My friend told me after the State Of The Union that the Republicans looked like a bunch of "miserable old sourpusses."
"How so?" I asked.
"He is talking about uplifting stuff and they look miserable."
Now, my friend is not a political person at all, but what he said after watching frowning McCain and the uninterested, irritated look on John Boehner's face all night helped me realize that these people are miserable, and their message of BOOOOO and tax cuts for the rich is why.
Because Obama offered America hope and something better than we have ever had, and the GOP plan for the future is actually the same thing they have given us in the past, tax cuts for the rich, deregulation, privatization, basically all the things that led to the collapse of 2008. Been there, done that.
Now, we can argue all we want about Obama, I have my complaints too, but we will get to that some other time. What I really wanted to comment on was this . . .
It's not their candidates, it's their vision that is so miserable.
The GOP vision of the future is miserable. The same George W. Bush agenda but now served with a side dish of suffering. They sold us Bush and said we could put him on our credit card, now the bill is here and they want US to sacrifice so the credit card company can get a bigger tax break.
No wonder their candidates are flawed. Their message is flawed and they are entirely out of touch with anyone who doesn't absorb hours of right wing media reinforcement every day.
The look on McCain's face when Obama brought up trying to work together to bring about immigration reform said it all. McCain looked like some kids just threw their Frisbee on his lawn. Republicans simply are NOT INTERESTED in doing anything, they'd rather demonize people. Don't fix immigration, just demonize immigrants. They did the same thing in every debate the last 3 years because they don't want America to get better if Obama might get the credit for it. Hell, when we took down Gaddafi they tried to give France the credit instead of Obama. France. Republicans decided that they hated France less than the black guy. I would consider that an improvement if this was 1912.
Is it 1980 that the GOP wants to take us back to or 1912? Or 1812? Either way they want to go backwards. Our job is to move America forward, even if that means we have to drag South Carolina kicking and screaming.
Look at footage from the Obama/Biden rallies of 08 and compare them to McCain/Palin rallies. One side is cheering, the other side is booing. One side talked about a vision of the future, the other side longs for the past, a past which blew up in our face 3 years ago while George W. Bush was still in office. Obama gets our troops out of Iraq, Republicans want to send our troops back in to Iraq. Obama ends a health care insurers ability to deny you care based on pre-existing conditions, Republicans want to bring that back. The GOP wants to repeal the 20th century. America liked the 20th century, we we're damned good at it! FDR won WWII and brought us out of the great depression, we passed Medicare and Social Security, we passed the Civil Rights Act and at every step of the way the Republican party was against ALL OF IT!
Now we want to go into the 21st century. Our country needs a vision of the future, a vision that gives everyone a fair chance, not just the richest of the rich, and all the GOP has are hopes of the past, a past that is golden in their eyes but looks like the George W. Bush years to me. The GOP has been miserable ever since women burned their bras and Martin Luther King Jr marched in the streets. Last night, the GOP wore their sourpuss faces to the State of The Union. It was priceless.
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