I've just had it out with some neighbors who voted Republican. They were like zealots thinking that these were some sort of "new" Republicans they were voting for. Republicans that would end the debt, end the deficit, deport illegal aliens, get rid of those gay people, eliminate all abortions, get jobs for everyone, make the country safe from all those evildoers that behead people in our southwestern deserts and scare us by not being white Christians.
Interestingly, they're a bit put off by Ron Johnsons win over Russ Feingold. They fully expected Feingold to win and voted for Johnson thinking that they were only sending some kind of "message" to the Democrats.
Welcome to reality!
They haven't heard one word about mosques, illegal aliens, abortions, or plans for ending our debt. There's been silence on jobs and outsourcing. It seems that peace has suddenly descended on earth and all those election issues have evaporated into vapor.
There has been lots of talk about tax cuts for the rich and for corporations though. And news about the hundred or so billion in bonuses being distributed by banks and on Wall Street without a peep of protest from their newly elected leaders on how this was the very industry that tanked our economy, ate up peoples retirement savings, scammed people on their mortgages, and had to be bailed out by more taxpayer debt. Must be nice to be them and not the folks footing the bill to enable all those bonuses.
And then there's the talk about raising the retirement age to 69 (not bad if you've got a "sit on your ass" job like the Tee Vee pundits and members of Congress) and cutting Medicare. Welcome to what Republicans were really talking about when they said they wanted to "cut discretionary spending". It's your retirement and health that will be at their discretion.
Buyers regret is already setting in and the new Congress with all their brand new shiny teabaggers haven't even been sworn in yet. The silence of their new leaders on all those "peoples issues" they campaigned about has hit them right in their fannies. And this is not even the start of the nightmare the next 2 years will bring.
They liked some of the talk of ending earmarks, but watched as that talk turned to dust at the hands of Republican leaders. It's a horrible earmark when the money goes to another district, but a "vital project" when the money goes to yours. Business as usual in Congress, folks.
So I reminded my disillusioned Republican-voting friends about the 2004 election. The one where George Bush kept on scaring us, raising the alert levels ever higher until after the election and then we didn't see the color coded alert levels ever again. And right after the election, Bush said he now had a mandate to ..... privatize Social Security .... despite the fact that it was never even mentioned during his campaign. I reminded them how betrayed they felt when terrorism shrunk in importance just as soon as he got enough votes from the suckers. They had been "had" and they knew it.
Welcome to the 2010 election results and these chumps just got "had" again. Unfortunately, we'll all have to live with the results when dummies vote in large numbers. In about a year it will start up all over again. The low information crowd will get scared by more made up threats to mom, apple pie, Jesus, and the flag, Democrats won't talk about their accomplishments because they didn't forcefully push their agenda, and billionaires and corporations will flood the system with even more money for more advertising because politicians are now for sale.
Get people in a lather, rinse, repeat - it's the Republican way. Unfortunately, it works. Yes, Americans really are that stupid.