USA 2011: I think it is pretty much like this…. We will all pay for it in the end.

Tom Spencer/Texas hat uns ein paar Gedanken zur Situation in den USA geschickt. (foto: spencer)
Tom Spencer/Texas hat uns ein paar ehrliche Gedanken zur Situation in den USA geschickt. (foto: spencer)

The grandfatherly face of responsible Conservatism (Ronald Reagan) is gone.

In his place the ever dogma influenced Republican party has inserted the hatchet-faced visage of neo conservatism, Eric Cantor, a man who doesn’t understand as Ronald Reagan did, that things could get worse… have been and will be if the debt limit isn’t raised.

That’s where we are going. All the people who knew that things could be worse are dying off and guys like Eric Cantor who haven’t seen any real hardship in their lives are posturing to Dogma. Young guys and girls like Eric Cantor have never seen any hardships to match the effects of defaulting on the national debt. Anyone who supports that position is uniformed, dogma driven, and naïve.

No tax increases is the mantra of Tea Party influenced politicians. It is a destructive dogma. Our infrastructure crumbles and yet we yell no taxes.

I am the son of moderate to conservative Goldwater Republicans. I worked and believed in a reasonable Republican agenda of smaller government and a responsible population. I am a pragmatist, I will pay for what works and I am performance based and data driven. But, data doesn’t suit anyone’s dogma. “The tax legislation enacted under President George W. Bush from 2001 through 2006 cost $2.48 trillion over the 2001-2010 period. This includes the revenue loss of $2.11 trillion that results directly from the Bush tax cuts as well as the $379 billion in additional interest payments on the national debt that we must make since the tax cuts were deficit-financed.

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/study-bush-tax-cuts-cost-more-twice-m

We need to repeal the Bush tax cuts and return to the Clinton era rates…they worked just fine as I see it.

I supported the original Bush bailout because I believed it was the only way to avert a financial calamity that would have precipitated a depression… conservatives who have a limited understanding of our financial underpinnings said let it happen it doesn’t matter. Now the same types are playing with shutting down the Gov’t. Those who have always been and are comfortable now don’t understand the potential real consequences. One of the problems with dogma is that it forces perfect to be the enemy of the good.

Americans are so used to listening to what someone says on TV and believing it if they hear it enough times. I call it our videofied mentality. Thus the Republicans stay on message so perfectly. The media handlers of the Reagan era really understood the use of the media and taught it to the Republican Party. They knew the image and appeal of their candidate was more the result of Death Valley Days, GE Theater, and “Win One for the Gipper” than is was about his policies.

Now extremists, both religious and social, have taken over my former party and let people like Glen Beck and Michelle Bachman speak for the party. It’s a downhill slide. Gives a good fiscally responsible Republican a bad name. You notice I didn’t say fiscally conservative. I believe fiscally responsible is a much more necessary characteristic. I believe, as does Warren Buffet, that to whom much is given much is expected. We have become a culture of “I got mine to Hell with you.”

We will all pay for it in the end.

Wahlen in den USA: „Money takes care of Money. Always has, always will“. Ein Kommentar.

Tom Spencer/Texas kommentiert die US-Wahlen (foto: spencer)
Tom Spencer/Texas kommentiert für uns die US-Wahlen (foto: spencer)

Tom Spencer, ein alter Freund aus Denton/TX, ist nicht das, was man einen Südstaatler oder Konservativen nennt. Er betreibt im US – amerikanischen Bundesstaat Texas sein kleines „business“, engagiert sich in der Lokalpolitik und ist ein unabhängiger Kopf, dessen Meinung über die US-Politik wir immer gerne zu Rate ziehen. Wenige Stunden vor dem Ausgang der Wahlen in den USA baten wir Tom um eine Einschätzung.

Hier seine Stellungnahme noch vor Schließung der Wahllokale:

I will … In a few hours, but I’ll tell you now the Democrats will lose control of the house and maybe the Senate, but that is less likely.

The corporate and political action money flowing into the campaigns is ludicrous. $3 Billion. The conservative right has done nothing but say no and Obama let the most liberal Democrats be the face of his administration. Nancy Pelosi has been demonized in the right wing media and on the internet.

The American Public has what I call a videofied mentality. They get all their news from TV so they get sold propaganda ….about everything.

I also think that here in the South and to some degree nationwide, that many Americans have a problem with a black man attaining a status or position they can never see themselves attaining. Call it a latent racism or “white folk” insecurity.

It may be a good thing that Republicans and the Tea Party activists do get control, so everyone will see they haven’t got any thing either. The fickle public has forgotten that the pro business deregulation policies of the business class and Republicans running our government have put us all at jeopardy. Under the guise of individual freedom and responsibility, fiscal conservatism has come to mean „I got mine, to Hell with you.“

Many of the small government types want to shut down big government. Dogma has no room for nuance, so they take a meat cleaver approach to policy. Let’s see how long my spoiled fellow Americans will be pro Tea Party or conservative dogma if they don’t get their garbage picked up or their social security check stop coming? Not long I’d wager. It really isn’t about Democrats versus Republicans. Money takes care of Money. Always has, always will.

More later

Tom