Republican Supporters Lack Facts and Common Sense

Now I know what you're thinking "That's a very harsh statement to make there. How dare you insult all of us." Before you come after me with pitch forks and torches (shameless plug for Keith Olbermann's new book) hear me out. Most rural and small town Republicans join the GOP because of the issue of the Second Amendment and gun rights. What the Republicans forgot to tell you was that Democrats don't want to take away your guns, that it's all a big myth conjured up with the NRA to scare you. Take for instance this exchange between Rachel Maddow and some GOP Senate candidate Joe Miller supporters on her recent trip to Alaska.



I couldn't help but laugh at the ignorance of those supporters. I later did a Google search on Eric Holder and the Second Amendment and the only credible article to support their argument was the ban on assult weapons, which is actually a good thing unless you want everyone to walk around with AK47s. Other than that, nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Do you get my point yet? Those people have nothing to stand on. Let's look at some other examples shall we?
Next up is the issue of the deficit. Now I'm not an expert at economics, but if I recall, it was President Bush who got us into the mess in the first place. When President Clinton left office, we had a record budget surplus and were on track to pay off our debt within a couple years. Instead President Bush wiped away that surplus in the matter of just a year and ballooned out debt to new levels.



So of course the debt isn't going to magically go away after only two years of President Obama being in office because after all it took President Bush eight years to get us in this mess. It's not as if President Obama can clap is hands and suddenly the economy is perfect again like it was under President Clinton. It's going to take at least eight years to get out of this mess, but the steps President Obama took have set us on the right path. As the famous "bikini graph" shows, there has been a steady growth in job creation since President Obama took office, compared to the millions of jobs lost when President Bush was in power.



I know it might appear that we're haeding back down again these past few months, but that was because there were job losses in the government sector as the Census is over now and state and local governments are laying people off because the stimulus money has run out for them. Which brings me to another lie by the GOP, which is that the stimulus didn't work. Clearly it has based on the graph above, but Republicans will only admit it in writing, praising how the money was able to create new jobs in their districts and states, while going on television, mainly Faux News, saying how it was a failure. Wow, I love the smell of hypocricy in the morning. Just like the healthcare reform bill, another lie that deserves its own entry, they are against anything the president does that they know will work and keep Democrats in power for a long time, which is why they wanted to kill the healthreform bill. If only the voters could see the truth behind the Republican lies, the GOP would go the way of the Whig Party in the 1840s.

Ode to Sean Hannity

Unfortunately this is not an original poem by me so I must credit where credit is due to the great comedian John Cleese.

Ode to Sean Hannity
Aping urbanity,
Oozing with vanity,
Plump as a manatee,
Faking humanity,
Journalistic calamity,
Intellectual inanity,
Fox Noise insanity,
You’re a profanity,
Hannity.

Decision 2010, brought to you by McDonald's in association with Koch Industries

Now, you may look at that title and think it's rediculous that a fast food chain would be sponsering the midterm elections this year, but it really is not that far fetched thanks to the Citizens United v Federal Elections Comission case the Supreme Court ruled on earlier this year. What this ruling did was let corporations unlimitedly fund campaign ads because the court ruled that corporations are protected under the First Amendment. Last I checked this First Amendment said this: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Since when are corporations considered people? Are they living breathing things? Can they give birth? Can they use the bathroom? I didn't think so. Corporations already have great influence in government through lobbying groups, do they really need to have a say in who is elected? We're quickly moving from a democracy, the rule of the many, to an oligarchy, the rule of the few. And what makes it worse is that these corporations aren't directly funding this commercials, but in hiding through fake groups with clever names that make it seem like they really care, such as Americans for Prosperity or 60Plus.org. On the surface, this groups seem legitimate, but once you go deeper you begin to notice that Americans for Prosperity was founded by the Koch brothers as a means for trying to lessen regulations on businesses. 60Plus.org is a cover for Big Pharma to try to dismantle the healthcare reform act, which they call ObamaCare or the healthcare take over, which it is not (but that's a discussion for a later entry.
We need to take this election back from the corporations because we're the majorty and we have the power. If we continue on this path, we will have the socialist revolution the Republicans have feared because the have nots will rise up against the haves. I hope it doesn't come to that.

Post Script: When I wrote this, I used McDonalds in the title because I thought it was so stupid that it was funny. Turns out that not only is it stupid, but it's true. According to ThinkProgress (link to story here) a Canton, OH McDonald's recently handed out flyers advising the employees to vote for Republican candidates:

Democrats, where are your backbones? Part Deux

I know I wrote an entry about this before, but now this is just getting nuts. The general election is coming up and Republicans along with their Tea Party allies and corporate buddies are throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the Democrats, incumbants and newcomers to their races, and Democrats are simply turning the other cheek hoping that their records speak for themselves. Unfortunately it's not working and here in Pennsylvania the three key races in my district are all looking like we're going Red again. Where was that fiery passion that got you into office in the first place. We have seen however a few brave Democrats who want to run on their record and what their opponents want to do to further put our country in a hole. For example:







But this isn't enough. The Republicans have united against the President, so the Democrats need to unite behind the President and against the real radical agenda coming from the right. The Republican and Tea Party candidates have given you so much material to work with it's not even funny. You could run on how the Republicans only care about their interests in big business, big oil, big pharm, and Wall Street. You could run on how their policies help put the country in the current economic state we're in. You could run on how every attempt you made to fix this country, the Republicans blocked in an attempt to make it look like the lack of progress is your fault. You could appeal to senior citizens about how the Republicans still want to privatize Social Security, despite the collapse of Wall Street in 2008. In theory, you should be able to take every seat that is up for election, and maintain or increase your current majorities. Instead you sit on the sidelines taking every hit the Right is giving you. You need to stand up and shout like Representative Anthony Weiner of New York, Alan Grayson of Florida, Barney Frank of Massachusetts, and Senator Al Franken of Minnesota, the ones who are not afraid to stand up and tell it like it is. If you continue to stand idle while the Right sweeps in, it will only spell disaster for the remainder of President Obama's first term. Don't do this for, do it for the country.

How my political views have changed

Just as winds can change a landscape, life these past four years since I've started college have changed my outlook on politics. When I was in high school I considered myself a political moderate, a centrist Democrat that could be swayed to either side depending on the issue. I wasn't afraid to buck my party and side with the Republicans if I happened to agree with their stance on a certain issue. This all changed when the presidential election heated up my sophomore year of college. There were a couple Republicans that impressed me in particular that if worse came to worse, maybe they wouldn't be so bad, a definite improvement over the previous administration. Unfortunately as campaigns went on, I saw a different side of them, one that started to turn me away from the Republicans.
My views became even more changed once President Obama took office and it became clear that the Republican agenda was only to stall and fight the president on every issue he presented. It became clear to me that I was no longer a moderate as I could no longer side with the Republicans on anything. I went through a period of searching, trying to figure out just who I was. It wasn't until I read a book by Ed Schultz that I figured it out; I am a Social Democrat. Now don't confuse this with Socialist as I don't believe in the view of Karl Marx. I believe that the role of the government is to protect the people from not only outside invaders, but from the enemies within; the predatory banks, health insurance companies, Big Oil, Wall Street, and such.
I think that everyone is entitled to the right to live, which is why health insurance reform was needed so that more people can be covered and not have to choose between having food on the table or living a long and full life. I have been blessed that I have health insurance through my parents and even more so now that the reform law extended the dependency age to 26 so that if I don't find a job, at least I can still see a doctor. I also think it's a right that everybody get some sort of affordable education, whether it be at a tradional college or university or at a trade or tech school. An educated public makes a better society. I believe that the bailouts of the the auto giants General Motors and Chrysler was not only necessary but the right thing to do since those two companies have been big contributers over the last century for the government. Had they been allowed to go into bankruptcy without the government's help, we would be in a larger depression than the one faced back in the 1920s and 30s. And because the government stepped in, Chrsyler and GM now have a bright future. I also think we need to punish the banks and investment firms that nearly sunk us into the depression through predatory banking. Wall Street fat cats are making record profits while unemploymeny remains high and people are desparate for help.
I think that the government is put there to help the people that elected them to office and if they aren't willing to do so (like the Republicans) than we should take them out of office, it's that simple. My name is R. M. Eller and I am a proud Social Democrat.