To the Republican leasdership, who will stop at nothing to maintain their death grip on power this November, the control of the $25 Trillion dollars ($25,000,000,000.00 dollars) that will be spent under the federal budget over the next 8 years is what this year's presidential election is all about. They have no other issue.
Do they really care about gay marriage or abortion? Only to the extent that they can use these issues as a means to fire up a political base. To the Republican brain trust, the people who hold these views are cicada voters, to be awakened every four years, then sent back underground. Do the Republicans really want to install a Supreme Court that will overturn Roe v Wade which would risk taking the most reliable emotional issue from their base, or do they really want an anti-consumer, pro corporate court, who happens to talk a good game on the abortion issue?
This diary is not aimed at the Republican rank and file, they are victimized by their party leadership, just as badly as the Democratic rank and file. It's aimed at the Republican leadership.
It can be argued that the Democrats want the same power of the purse over all that money too. I see some differences in the means of governance between the two parties. I'm going to prepare a long list of choices the voters must make regarding how the federal budget will be spent over the next 8 years. The reader can guess about which party will make the choices presented. The list is not exhaustive and readers are invited to add differences between the parties priorities on items of interest to you.
Peace vs War
Security vs fear
Job creation vs job exports
Carbon reduction vs Global Warming
Environmental protection vs Environmental destruction
Universal health care vs Welfare for insurance and pharma
Home ownership protection vs mass bankruptcy and loss of home equity
Middle class tax relief vs tax holidiays for the wealthy and corporations
Feeding our children or feeding the Military Industrial Complex
Nuclear non profliferation vs nuclear proliferation
Creating international friends vs creating enemies
Infrastructure construction and repair vs infrastructure decline and collapse
Protection of the buying power of the dollar or continued deficits which weakent the dollar
Balanced budgets vs budget deficits
Job creation vs tax incentives to outsource jobs
American competitiveness vs Foreign competitiveness
A strong military vs a broken military
Replacing the military equipment used up in Iraq vs spending billions on welfare for the Military Industrial Complex - Star Wars
Ending terrorism vs perpetuating fear
Protecting home ownership vs Wall Street welfare
Social Security protection vs Wall Street welfare through SS Privatization
An accountable congress vs a bought congress
Paying our bills vs Generations yet unborn paying our bills with no benefit to those generations
Energy independence vs energy policies dictated by oil companies
Clean fuels vs dirty fuels
Disaster preparedness vs disaster relief incompetence
Constitutional intelligence gathering vs unconstitutional intelligence bureaucracy
Accountable government vs outsourced government
Accountable military vs outsourced mercenaries
Tax burden paid by middle and poor wage earners vs tax burden lifted from wealthiest taxpayers
Every dollar brought in or spent by our government will go through filters of this type. Since the Newt Ginrich takeover of congress, followed by the K Street takeover of congress the filters have worked to the disadvantage of the vast majority of Americans even if millions have been manipulated emotionally to vote to keep the Republicans in power. This pendelum has swung too far to the right, and it will take a 10 year concerted effort to return it to the middle, where it belongs.
I think it needs to start by examining how our money, and it is our money, will be spent by the forces of change or the forces of the status quo. Each candidate needs to be examined through this prism, and a judgment made regarding how you want our hard-earned tax dollars to be spent.
We have a right to expect our government to act in our own interests with people competent to complete the tasks WE have assigned to them. We paid for this government, it's time it began behaving like they know it. I advocate punishing, not rewarding incompetence in our government.
Remember, to the Republican power structure, its all about the money. We need to communicate how they squandered it for the last 8 years, why give them the chance to do it again?
I am sure I have missed a quite a few of these tradeoffs, by all means feel free to add your own to the list.