What the hell have Tea Partiers done to our once great country?
A few days ago, despite its many flaws, the country had a chance; a chance at economic recovery. A chance to survive!
Instead, the restless, almost bi-polar electorate handed part of the Federal Government back to those who caused most of our current problems. And we're lucky they didn't give it all back.
But our chance to move ahead was disrupted and the days forward no longer look so rosy. One mid-term election reduced our possibilities of an economic recovery.
Why are Americans so negative? Is it an unconsummated desire for change? Is it the smart ideas of the Tea Party and their incredible spate of candidates? If our problems weren't so damn serious, it would be laughable.
Tuesday was serious. It was devastating for the Democrats and gave new life to the Republicans; and a spattering of Tea Party candidates that don't necessarily think and act like the Republican elite would like.
Republican's took sixty-plus seats back in the House and, though unable to take the Senate, reduced the Democrats power to a small majority.
A recipe for success? More like a recipe for disaster!
Despite the new faces, the Republican hierarchy remains the same destructive group that caused the failures of Enron, WorldCom, and a multitude of others, created the bank crisis that almost brought down the global economy and still might, and let the housing bubble expand and burst. The same people that pushed TARP and advocate excessive tax breaks -- $700 billion for the rich over the next 10 years -- while railing against the deficit that they created under President Bush. Raising the top two tax brackets would reduce the deficit next year by nearly $70 billion and would not affect the remaining 98% of the American people.
Republicans want to return to the disastrous policies of the past.
Welcome back to the future!
The Democrats squandered the Golden opportunity they were given by the voters in both 2006 and 2008. Their failure to understand that mandate caused a near tsunami that almost swept them out of office entirely.
The electorate expected more: stronger legislation with less compromise. They demanded a more immediate fix to the massive problems we were facing when Obama took office. What's taken us 30 years to destroy, restless voters expected resurrection in less than two.
It's not the Democrat's inability to pass things that put us on the path to recovery, despite Republican's rabid desire to weaken everything, but the inability to frame the issue; to affectively explain all the good things in each bill.
The ineptitude at countering the relentless cacophony of the right -- lies meant to distort the benefits within the bills -- cost the Democrats the House. Loss of the House does not bode well for the American people and the inclusion of the Tea Party makes things even worse.
Listening to statements of Boehner, Cantor, Bachmann, Blackburn, and Paul in the first few days after the election is an indication of how damaging the next two years are going to be. Their proposals, many of them the same destructive policies that spun the country off its economic axis, are dangerous.
Their rhetoric: reducing the deficit, extending all Bush Tax Cuts, and creating jobs, defies all common sense. But there are a lot of forgetful people that believe them despite credible evidence that these same policies were responsible for all of our recent crises.
Welcome back to the future!
It's too late to reframe the message to retain control of the House, but it is not too late for the Senate Democrats to take off the gloves, pass most of the 400 bills passed by the House and stalled in their body by Republicans. They must come out fighting; frame the message, call the Republicans out regarding their outright lies, and expose the obstruction of important bills that would help all Americans.
The voters gave the Republicans a second chance to make government work for the people, despite their caustic stewardship of the country for over 12 years; destructive policies that continue to erode the once thriving middle-class.
There are a lot of people in this country that voted against their own self-interest. They're the ones that need to hold the Republicans to their promises. Anything less would be a failure of electoral responsibility
The Republicans hold part of our political and economic future in their hands and promise change. The ambiguity of their first three days is an indication that little will change from their failed policies of the past, which poses the question -- what the hell have the Tea Partiers done to our once great country? We'll soon find out.
Welcome Back To the Future!