I have some idle time here while I wait for my hubby to fix my lunch. He forgot to get diet coke at the food emporium so to make up for it he is fixing my lunch.
The Election through my eyes
A bunch of people, many of whom barely have a pot to piss in, voted to put back in charge a bunch of politicians whose specialty is trying to take away the pot that they piss in. Now certainly a lot of very wealthy people voted for these same people because they (the voters) gave them a lot of money to take care of their needs. Sort of like buying welfare, but much more high class. And a bunch of the voters have been brainwashed into believing that a Democratic president is bad for the country, will be weak on defense and will raise their taxes. Although none of these things have happened in the 57 years that I've been taking up space on planet earth. It seems to me that, with our system of checks and balances, presidents can only be so radical. UNTIL the Supreme Court placed GW Bush in charge, and we saw the most radical and extreme presidency in the history of our country. So the voters got so bummed out by all that radicalism, said yeah, let's let the black guy have a whack at being president. Well, I know this is hard for you to believe, but a lot of voters, particularly among the lowly pot pissers, object to having a black president, and after 2 years of non-stop race baiting and rabble-rousing from the Republicans and their network of media and shadowy donors and think tanks, decided to take their country back. Back to where they aren't sure, but coming in 2012, they hope it will be back to a place with no damned black president.
These same low information voters think the country is broke and that it is the fault of 1) immigrants, 2) poor people 3) democrats, 4) social security and medicare, 5) add you own here. If they are really worried about the country being broke, perhaps they might take a moment to look at the revenue situation. Nah, that would require them to look at a graph or two. Too much math going on there.
Taxes. Our tax burden, 9.2 percent of our incomes, is the lowest it has been since 1950, but the fearmongers continue to raise donations and win elections on this issue. The whole darned Tea Party thinks they are taxed too much. I wonder if they have thought that the problem might be their wages. Wages have been stagnant since the late 70s. And their benefits cost them more every year. Those health insurance company executives can't get by on chump change, you know. But again, looking at a graph showing wage decline would interfere with watching Dancing with the Stars.
Wars. Why weren't our two wars an issue in the election? Because Fox doesn't mention it, democrats are afraid to be anti-war, and Americans have the attention span of teen-aged gnats. But then I forget that the wars don't really cost anything apparently as the people who yammer about deficits never mention the wars. They mention social security and government spending . Do that often enough and the ill-informed become convinced that social security is unsustainable and that the government is out of control. And will vote against their own self-interests. Time and time again. No evidence of either social security bankruptcy or an actual increase in government spending is needed.
Too many demons. For years unions have been demonized as evil and greedy and unamerican. Now that unions are nearly kaput, fresh demons are needed. Minorities are always an easy target. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid make juicy targets. Higher education has been a long-standing demon. School teachers have taken a shellacking, and now government workers are in the crosshairs. Republicans can't win without demons. Americans too lazy to do any research find it easy to blame the demon du jour.
The big lies. In addition to the big lie that social security is about to go broke is the big lie that tax cuts for those making over $250,000 lead to job creation. Does anyone really believe this? If so, where are all the jobs that should have been created between the time of the tax cuts and now? Why haven't the recipients of these tax cuts created any jobs? Because it has been shown over and over again that tax cuts do not lead to job creation. But no one calls anyone out for these lies.
I thought that the financial collapse in 2008 was a wake-up call but I guess not. Apparently we haven't reached bottom yet. The election results will put us on the fast track to hitting bottom, or will result in total gridlock. I really can't guess which it will be.
