The Sound of Silence....

Hey there  folks...

Yes I am  still  alive and kicking.   I know,  I   have not posted in a while. Sorry about that.   I don't really have a good excuse other than  "well, I've been busy...ya' know?"   Which really isn't  all that good of a reason.    Truth be told,  after watching  the start of the  U.S.  2012 Presidential election  campaign kick off  last month,  with the  Iowa straw poll.  I wanted to blog about it,  but every time I would try  to write something,  I'd just get annoyed and develop a headache. 

Why?  Because,  as the 2012 campaign begins,  it looks like  United States  is once again poised to prove our stupidity  to the rest of the world.  

The current  crop of  Republican GOP  candidates are at best,  mindless dolts who honestly think destroying  the  middle class,  and turning America into a third world nation of  a few have-it-all's and a mass of  have-not's is a good idea.   Or,  they  are  at worst, Anti-American right wing theocratic wingnuts,   who truly  hate our freedoms as much as any Islamic extremist  ever did.   At this point, it is honestly hard to tell which is the case.   

The most  recent Republican to throw his ten gallon hat into the ring is current  Texas Governor, Rick Perry.   Who, among other things,  thinks creationism should replace teaching evolution in schools, and thinks that  God is telling him  to run  for President. 

People over here on this side of the Atlantic  ask me if  the  Republican Party could be even remotely serious about nominating "another one".  Meaning another Texas Governor with a frail grasp on reality and a penchant for confusing the voices in his head  with divine instruction.  I'd like to  assure them that  America is not THAT stupid, but  the most recent  CNN Republican presidential poll, suggests that at least, on the  Republican side, America may be just that stupid...

According to a CNN poll released this week, Perry has a commanding lead among Republican voters nationally.

The rest of the crop of  GOP candidates is just as much  fun.  You have  former Pennsylvania  Senator Rick Santorum, and  Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachman.  Both of whom think the greatest  crisis facing America,  is all those Gay couples getting married.   According to both  Santorum and Bachman, recent moves towards  marriage equality in the U.S. are responsible for;  (among other things...)  Unemployment,  the recent earthquake that rattled the American East Coast,  Hurricane Irene, and  bad weather in general.  

Not to be left out,  Perry, along with former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney; ( who up until  Rick Perry joined the field, was himself the GOP front runner).  Quickly signed on to a "pledge" by the right wing hate group  "The National Organization for Marriage",  basically  promising to ban all civil rights  for LGBT Americans,  and make fighting for those rights a crime. 

If that isn't enough fun and frolic for you ,  according to the  entire GOP field,  ALL forms of government regulation are  bad.. very very bad.    Especially anything that  regulates  what corporations can do to their employees,  their customers or the environment.   Oh, and  anything that protects workers,  consumers or  the environment is now  referred to as  "job killing"  in all GOP/Fox News talking points.

Along those same lines.   Anyone who is in the top one-tenth of one percent in terms of income in the United States,  according to the GOP should not have to pay taxes. 

The reason being , the uber-wealthy are  all magical  "job creators".  And paying taxes  might hurt their feelings, and then they wouldn't  create all those  wonderful jobs that  they  did during the Bush years thanks to those magical tax cuts...  Oh, wait,  I guess that  didn't  actually happen.  

Not ones to be  held back by facts, the  GOP candidates are once again  preaching  the gospel  of  "trickle down economics".   If we just give more money to those who already have  lots of money,  then  it will all somehow trickle down to everyone else.   (Remember that one from the Reagan years? )

 But  according to the GOP, we can't  require the "job creators" to use all that money to create jobs,  because that would be unfair.  So  when the top one-tenth of one percent  takes all that money and  just pockets it,  creating no jobs whatsoever,  folks like Perry and Ron Paul will insist it's not really their fault,  it's (wait for it... )  according to  GOP hopefuls,   all that Government Regulation that  has gotten in the way. 

These people are seriously insane.   So if the current  2012 GOP field is  so  utterly  wacktacular,  why am I worried?  Simple,   I am worried because  the American electorate  has a ridiculously short attention span and a  track record voting against  their own best interests.   

Add to that,  the painful truth that  President Obama's first term  has been one long experiment in  poltical  weakness.   

The Republican Party discovered early on, the sad and very inconvenient truth that  President Obama, is a good man, an intelligent man, who is very weak.   President Obama is not a Leader, he is a negotiator, and not a very good one. On issue after issue, from Health Care Reform, to Wall Street Reform, Congressional Republicans, found that President Obama, would accept a really bad agreement, if they simply threatened to leave him with  no agreement at all.

As a result, the GOP learned very quickly , that it was all too easy to back the President into a corner, where his natural urge to "find common ground", meant he would abandon his stated principles and simply give in.  All the while making very eloquent statements about the value of bi-partisanship.  

So now  we have the beginning of  the 2012 election campaign where President Obama's one major accomplishment,  health insurance reform, is in fact a motivating issue for Republicans,  who are now campaigning on  the "I promise to repeal Obama-care" bandwagon.   

Obama-Biden 2012, will be a tough sell to many Americans, who vote based on one question and one question only;  "Are you better off now than you were 4 years ago?"   The answer for far too many Americans is sadly,  no.   

It doesn't  bode well, when the only real answer the Obama Administration has come up with so far to that stark reality,  is to say;  "But...think how much WORSE it COULD have been if we hadn't been here!" 

It's like telling someone who is unemployed, "Hey!  At least you don't have malaria!"   Factually true, but unhelpful.

My fear is President Obama will simply campaign like  he did in 2008,  and the American electorate will do exactly what  he told them to do back then...   Vote for change.