Why Americans have no confidence in Republicans

Conversation overheard on a street near the nation’s Capitol building.

Person 1: (In a panic) What was that loud boom? Was it an earthquake? A sonic boom? Are we under attack? Where is the nearest fallout shelter?

Person 2: Don’t worry. It’s just the sound of Republicans caving. You’ll get used to it after a while. It occurs quite often, especially around this time of year. Relax.

Yes, it’s an all too familiar sound in Washington, D.C. No one is surprised by it.

You may not be able to hear the boom or feel the tremors emanating from Washington, D.C. from your spot hinter lands, but the results are felt by every American: a sluggish economy, joblessness, higher prices, stagnant wages, vacant buildings and ailing businesses. Continue reading “Why Americans have no confidence in Republicans” →

The GOP’s Uphill Battle

The Republican Party is ailing. Sure, the 2012 presidential election was close but, reality is, the GOP hasn’t won an overwhelming presidential race in 24 long years.

Its illness doesn’t appear to be acute or life-threatening, particularly at the state level where Republicans hold 30 governorships. It’s at the national level where the patient is getting weaker and a sense of hopelessness has set in. This despair can cause a downward spiral which, if untreated, can lead to a slow, painful death.

The man who holds the GOP’s medical power of attorney is Rance Priebus, the chairman of Republican National Committee. He recently subjected this patient to exploratory surgery and the results were published for all to see.

The biggest problem with the Grand Old Party isn’t its strong stand on law and order or the moral issues, as some have suggested. It’s the second word in its three-word handle. It’s OLD! The brand has grown stale and out-of-touch. Among the words most often used to describe the GOP is that it’s a party of “stuffy old men.” Continue reading “The GOP’s Uphill Battle” →

It IS all about the Platform (not the Personality or the Party)

I find it a bit ironic that leading Democrat spokespeople are now downplaying the importance of their party’s platform, particularly since they spent a good portion of last week talking about the “extreme” Republican Platform.

The truth is this election, and every election, is all about the platform. A platform is to the candidate, what the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are to the United States of America. The platform is what each candidate is all about, what he supports and promises to do if elected to assume (or continue in) the role of the nation’s chief executive. Continue reading “It IS all about the Platform (not the Personality or the Party)” →

Whom do You Trust?

The question for voters in the 2012 election is not, “Whom do you trust?” but, “What do you trust?” It’s not about Obama versus a Republican candidate, regardless of who he or she may be. It’s about your basic philosophy of government.

Do you put your trust in the free market or do you trust the government to give you a better life?

Continue reading “Whom do You Trust?” →

Give the Lady a Break

Liberals hate professional conservative women because they fly in the face of left-wing dogma. That is a given. But, why is it that so many on the right refuse to give accomplished women like Michele Bachmann their due?

I secretly hoped that Bachmann would not enter the 2012 presidential race. Frankly, I didn’t want to be put in a position of having to defend her considerable accomplishments. It’s a thankless job.

Nevertheless, now that Bachmann is in this race, can’t we give her a break? Continue reading “Give the Lady a Break” →

End Oil — No — All Subsidies

The president has renewed his call to end the billions of dollars in oil subsidies so that he can “invest” the savings into alternative energy vehicles. House Speaker John Boehner got caught up in the rhetoric and put his foot firmly in his mouth. The speaker indicated that he might be interested in eliminating the subsidies for all but “small independent oil and gas companies.”

It is no secret that the Obama Administration wanted $5 a gallon gasoline. Now that the president has achieved this goal, he is looking to deflect public outrage by beating up on the oil and gas companies, again. But is Boehner pilling on? And what about eliminating tax breaks and subsidies for “big oil” but not “little oil”?

Continue reading “End Oil — No — All Subsidies” →

The Flimflam Artist Versus the Green Eye Shade

The response to the annual State of the Union address usually receives about as much attention as a quilting contest.

If the State of the Union address is a yawner, than the response is a sleeper: a deep, deep sleeper.

Not this year. With the country’s economy stagnant and jobs as scarce as boyfriends for Ellen DeGeneres, we were ready for the unvarnished truth and that is exactly what we got from Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

Continue reading “The Flimflam Artist Versus the Green Eye Shade” →

What’s that smell coming from D.C.?

If you are going to clean out a refrigerator, you start with the part that smells. In Washington, it’s pork, not in the frig, but on Capitol Hill. This pork, otherwise known as an “earmark,” is a project that is slipped into a bill by a lawmaker that circumvents the merit-based or competitive process and serves a narrow or special interest.

An infamous one that shows up almost every year is “wood utilization research.” We’re spending $4,841,000 on new ways to use wood (trees) this year. Has anyone heard of paper bags? I’ll give it to you for free and you can save taxpayers $4.8 million. That’s a perfectly good use for wood. However, many cities now are trying to ban paper bags in order to save trees! The irony of it all!

These projects add up. Citizens Against Government Waste has documented 109,952 of them worth $307.8 billion since 1991. Continue reading “What’s that smell coming from D.C.?” →

After the 2010 Election: The Follow-Through

Every athlete knows the importance of the follow-through. Once you hit or release a ball, it will not reach its intended target unless the athlete stays engaged until the projectile is well on its way to the desired destination.

If the 2010 election was about cleaning out the entrenched political elites who have run up a staggering national debt and mortgaged our future, then the 2012 election must be about the “follow through.”

Gone are the days when voters can afford to wake up a couple of weeks before an election and, once it’s over, hit the snooze button for another two years. Continue reading “After the 2010 Election: The Follow-Through” →

Bobble Heads vs. Wing Nuts

The bobble heads who rule the two major political parties refer to outsiders as “wing nuts,” which is short for “right-wing nuts.” No bobble head ever views a left-winger as a “nut.” If so, he or she keeps quiet about it. To do otherwise might make one appear “extreme” and the left-wing bobble heads, which dominate the news media, would say or write mean things about them.

Bobble heads are those little plastic dolls that are images of major the political figures. They show up every election year on the dashboards and office desks of the party faithful. Unfortunately, party leaders, behave in much the same way as these miniature characters. With the slightest breeze or movement, the heads of these dolls bob up and down on a spring. They are incapable of nodding right to left as if saying “no.” In fact, the party establishment seems incapable of saying “no” to anything proposed by the party’s top elected official, no matter how unreasonable or harmful an idea may be. Continue reading “Bobble Heads vs. Wing Nuts” →