I ran across the following outline of what I wanted to be the Great American Blog entry that swung the 2010 election into the Democratic column. That was an unfinished project, but I thought it, in its unfinished state seemed to have some remaining validity.
I was watching the red tide running in, and was trying to come up with answers to the mass media landslide of radical republicanism with radical tea partyism thrown it.
It's a bit disheartening to see what I wrote in outline form, and to after only less than a month of widespread Republican rule in my, and many other states, and in the House of Representatives, just how much of this unretouched, and unfinished outline has already come true. We've got a real fight on our hands to stem this red tide in our congress and statehouses.
Problem statement
Money pouring into politics - $4 B
Salaries $1 B
Unaccountability of funds
Citizens United vs FEC
Radical agenda of candidates
Constitution under attack
Social safety net under attack
America is losing the technology race
The 2010 election will determine whether America will win or lose world leadership
The USA has momentum toward what?
Reduction of reliance on foreign energy sources
Developing clean energy infrastructure
Keeping our air and water clean for future generations
A 21st century transportation system
Or?
A 20 year delay in reducing reliance on foreign energy sources
A return to barbaric mining practices that averaged 1500 miner deaths per year in the 1930’s, vs 50 today
Lifting environmental regulations on industry which causes pollution of our air and water
Greater worker injury and death rates
A 20th or 19th century transportation system
A rational vs irrational tax system
A rational tax system balances revenue vs expenditures
Allows for deficits during difficult times
Pays back the deficits during good times
Has moderate progressivity to limit regressivity of tax system (less onerous on those with little ability to pay)
An irrational tax system pays no heed to expenditures or tax sources
Provides a tax system that severely lacks progressivity, reduces burden on those most able to pay
Pays lip service to ending deficits
That is the end of my outline as far as it went. As we all know, the red tide did come in, not because of massive numbers of radical right voters came to the polls, but massive numbers of us stayed home. I once attended a lecture given by Mr. Herb Asher, a professor of political science at Ohio State, and he summed up the real purpose of negative campaigning, and he was able to show a strong correlation between the amount of negative campaign ads, and the ick factor of moderate voters that makes them stay home. I belive that is a major factor in why we saw so very many negative ads put up by unaccountable funding sources unleached on our body politic by the Citizens United SCOTUS ruling. It made me sick but I still voted and worked to get other voters out, but to no avail, the unaccountable, inacurate and extremely negative Republican ads achieved their purpose, they turned moderate voters off, and caused the Republican win. Our job is to develop a new strategy that will end this reward for mass negative political advertising.
Just this evening, a Front Page diary shows that the Tea Party/Libertarian reactionary Sen. Rand Paul from Kentucky managed to get himself appointed to the Education Committee, and he actively advocates eliminating the Department of Education, and he also is on the committee which regulates workplace safety, which he believes the government has no business regulating. The outline item "A return to barbaric mining practices that averaged 1500 miner deaths per year in the 1930’s, vs 50 today" was put into the outline specifically in response to his campaign statements on workplace safety and specifically mine safety in Kentucky, a state with a long history of mining deaths. His statement that "no one will apply for jobs at unsafe mines" is absolutely wrong if the only job available is at an unsafe mine near your town. West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucy history is rife with thousands of fatalities of miners who were working at unsafe mines. Rand Paul diary
Anyone who reads my diaries knows that I am working to document the disastrous term of Governor John Kasich in my home state of Ohio. He is a corporatist, pure and simple,and in my view sees his role as one to facilitate the gutting of our economy, our social safety net, and to tear asunder the social contract. Then he will retire to Florida, which has no income tax.
In another front page diary, Lindsey Graham announces his goal to open a third front against the Health Care legislation passed last year after enormous pain and political risk by the Democratic 110th Congress and President Obama. Third front against Health Care Reform The announced intention is to keep it on the front political burner for the 2012 election. Our task is to make that front burner too hot for the Republicans to handle, and to boil that pot over and make the chicken in it pour out clouds of black smoke that smudges each and every Republican who stand with the insurance companies who want to deny health care to children, who will recind health care for folks who get sick, who want to give back the donut hole to our senior citizens, who want to take away tax credits to small business employers, who want to put lifetime caps on care, and so on. Make them pay for standing with the insurance companies. Make them burn their fingers very badly with their arrogance and hubris.
I know that maybe this does not qualify as a diary, but I felt it was worth looking back 22 days into the regime of Governor John Kasich, and 28 days into the 111th Congress. My outline did not even get to anti-unionism, anti-education, anti-enviornmental policies, but it is all out there in its ugliness. The Republicans are so arrogant that they think that they can get away with anything, and we voters will be powerless to make them pay for that arrogance. It's our job to make sure that they do pay.
Update: Here is the radical right's contempt for our environment shining through. Another show piece of legislation desperately begging President Obama to veto it. But it shows their depravity and committment to climate change denial and desire to return to 1890.