 percent are not sure.

23 percent of Republicans believe that their state should secede from the United States, 19 percent aren’t sure.

And in their greatest display of lunacy, 53 percent of Republicans said they believe Sarah Palin is more qualified to be president than Obama!  (Moreover, respondents to the poll didn’t even include those who claim to belong to the Tea Party.)

Obviously, these people are angry and colossally misinformed.   Now consider this:  These people represent the Republican base to which Republican candidates must answer.  Given that, can anyone believe that there’s still hope for bi-partisanship in Washington? 

What now for health care reform?

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The election of Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate, in effect, may have ended the existing Democrat-initiated bills for health care reform.  That is not only a disaster for the party.  It’s a disaster for the millions of people without health care, the tens of thousands who will face bankruptcy as the result of illness, and the more than 33,000 Americans who will die this year for lack of access to health care. 

It didn’t have to end this way.  If the Democrats had shown even an ounce of fortitude and political savvy, they could not only have passed health care reform by now.  In all likelihood, they would have retained the Senate seat that they had controlled since the 1950s.

But that’s all water under the proverbial bridge.  The Democratic Party can’t afford to wallow in self-pity and frustrations.  They can’t afford to point fingers at Republicans.  As voters in Massachusetts have shown, Democrats have nobody to blame but themselves.  If the Democratic Party wants to avoid a disaster in this November’s elections, it has to find a spine.  Democratic Representatives and Senators need to have massive injections of testosterone.The way forward is to act as if they’re representing the people who elected them.  Not the special interest groups and lobbyists.  They must do what they promised before they were elected.  And they must collectively confront a belligerent and bellicose Republican Party.   They not only must lead.  They must reveal their opponents for what they really are:  Representatives of big corporations and big money.

In a television interview, Governor Rendell of Pennsylvania pointed a way forward for health care reform.  He said that he would recommend that Congress pass a bill that would impose anti-trust laws on insurance companies and forbid insurers from exempting pre-existing conditions and prevent them from dropping coverage whenever it becomes too expensive.   He said that the insurance industry will, in turn, demand that all Americans be covered.  Congress could then pass a complete reform package one step at a time.  If Republicans threaten to filibuster, he said that he would let them do so.  Republican Senators would be forced to read the phone book and other nonsense for days and demonstrate to the American public how obstructionist they’ve become.

In my opinion, there may be better approaches.  But the intent is correct.  Somewhere Democrats must find what they have obviously been lacking for the past year – a pair of balls.

What kind of country do Republicans envision?

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Given the Republican response to President Obama’s initiatives, one has to wonder exactly what the Republican vision for our nation actually is.  To try to determine that, let’s look at recent events.  If Republicans had prevailed on their opposition to the TARP bailouts of Wall Street banks, most economists believe that the entire world economy would have collapsed and we would be in the midst of a 2nd Great Depression.  Republicans argued against bailouts to General Motors and Chrysler which likely would have forced both into bankruptcy putting up to 10 million workers on unemployment.  Republicans fought the stimulus plan which, by even the most conservative estimates, has saved or created up to 2 million jobs.  And they have continued to whine about the growing deficits under Obama while lionizing Reagan for tripling our national debt.

The Republican alternative to Obama’s attempts to save our economy?  Tax cuts for the wealthy despite the fact that most economists believe such cuts would do nothing to alleviate our situation.  In fact, many feel that the tax cuts could make things worse!

Republicans have fought any form of banking regulation.  They have voted to keep the status quo on an unsustainable health care system that results in 33,000 deaths each year for lack of access.  They have voted against increasing benefits for military veterans.  Republicans refuse to allow the federal government to negotiate lower prices for pharmaceuticals as Canada and many other nations have done.  They are opposed to spending money to encourage the development of reasonable alternatives to fossil fuels.  They dismiss the international scientific community’s warnings of global climate change.  They have long stated their disdain for “entitlements” such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.  They are vehemently opposed to labor unions.  They are opposed to social services for the poor, saying that they should be the responsibility of faith-based organizations.  Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices voted to corrupt our election process by permitting corporations (even those based overseas) to spend unlimited amounts of money in support of candidates who favor their positions. 

Under the Bush/Cheney regime, Republicans started two wars with no clear plan on how to win them, and no plan to pay for them.  (Indeed, they intentionally obscured the actual cost of the wars – in terms of dollars and lives.)  And they awarded billions to Halliburton and other corporations through no-bid contracts. 

The Democratic Congress has shown a decided lack of unity and will.  But based on the Republican record, why would anyone want to return the Republican Party to power?  Or their even less-pleasant brethren – the members of the Tea Party?

The next big crisis facing Democrats.

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For 30 years, the Grand Old Party of Corporations has fought to end welfare for the poor (although corporate welfare is just dandy), labor unions, workers’ compensation programs, public schools, and entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security.  And recent events have presented Republicans a golden opportunity to permanently undo 80 years of progressive initiatives. 

State income has plummeted as a result of the Republican-created financial collapse.  Now those states controlled by right-wing conservative legislatures are capitalizing on the recession by slashing budgets for public education, health care for at-risk children, and pensions.  And you can bet the wingnuts are going to blame it all on President Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress. 

In my state of Arizona, a Republican-controlled legislature has slashed millions from an education system that already ranks 49th in the nation.  (Following the Republican philosophy of wresting control away from government, the state offers huge subsidies for private and parochial schools.  Of course, those subsidies are unaffected by budget cuts.)  The legislature is also closing state parks even though they are a necessary part of the state’s 2nd largest industry – tourism.  The legislature is even considering selling all state-owned buildings and leasing them back as part of long-term agreements which will pay the purchasers billions of taxpayer dollars.  But, according to Republicans, they’re only doing what Democrats won’t – balance the budget. 

Never mind that, for years, Republicans have cut taxes for the wealthy.  Never mind that the legislature refused to allow the Republican governor to place a temporary sales tax increase on the ballot.  It’s a perfect political climate for Republicans to orchestrate this charade. 

I hope voters are informed enough to make Republicans pay for it by voting for progressive candidates.  But since many rely on the Faux News Channel for information, they’re more likely to make matters worse by voting for the Tea Party, instead.

If you think herding cats is difficult, try Democrats.

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The election of a Republican to fill Ted Kennedy’s seat in the U.S. Senate has clearly illustrated the disarray of the Democratic Party.  Despite holding the White House, the House of Representatives and a super majority in the Senate, Democrats have been either unable or unwilling to accomplish much of the agenda they campaigned for. 

Faced with a financial industry so greedy that it nearly caused the collapse of the international economy, Democrats have failed to institute new regulations to prevent future problems.  Faced with millions of unemployed, they failed to pass a stimulus bill large enough to create jobs.  Faced with mounting foreclosures, they failed to force lenders to restructure loans.  Faced with millions of uninsured and more than 33,000 deaths each year for the lack of access to health care, Democrats let Republicans and Tea Party wingnuts control the dialogue about health reform.  They publicly cut deals with insurance companies and big Pharma.  They allowed a few Congressmen to include more restrictive language on abortion.  They allowed one senator to kill the public option despite polls showing that a public option is favored by a significant majority of Americans.  And they allowed another senator to hijack the bill in order to gain major concessions for his state. 

It’s not that our nation’s current problems were created by Democrats.  They weren’t.  And it’s true that the Republicans, whose policies led to the problems, were determined to block any initiatives by Democrats.  But the fact remains, in one full year, Democrats were unable to solve them.  And given the fleeting attention spans of most voters, in their minds, these ongoing problems are now the fault of Democrats.   

So where does the party go from here? 

In my opinion, Democrats must take a lesson from Republicans.  When it comes to legislation, Democrats must act as if they’re joined at the hip.  They must craft legislation in caucus meetings and not present it to the public until they can all support it – without fear of defections.  They must better present their ideas to the public and explain their benefits.  And they must learn to be as ruthless as Republicans in trying to achieve their goals.  No more “gangs of six” that include Republicans trying to undermine the legislation.  Democrats can make it clear that they will work with Republicans, but only if Republicans are willing to work with them.

And the President must change his approach.  Although he obviously envisions himself a modern-day Lincoln who will pull together both parties and the nation, he must finally realize that you can’t achieve bi-partisanship when there is no “bi.”  He must realize that Republicans are serious about their desire to see him fail.  He must become more involved in legislation and more clearly set a path for his party.  He must become the leader we voted for. 

Failing these kinds of changes, we’re likely to see Democrats, and the nation, flounder.  If that happens, voters will believe the Democratic Party is incapable of governing.  And they will be right.

The cost of tax cuts.

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Everybody complains about paying taxes.  But Republicans and Teabaggers have turned their complaints into an art form.  Indeed, just last week, they were whining that the Obama administration allowed a number of Bush-era tax cuts to lapse.  Yet these people are the first to complain when our government entities don’t work as they expect.  Somehow, they seem incapable of seeing the connection. 

For the past 40-plus years, Republicans have been cutting taxes on the wealthiest U.S. citizens and U.S. corporations.  They’ve even cut estate taxes (the so-called death tax). 

All of this tax-cutting has had a profound effect on our infrastructure. 

Except in our largest cities, our highways haven’t been substantially improved since the 50s and 60s.  As evidenced by the bridge collapse in Minneapolis, many of our nation’s bridges are in woeful repair.  Contrary to popular belief, it wasn’t Hurricane Katrina that caused the disaster in New Orleans.  It was the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s archaic levee system.   And in California, another levee system responsible for much of Los Angeles’ water is eroding making it highly vulnerable to a catastrophic event. 

Our electric grid needs to be replaced.   Many of our largest cities’ sewer systems are collapsing.  Security at our airports is incapable of stopping all terrorists, and the security for our ports is much worse.  Our schools are falling behind those in many other nations.  And, unlike most wealthy nations, we can’t provide basic health care to all of our citizens (although that is, hopefully, about to change).

What’s the reaction of Republicans when faced with these facts?  Not surprisingly, they merely call for more tax cuts.