Time for Work or
Politics?
Tony E Hansen
25 Jan 2012
Tony E Hansen
25 Jan 2012
Over
the course of the past few months (and years), GOP candidates have been ramping
up claims that there are problems with President Obama’s leadership.
Interestingly, they have also frankly stated that their number one goal is to “stop”
Obama. Their focus is upon making Obama a one-term president: not job creation,
not deficits, not wars, not civility and definitely not helping middle class
Americans survive the Great Recession. Workers, rights, jobs, research, cost of
education, military and such clearly are not in the interests of the GOP.
There
has never been any hope for bipartisan efforts because that has been contrary
to the GOP focus since Obama was elected (especially since gaining control of
the House). Within hours of his election
(before even taking office), his policies were declared “failures” with no
alternative proposed and no evidence to showcase these purported failures. Just
because the talking heads say “Obama” and “failure” in the same sentence, herds
of “sheep” go around bleating mindlessly this characterization with an eye on embarrassing
Obama rather than addressing serious issues facing the United States. Perhaps
the economy could have a chance to recover quicker with help from those on the
right, but instead they choose to play the role of hecklers and thorns-in-the-side
of Obama.
The
right-wingers have continuously voted to block government efforts without
regard to the needs of the American public. Essentially, they have put
politics ahead of doing the work they were elected to do (e.g. governing).
This, at a time in American history, when people need responsible government
and the government needs to keep the economy from going into tailspins. They
want to discuss the validity of birth certificates, failed notions of
supply-side economics, or bailouts of companies (forgetting that we subsidize
large corporations with far more money year after year). They have brought our
financial stability into question without handling deficit spending, rather
than attempting to solve the issues.
They want to argue morality issues despite acting like spoiled
adolescents willing to jeopardize global markets through their inaction towards
budgets and fiscal matters. Even fellow Democrats have been willing to throw
Obama under the bus when he is not as progressive or liberal as they would like.
We
hear so much about freedom of religion so long as you are practicing a certain
type of Christianity. That is a mockery of religious freedom. As if to believe something different is
painfully inconvenient, people like Santorum want to reverse the gains in
equality and recognition of rights because that does not fit his contorted view
of fundamental Christianity. These people want to protect the unborn but are completely
happy with sending kids to die overseas fighting in Islamic countries. Are we fighting terrorists or are we becoming
them? These people want to introduce legislation
that extends “personhood” to the unborn, but does that also change when the “birthday?”
Maybe these God-fearing right wingers are content with sending kids that are
not even old enough to drink to die in battle because they do not want to clean
up the streets at home.
One
has to question whether these people even care to read the material (e.g. bills
and laws) they are discussing or just wait for O’Reilly and his type to declare
baseless talking points. Consider some
of these guys did not believe there was a recession and they thought that the pessimism
of the past years was completely unwarranted.
As someone who works in the utility industry, I can assure you that
there were dramatic reductions in commercial and industrial energy use during
the past few years that warranted pessimism.
People
are so blinded by rhetoric that they do not see what Obama has accomplished in
the last few years. We forget there were some really pressing issues that
needed to be handled, and without intervention, these issues would have sunk
the domestic and global economies. Even without the help of Congress, the Obama
administration has managed to save entire domestic industries from collapse.
Despite the posturing by the GOP in the Senate, we have long awaited health
reforms that will surely breed more changes to cut medical costs. Despite the
behavior of the GOP, Obama has moved forward with programs to help homeowners
and to help with education loans. Despite
the Congressional impasses, Obama has signed measures that will reduce budget
deficits by half over the next few years. Despite the roadblocks set by Congress,
he managed to keep our economy from going into a complete depression while he
got Bin Laden and helped to topple Gaddafi.
We
know that job creation does not happen simply when taxes are low (we have the
lowest tax rates in decades despite high unemployment numbers). We know that more money to the top 1% does
not “trickle down” to “raise all boats.”
That 1% benefits when the 99% are able to do things. We do know when
more people have discretionary incomes; the economy can grow because more
people can buy more products. Yet, the
GOP cares more about protecting the 1% than letting them share the burdens of
capitalism.
Over
the next few months, we are going to hear more distortions and ridicule from
various candidates. Americans have to
realize that despite the awful set of circumstances; Obama helped the United
States weather a big storm. Hopefully,
we can realize a better future when we are able to fully implement a recovery
instead of these temporary emergency bandages. Maybe with a little help from
others in government, we can see a recovery that works for all Americans rather
than a select few as proposed by the several GOP candidates.
We
need substantial work from Congress rather than this rhetorical garbage that
paints falsehoods and ignores reality. Tell Congress to get beyond the
pettiness and do what they were elected to do: govern.