Election 2010, the Choice is Clear!
Richard J. Garfunkel
Let us not forget what the Republicans and their friends got us into these past number of years. We were attacked on 9/11. The country backed the President, and after years of an unfunded war, we are still practically no where in Afghanistan and the Democratic Congress and President Obama was left with a Hobson’s Choice of whether to stay or get out. The War in Iraq, whether justified or not, has cost us thousands of lives, hundreds upon hundreds of billions and what did we attain? Very little, but a worn out army and 10’s of thousands of wounded along with huge VA bills far into the future. As bad as Sadaam Hussein was, he had less to do with 9/11 then our “friends” in Saudi Arabia. Let’s talk about the deficits, who ran them up in the first place? Who created unsustainable tax cuts, especially for the rich? Who created less than 1 million jobs in eight years? In which Administration did the Great Recession start in December of 2007? Who squandered money on faith-based initiatives? Who fell asleep after Katrina? Who pushed through an unfunded “drug bill” benefit? Who gave us Dick Cheney and Karl Rove? In fact, who was in charge when the attack on 9/11 happened and was reading a book upside down?
But let’s move on. When President Obama was sworn into office the job market was bleeding 700K jobs per month. Wall Street was teetering; the automobile industry was toppling along with the insurance giants, the investment banks and almost everything else. Who bundled the mortgages? Who invented derivatives? Who created all these exotic trades backed with worthless mortgages? Yes, the Democrats wanted easier mortgages for people, but what happened to the fiduciary responsibility of the banks, and who oversaw the wheeler-dealers like the people who ran Countrywide Financial? The so-called small government blowhards and de-regulators had a party for eight years. Where were the SEC, FINRA, and other agencies that allowed Madoff and his clones to loot and prosper? More oversight, the Party of “NO” says no!
What does the Party of “NO” want? They want deregulation, less oversight, more tax breaks for the billionaires on Wall Street, and just look at their complaints. They scream that the President is anti-business, but the Dow-Jones Industrial Average is not at 6000 or 4000, but at 11,000 and rising. Funny thing is that bonuses on Wall Street will run to $149 billion this Christmas, but the Party of “NO” wants more tax cuts in face of the deficits they scream about. Where is the money? Where are the profits? They are right in Wall Street and in the banks that won’t lend. Over 85% of the Fortune 500 companies have beaten the “street” estimates! Why high unemployment? The Fat Cats won’t hire until after the Chamber of Commerce buys the election of the House. Enter into that equation; women’s rights, civil liberties, the environment, safety in the workplace, energy dependency and China owning all our money! You know where the GOP and their Tea Party surrogates stand! They stand for flat-earth thinking and flat-tax economics!
Their solution is more service sector layoffs, less teachers, less environmental concerns, more Love Canals (more unemployment) more tax giveaways, and the cutting of Social Security and Medicare. They oppose Health Care Reform, but what is hemorrhaging the budget are overruns in Medicare and Medicaid by the elderly, the sick and poor. They would rather force mothers to give birth to unwanted babies, or a deformed fetus, or the child of a rapist than care for the sick, elderly and our indigent veterans. Let us not forget the Bush scandal and the treatment of wounded vets at the Walter Reed VA Facility in Washington!
Who are their candidates? Sharron Angle, Linda McMahan, Rand Paul, Christine O’Donnell, Carl Paladino, an anti-Semite Jim Russell, right here in NY’s 18th CD, who writes papers on white supremacy and neo-Nazi theory, and many others who are outside the mainstream of American thought and values. They hide behind the flag, but as Samuel Johnson wrote, “the last refuge of a scoundrel is patriotism.” Christine O’Donnell even believes that “the separation of church and state” isn’t in the First Amendment of the US Constitution! Where did she go to school? But what about the family values of Linda McMahan and her World Wrestling Federation? Has anyone looked into the “blood money” that sordid side show brings?
The party of “NO” has forced more cloture votes, (efforts to stop filibusters,) in any 18 month period in our recent history. Their plan is to stop progress at any cost. Just open up the Internet and read the comments of their “fellow travelers” on the right. These revisionists will claim that FDR started the Depression, the Democrats are “pinko communists” who started every war, and that Barack Obama was born somewhere overseas and is really a Marxist Muslim in Mufti.
The choice is clear, more Sarah Palins and her dysfunctional and greedy friends, clones and family or positive reform and progress? The choice is up to you and yours. You’ll have no one to blame but yourselves for not voting and allowing the Chamber of Commerce, FOX Noise, the hypocritical Elmer Gantry type bible-thumpers, the Rush Limbaughs and the Glenn Becks for being in charge of your future. Think about the consequences!