Wednesday, November 3, 2010

The Tide Has Turned

This morning I awoke to the news that the GOP had completed their mission and the majority had spoken.  In our little mecca Jim Gerlach handily won his seat, Representative Schroder will be going back to Harrisburg, Jim Toomey pulled it out in the end, and we will have a Republican Governor at least for a little while.  Will it make a difference?  No one knows unless they posses the ability of precognition or they have a crystal ball, but I do believe that the American people have awakened from a stupor and realized that not making our leaders hold fast to what they promised and listen to their constituents is a mistake not to be made again.  In the previous election too much rhetoric and not enough substance was presented and the American people fell for it hook line and sinker and then when it did not work out began pointing fingers at the prior administration for the mistakes this one was making.  It reminded me of the cartoon Family Circus when the invisible characters "Not Me" and "He Did It" would run around wreaking havoc in the house.  It astounded me that no one wanted to take responsibility for the mess that THEY were making.  Did your parents not teach you to own up to your mistakes, or was it taught to you to blame everyone but yourself?  It still floors me that even after two years people and the administration are still blaming the one that came before.  Were some bad choices made for the eight years previously?  Yes.  Was money spent unwisely? Yes, towards the end it was spent like a drunken sailor on leave.   But the name calling became so bad that on one side of the aisle a name for it came about;Bush Derangement Syndrome.

I believe what became so divisive in the country wasn't even so much across party lines because there were and still are bad apples in each barrel, but the fact that when this administration was disapproved of the attacks on the other side were personal, not necessarily based on political ideology.  I know being on the side of the aisle where a "R" resides I was called racist, unrealistic, stupid and various other nastiness.  It had little to do with the fact that I did not like the turn the administration was taking, but because the backers of this presidency, I guess had shot their load, they could come up with little else to refute my arguments because in reality I was on the right track....and owning up to their mistakes is just not done.

I now await to see if our leader can really work across the aisle like he has said he wants to, although with the tone of his rhetoric during the campaign season he is going to have to work pretty hard to get the Republicans to listen when he called several of them some choice names.........nothing vulgar mind you, but being beaten with words still leaves bruises, you just can't see them.

So for now I think America has spoken and the message is loud and clear.........don't hand us a bill of goods with nothing to back it up.

8 comments:

  1. As a former Reagan Republican (now independent), I know a bit about broken political promises. And in my book the Republicans hold the record for that. "Balanced Budgets"...never even presented one, much less achieved one.
    "No nation building"...no need for comment there. "Reduce the deficit" (cough) "Smaller government"...lol, "No new taxes" ("read my lips"), and the big one: "Trickle Down". What a crock of BS that was. Reaganomics destroyed the country by redistributing wealth to the top, instead of the middle class and lower economic levels. Yeah, it sounded good in theory, it just didn't work because it failed to take into account the inherent greed and callous disregard for people, of corporate America, and the wealthiest among us. The kind of greed that lets you fire thousands so your bottom line looks good this year, and you get multi-million dollar bonuses for being a genius CEO. You then ship the factory to China, and the bottom line gets better. Meanwhile your former employees sink deeper into poverty, while you cruise the Carribbean on your yacht. They can't afford health insurance, can't pay their mortgages, can't send their kids to school, and if they still have a job are working for less than they were making ten years ago. "Rising tide lifts all boats". Right. Wall Street and Corporate America, and the special interests win, and everybody else takes the hit.

    I sure hope the GOP has a better plan this time around.

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  2. Wait a second and you believe that a Democrat has balanced a budget? Ummm not since 1835 has a budget ever been balanced so that right there is incorrect information. Oh yeah and let's see during Reagan's first term the House and Senate were split and during his second term it was both the House and the Senate that was wait for it.......Democratic AND again during H.W. Bush's term.

    Now if you have come to place in your life where you cannot pay your mortgage, send you kids to school (although that one perplexes me as public school does not have tuition) etc then don't you think some of that might be on you? Were you truly living within your means at any time? Whether it be a boom or bane? We as Americans love to blame everyone but ourselves when we get into trouble and then want them to take care of us when we feel we have been wronged. The economy ebbs and flows no matter who is sitting in the oval office in DC the crux of the matter is whether that man or woman is going to make the ebb worse or not. Anyone will look good while things are going well even if they did nothing to precipitate it. Are the corrupt people? Sure are, but instead of whining about it and blaming someone else, do something about it. Force your representatvies to legislate new laws and regulations, but not ones that punish people just because they happen to make more money than you, but that are sensible instead of selfish.

    You want to afford health care then stop unions like the teachers from getting a free ride and not having to pay into the system but get to take out of it. You want to pay your mortgage then don't buy a house that is out of your means should there be a downturn in the economy...think people instead of complaining all the time.

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  3. Well, there are a lot of unsupported assumptions there. You will note I did not mention my personal circumstances, which do not fit your assumptions.

    Unless you have not been watching the news for the last few years you know that the middle class is disappearing, losing jobs, homes, and having trouble sending their kids to school (college is expensive), as well as retain health insurance that covers much of anything without huge deductibles. The disparity of income between the rich and poor is the greatest since the Depression.

    (Come to think about it, my biggest disappointment with my former party is their refusal to even face the realities that real people are subject to.)

    Beyond that, you are assuming I give the Democrats a much better grade. You will note I said I am an independent, and am not affiliated with either party, because they have both failed us. During the Clinton administration is the last time the National debt went down (for a brief period) rather than up. During all of the Republican years (since Eisenhower) and quite a few of the Democrat years...no matter who controlled Congress, and therefore the budget, the debt increased and the deficits as well. So neither party gets a pass on that. It's just that Republicans are more inclined to favor the corporations and the wealthy at the expense of the middle class and everybody else. Corbett is the latest example. Multi-national gas companies get to extract Pennsylvania's natural resources, make huge profits, possibly do permanent damage to our environment, and pay no tax. Who gets to make up the shortfall in revenue?...the middle class working stiffs, who are having trouble making ends meet now. Thanks Mr. Corbett. Thanks for looking out for the average person. I know someone who has a gas lease contract in another state, and thinks this is outrageous, which should tell you how out of touch he is on that.

    More importantly, the Democrats are less likely to pound the podium about "balanced budgets". So even though they have failed as well, they have not made it their mantra. it is not their "broken promise".

    Neither party has controlled the out-of control inflation of health costs, which are pushing more and more people into the uninsured category. At least the Democrats passed a bill, as imperfect as it may be, rather than sit on their hands and pretend the problem does not exist. Look for the Republicans to repeal it, and we will be left right where we started from, since they have no better solutions, except give the rich (the people who can more afford it) tax cuts, and hope for more "trickle down". And look for more and more people to get priced out of the health insurance market.

    And you want everybody to blame themselves? What about the people who worked at Lukens for years, retired, then had their pensions and health benefits disappear. Or how about the people who worked at good paying (read self-sustaining) jobs that left for another country. How about the college grads that can't find jobs other than flipping burgers.

    (cont'd)

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  4. (cont'd)

    You would have to be damned clueless to think everybody has control over their employment situation or financial state all the time. Typical conservative viewpoint..."I'm doing OK, why aren't you?". Buy yourself a clue with your discretionary income.

    If you built cars for GM, lived in Flint or Dearborn, making good money, and the plant closed, leaving you unemployed with no comparable job to replace the one you lost, do you think those people may have suffered from circumstances beyond their control? If they were paying their mortgage when they had a job with money to spare, but are now in forclosure, it that their fault? C'mon now.

    In every area of the country, and in every industry, perfectly self-sufficient people have lost good-paying jobs, and are struggling to get back on their feet. To state otherwise is to live in a state of denial.

    This is why I will never belong to a party again, particularly the Republican party. They don't seem to have the capacity to empathize with people who have suffered setbacks. Especially where the party has contributed to the setbacks.

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  5. You know what it is not worth the time and energy that it would take to reply to all the assumptions YOU made, so I don't feel the need to bother. Along with that I can tell that you are set in your thinking and no one is going to budge your thoughts out of your head even with dynamite. I have a family to raise and house to keep and oh yeah by the way we are the middle class and living pay check to paycheck but I still don't want the government taking care of me.

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  6. The response above are typical of what is wrong with the country and I take full responsibility for my part. However if work is to get done instead of each party looking for someone to blam how about being willing to clean their side of the street first and then work together as best we can. Will it work who knows but it'll be a darn site better than people blaming everyone but themselves.

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  7. Not surprisingly, I disagree. Most of the people I know had nothing to do with out of control government, outsourcing of jobs, political backstabbing and back-room deal making, lobbyists running the country, the financial meltdown, predatory health care costs or the host of other things now plaguing all of us.

    Most of the people I know are hard-working responsible people caught in a cycle of events they have little or no control over. Small business people whose business has tanked through no fault of their own, or workers who've been laid off, with little prospects for finding equal or better jobs.

    They want political leaders to fix the problems and eliminate the processes that allow them to happen. And they hold their noses when they vote because they know there is little hope of that happening, because the two party system is broken.

    But of course, they could just blame themselves, and pretend the problems do not exist.

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  8. "But of course, they could just blame themselves, and pretend the problems do not exist."

    Weather said in jest .. sarcasm .. or even in a serious manner this comment is a joke....

    The people i know in this world who are the best ones .. Are the ones that have kept thier own house in order first before trying to take on anything else .... Weather or not they are a "D" or a "R". Half of the people currently in office have had everything from felonies to DUI's .. If they can not even keep themselves on the right path they darn sure can not lead anyone else. If more people took the time to look at themselves and what they can do things would be much better all over ...

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