Keeping up with the daily parade of GOP lies and talking head inanity is making my head spin, and I felt the need to try to summarize my thoughts in simple terms, in one location. If you concur, please feel free to share this. If not, please feel free to comment
The GOP is making a full-court press to get the Romney/Ryan ticket elected, maintain their control (stranglehold, actually) on the House, and regain control of the Senate.
Heaven help us if they do - follow me over the fold to explore the TEN biggest reasons why the GOP is not fit to lead this country, and does NOT deserve another chance to ruin our nation.
1 - The GOP is primarily responsible for the current state of the economy
Republicans would LOVE for the nation to forget that after 8 years of economic growth and prosperity under President Bill Clinton, with 4 out of 8 budgets with surpluses during Clinton's two terms, the "Compassionate Conservative" President George W. Bush squandered the CBO-estimated $5.6 trillion budget surplus and handed America's $6.1 trillion debt to President Obama.
The Bush Administration's unwise policies, and unsound legislating led us to the economic meltdown that is responsible for millions of Americans losing their savings, their jobs, and in many cases, their homes.
By the end of 2008, we were losing around 800,000 jobs PER MONTH, after nearly a decade of unprecedented job loss that Businessweek calls 'a lost decade for jobs"
Of couse, they are working hard to paint this all as being the fault of Democrats, when one need only look back to the GOP's handling of the government during 2001-2009 to see the real cause. Here's a graphic showing private Sector Jobs since 2007.
With luck, that graphic appears here:
Are we better off that we were in 2008? the short answer is "yes", but the real answer is 'We're not as well off as we COULD have been, had both parties been working together to fix America".
However, as we have seen:
2 - the GOP Puts Party ahead of America
After Winning the 2010 mid-term election by campaigning on the untruthful theme of "jobs, jobs, jobs" the GOP made quite clear on inauguration day that they had NO intention of doing ANY legislating that would benefit the nation, because doing so they would be helping boost President Obama's ratings.
The GOP Congressional Stonewall went up on Inauguration Day 2009
Author Robert Draper's recent book sheds light on the secretive Inauguration Night meeting at which prominent members of the Conservative political establishment cooked up a plan to deny President Obama any legislative success:
From The Huffington Post:
According to Draper, the guest list that night (which was just over 15 people in total) included Republican Reps. Eric Cantor (Va.), Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), Paul Ryan (Wis.), Pete Sessions (Texas), Jeb Hensarling (Texas), Pete Hoekstra (Mich.) and Dan Lungren (Calif.), along with Republican Sens. Jim DeMint (S.C.), Jon Kyl (Ariz.), Tom Coburn (Okla.), John Ensign (Nev.) and Bob Corker (Tenn.). The non-lawmakers present included Newt Gingrich, several years removed from his presidential campaign, and Frank Luntz, the long-time Republican wordsmith.
Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell was forthright about it later that year:
"The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." (Emphasis mine)
The GOP has done a great job of trying to accomplish this - by stonewalling progress on ANY legislation that would be helpful to economic recovery, they have kept the economy from recovering as quickly as it might have, and now they are attacking Obama for the state of the economy THEY originally crippled, and then refused to help!
But Putting Party ahead of Country isn't as scary as their embrace of hard-right conservativism, and it's effect on their legislative agenda, starting with:
3 - The GOP's War on Women
After winning the House in 2010, the GOP immediately embarked on a scorched earth path of legislation to remove or limit womens' rights, including the right to birth control and medical services.
See H.R. 3 "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act"
IN the midst of an economic meltdown, this was the THIRD (!) piece of legislation taken up by the House, and its purpose was to make Federal Law out of the hard-right's anti-abortion position, specifically providing NO exception in cases of rape or incest. I'm sorry - is THIS Christian compassion or punishment?
Worse still, GOP Governors and legislatures have also taken up this war, enacting legislation at the state level to limit abortions and access to birth control, as well as forcing onerous pre-abortion consultations and exams which are patently designed to make abortion as difficult as possible to obtain.
Over 40 bills in 2012 and over 60 bills in 2011 were enacted at the state level. (from Reuters via Huffington Post)
In most cases, these laws are being driven by GOP governors and legislators, urged on by the insidious influence of:
4 - Religious Fundamentalism
The First Amendment to the Constitution of The United States guarantees a separation of church and state, but for decades, the GOP has been embarked on a plan to bring government under the thrall of Christian fundamentalists.
One need only look at the rise of political influence in recent decades to see the alarming trend of religious figures, especially Christian Fundamentalists, to involve themselves in political matters and political races, in some cases even going so far as to endorse specific candidates, potentially risking the tax-exempt status of their churches in the process.
All during the Republican primary season, religious fundamentalism was on full view, from the campaign of Rick Santorum to that of Gov. Rick Perry.
Candidate and presumptive nominee Romney has gone hard-right in his pandering to ultra-conservative religious values voters, and the presence of Ryan on the ticket give no reassurance that Romney would be able to moderate those views, should he somehow be elected.
But the danger of religious fundamentalism pales compared to the danger of unlimited wealthy individuals influencing our election outcomes with their money:
5 - The GOP prefers Plutocracy in lieu of Democracy
Undue influence by the wealthy is being enabled by a GOP that supports a plutocracy in which the rich call the shots for the nation, turning America into a nation "of the rich, by the rich, for the rich".
One need only look to the Supreme Court's unprecedented and disastrous "Citizens United" decision as proof of the GOP's intention to put control of our elections, and consequently, our elected officials, into the hands of millionaires and billionaires, despite that fact that in some cases, their wealth was gained through convoluted and barely legal "tax avoidance' schemes, and through financial exploitation of the middle class by Wall Street firms and "too big to fail" banks who owe their continuing existence to the generosity of American taxpayers.
In addition, the proliferation of "dark money" Super PACs, whose contributors remain unnamed, has seriously warped the electoral process in favor of "fee speech" by billionaires to the detriment of "free speech" by "we the people".
Never let it be said that negative ads don't work - they DO, especially if pounded into the electorate's minds mercilessly - the fact that we don't know WHO is paying for these ads is HIGHLY disturbing.
A further extrapolation of the right's embrace of wealthy businessmen is:
7 - The GOP's War on Organized Labor
In recent years, we have seen unprecedented attacks on the collective bargaining rights of working men and women from all walks of life, and especially those who are public sector employees.
This is not a random attack. If one checks who is responsible for political campaign ads, one can see that the biggest Democratic advertising campaigns have been funded by labor unions.
By attacking unions, the GOP is perpetrating a craven attempt to undermine the finances of their largest financing alternative.
They are also attempting to silence the voices of workers protesting about working conditions that are continually being manipulated to the advantage of the employer, and against the interests of the worker.
To assist in muting the voices of "we the people", there's:
8 - The GOP's War on Voting
Prosecuting a national campaign based upon the supposition that rampant "Voter Fraud" exists nationwide, GOP state legislations and governors have proposed, and in some states enacted, laws to make voting more difficult, primarily for poor, and minority citizens.
Despite the fact that there is absolutely NO evidence of "voter fraud" being a problem, these laws would appear to be partisan "solutions in search of a problem". One has to be particularly clueless to dismiss these laws as "non-partisan", especially with the cat being let out of the bag quite clearly by PA House Majority Leader Mike Turzai:
âÂÂPro-Second Amendment? The Castle Doctrine, itâÂÂs done. First pro-life legislation â abortion facility regulations â in 22 years, done. Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done,âÂÂ
Read more: http://www.politico.com/...
VOTERS in SWING STATES BEWARE - in Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania especially, these laws have been enacted to discourage non-Republican voters and diminish the numbers of those who will actually be able to show up and vote.
In order to win at all costs, the GOp not only has to diminish the number of independent and Democratic voters who can cast votes that get counted, but they also have to rev up their own voters, to show up in great numbers.
To do that, they just LIE
9 - Lies, Damn Lies and GOP Campaign Talking Points
Ex-Gov. Romney and his running mate Rep. Ryan have deliberately and continually misrepresented (read; LIED) about President Obama's $716 Billion Medicare savings, characterizing it as "Raiding Medicare to fund Obamacare".
This point has been thoroughly debunked as LIES, yet the candidates continue to repeat them over and over. Why?
They have also recently lied about taking the work requirement out of welfare. This is another GOP "dog whistle" designed to scare white people (the GOP base) about "that one" (McCain's pet phrase to describe President Obama)
and let's NOT forget about the continuing attempts to paint President Obama as an "illegitimate President" suggesting he wasn't really born an American citizen.
But the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution says otherwise:
AMENDMENT XIV
Passed by Congress June 13, 1866. Ratified July 9, 1868.
Note: Article I, section 2, of the Constitution was modified by section 2 of the 14th amendment.
Section 1.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
And even if he WAS born outside the USA,
he would STILL be a citizen, by virtue of his parents' citizenship.
Because the GOP have no REAL positive plans on which to run, they must turn this campaign into one that attacks President Obama's credibility, and denigrates his legislative accomplishments achieved in spite of Republican congressional stonewalling.
As if all the proceeding arguments weren't enough, there's this:
10 - Mitt Romney is unsuitable for the highest office
There are FAR TOO MANY questions left unanswered about Mit Romney and his past actions - For example, was he actually qualified to run for Governor of Massachusetts when he ran? In which state had he claimed residency? Utah? or Massachusetts?
Residency issues have plagued Mitt Romney in the past. When he campaigned for governor of Massachusetts in 2002, he ran into trouble because he had switched his residency to Utah three years earlier when he moved to Park City to take over the struggling Salt Lake Olympic operation. The move technically made him ineligible to run for office in Massachusetts, which requires seven years of continuous state residency before a candidate is eligible to run. After a lot of legal wrangling and paying back taxes, he was finally allowed on the ballot.
Then there's Romney's complete lack of understanding of what happens when companies go under:
"Let Detroit go Bankrupt" by Mitt Romney
One need only read the first paragraph to see Romney's incredibly bad judgement:
IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It wonâÂÂt go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.
While making this incredible pronouncement, Romney showed just how tone deaf he was to the potential horrific job losses in auto-related industries.
This is somewhat surprising, since a number of his Bain Capital acquisitions did exactly that - they went bankrupt after Bain loaded them down with unsustainable debt loads, while raking off millions in profits prior to the company's demise.
Mitt - if corporations are, in fact, people, is there a murder case to be made since you have killed a number of them.
Mitt Romney's secret tax returns
What is Mitt Romney hiding in his tax returns?
Unlike his father George Romney, who pioneered the release of multiple years of tax returns, Mitt seems bound and determined to keep the American public from seeing tax returns from earlier than 2010 and 2011. Why? What is there in his past that is worth keeping hidden despite his campaign is getting wounded by being continually attacked on this topic?
Paul Ryan's ultra right-wing views
And let's not just leave it at the Presidential Candidate. VP Candidate Paul Ryan's views on the budget have made him a darling of the right, but his budget would decimate Medicare now and in the future, costing seniors thousands each year in additional premiums, and likely resulting in the eventual end of Medicare.
And THAT is right in line with what Republicans have been trying to do medicare since Democratic President Johnson first signed the law that enacted it, in 1965.
Any program, it seems, that benefits "we the people' is a fair target for the GOP to gut, slash, destroy or repeal, EVEN the Affordable Care Act, which has provided health insurance coverage for hundreds of thousands of Americans who did not have any before its passage.
The GOP House has attempted thirty-three times to repeal the ACA -
Think of what could have been accomplished instead in those wasted hours!
How many helpful laws could have been enacted to get our economy growing?
how many jobs could have been created?
The summary of this whole post is:
THIS election should NOT be a referendum on President Obama's presidency since that Presidency has been hobbled by deliberate Republican legislative sabotage. This was EXACTLY the GOP plan from January 2009 - screw up the works, then blame Obama when it came time for re-election.
What this IS, rather, is an election about CHOICE -
which America do YOU want to live in?
Do you desire an America "OF the people, BY the people, FOR the people" where everyone gets a fair shot, and everyone pays their fair share of taxes?
or do you prefer the Republican's "matrix-like" dream world, an American Plutocratic nightmare in which the rich keep electing Republicans to do their legislative bidding, while the rest of us (the shrinking middle class) continue to slide into poverty until, in the not too distant future, America has achieved "The Gilded Age 2.0" in which the wealthy have become our royalty and the rest of us are their serfs.
Is plutocracy 2012 what our founding fathers envisioned their grand experiment would become, or, instead, is this EXACTLY the kind of financial opression they rebelled against when America was founded?
It makes you think!
Now make sure you can vote in November, and vote for the future of America!