We Can't Do It!

-
Here is reason #652 why I'm no longer a Republican. Once upon a time, this country accomplished pretty much everything it set out to do.
  • Defeat the Nazis. We did it.
  • End racial segregation. We did it.
  • Put a man on the moon (during war time, no less). We did it.
  • Conserve energy during an oil embargo. We did it.
We used to be a "can-do" nation. But as the extreme right-wing nuts have taken over the once respectable Republican party, they keep telling us we can't do the things we need to do.
  • Let people marry whoever they choose, regardless of their sexual orientation? It goes against the Bible, so we can't do it.
  • Make our transportation systems more efficient and comfortable by modernizing passenger trains and developing high speed rail corridors? It's too expensive and government shouldn't be subsidizing trains (even though we subsidize roads, airports, waterways and shipping ports), so we can't do it.
  • Develop environmentally friendly energy sources to clean up the Earth's atmosphere? It will cost too much, hurt the economy, and besides, that's just part of the liberal agenda, so we can't do it.
  • Provide affordable health care for all? That would be socialism, which is bad, so we can't do it.
I notice the Republican party has no plan of its own for health care. During eight years of the Bush administration our energy policies focused on more oil, merely delaying the inevitable decline in oil supplies and ignoring global warming concerns. Bush also made several attempts to eliminate the few interstate passenger trains we have left. And those sticklers for strict interpretation of the constitution seem to conveniently forget that religious dogma can't be used as a policy making tool under the first amendment.

Right-wing blowhards on radio and cable TV have resorted to fabricating facts about health care reform, and have gotten their listeners to believe them without question, as evidenced by their behavior at many town hall meetings on the subject. The GOP used to be the more civilized party, but now they can't discuss anything without resorting to lies, name calling, and shouting.

They're treating every political issue as a sporting event where the goal is not to accomplish something worthy, but to defeat the opponent. They hide behind the Bible to profess their purity, and proclaim themselves as innocent victims. Yet, like the Taliban, their only goal is to attack anyone who tries to move forward to a better world. They have no constructive ideas of their own. Their ideology blinds them to the real needs of real people. If it doesn't fit within their narrow world view, we can't do it.

Stop it and grow up.
Tags:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The problem with Car Week

-
Image
So another Car Week has come to and gone from the Monterey Peninsula. And as usual the community is divided into two camps. On one side we have people who are frustrated with the traffic, crowds, and noise. The other side is telling these folks to stop whining because "it's good for the economy." The second group has no sympathy for the first, and often goes as far as telling them to move away if they don't like special events and the tourists that come along with them. How did this come about? Car week evolved slowly over several decades. The core event is known as the Concours d'Elegance (which is pronounced properly by maybe half of the local population). The Concours began in 1950 as a single Sunday display of classic automobiles. I remember going there as a kid once, after Sunday School. I watched my dad run his hand over a smoothly polished fender, so I did the same. Suddenly a very cranky man came up behind me saying "NO, NO! FINGERPRINTS!" as
Read more

Calling the police has gotten harder

-
Image
It has gotten harder to call the police. The last few weeks I have made several attempts to report illegal fireworks to Seaside PD. We've always used the non-emergency number 831-394-6811 to do this, and our call would be promptly answered by a dispatcher who would take the information and immediately enter it into the system. Now one must jump through several hoops with no guarantee the system won't disconnect you before the report is made. And I'm getting fed up. Instead of having our calls answered by a human, a machine will answer, much as it does for every business you call these days. First it tells you that this number is not for emergencies, and if you have an emergency you must hang up and call 911. Then they say it again in Spanish.  Next, you are instructed to choose English or Spanish. Next it tells you that they're busy answering emergency 911 calls and implies that your non-emergency concern is an imposition on their important work. Then the voice asks
Read more

Oh, Nikki, you're better at math than that.

-
Image
And then there were two. Earlier tonight I watched part of the debate between Republican presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis. DeSantis is a jerk, and I can't take him seriously. Haley, on the other hand is a smart gal, and offers some hope for bringing some level of sanity back to the Republican party. But she often dumbs things down to appeal to the simple-minded (mostly Trumpers), and that drives me nuts. Case on point: Haley promised that if elected she would eliminate the federal gasoline tax to reduce the tax burden on working class Americans. Moderator Dana Bash pointed out that the federal gas tax raises over $50 billion annually and is used build and maintain highways and bridges. She then asked Haley how she would pay for those things without it. Haley responded first by evading the question and talking about taxes in general. But eventually she got back around to the gas tax. She employed a classic Republican talking point saying the states collect the
Read more