"There are municipalities, there are states where there is flight of population, and as the population goes down, you need fewer teachers. As technology contributes to community security and dealing with issues that firefighters have to issue, you would hope that you can as a taxpayer see the benefits of the efficiency in personnel you can get out of that."
With each passing day, we learn more and more about the complete agenda of the 21St Century Republican Party. In the citation above, former New Hampshire Gov. John H. Sununu, a surrogate for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, defended the presumptive Republican nominee's comments that the nation should have fewer teachers, firefighters and police officers, saying there was "wisdom" in Romney's remarks.
He went on to boldly admit that corporations and businesses are holding on to money that could be used for investment and new jobs in the economy to see whether Obama will be re-elected in 2012. In other words, they are holding the economy of nation hostage unless they get they get what they want with regards to continued tax breaks and fewer regulations. What hubris! To even admit that.
They have also joined forces with their right wing evangelical supporters to try to undo all of the human rights advances we made in this country since 1960. They want women returned to their proper place in our society to the Mad Men days of the 1950’s. Why should they have a choice to do what they wish with their own bodies? In their greed and hypocrisy, they will satisfy the beast on their right wing with promises of even reversing the racial advances we made since the civil rights movement of the 60’s, vis a vis affirmative action. They are not racists themselves but will cater to the racist elements who came out of the woodwork when they woke up on the morning after the 2008 election to discover that a “black man” was elected president of their white country.
They are using their corporate profits and inherited wealth to buy Republican congressmen and governors like Scott Walker and Rick Scott. With that, they have succeeded in killing off the already weak labor movement in this country so that they can move toward finally getting back “the obedient workers” they had before organized labor asserted itself in the beginning of the 19th century.
Not only do they want to repeal Obama’s mealy mouthed health care initiative but by adopting the Ryan budget but they want to privatize our entitlements that we fought so hard for in the past 50 years, leaving even senior citizens at the mercy of corporate healthcare companies. As for Medicaid and food stamps for the poor---well their solution to that is to create menial jobs at so that they can force them to accept bare subsistence wages in order to survive. My God! It was Richard Nixon who initiated the Food Stamp program.
They are waging this war openly against women, gays, teachers and all other public employees, immigrants, people of color and labor unions. And it appears they may be winning. They have the money, the power, the freely elected congress and the Supreme Court on their side. They are also succeeding because they all walk in lock step with each other. All of the various factions, moderate and extreme are united in this. The Democratic Party is not.
We need a third party--- a progressive party made up of all of the various liberal organizations and movements. I get emails from dozens of different special interest groups ranging from the Sierra Club to the Dream Act people all working at cross purposes with each other. It is time to unite under one flag and admit that we are a divided country that is at war with each other. We need one party , one annual conference, one platform and maybe even some local candidates for election.
This doesn’t mean we have to foolishly split the Democratic vote in presidential and gubernatorial elections. We don’t need another Nader like spinoff in Florida that cost us the election in 2000. We will continue to support the Democratic Party as the lesser of two evils. Actually, we need a Bernie Sanders approach and win elections where we can.
They may have the money, the power and maybe even the national majority to return to power in 2012. But they still need us to purchase their products and services. They need us to visit their Red States as tourists. They need us to teach their children and cater to their sick. Most of all they need us to behave ourselves and not close out streets near Wall St in good weather or march on State Capitols. They don’t need our religious leaders to speak out from their pulpits and embarrass them when they bring their children to services.
Even if we win in 2012, I believe we need to do this to reverse the trend that started 30 years ago with Ronald Reagan. If we don’t there will be only two classes—at the top and bottom of our economy. History tells us that may not be pleasant.
Comments are closed on this story.