Sunday, February 3, 2008

Failed vision


It is really pathetic to listen to the Republican presidential candidates. With all due respect, I fear they all have some sort of amnesia or basically play dumb to the American people. While Bush’s rating is the lowest imaginable, they push the same agenda of the Bush administration. Regarding the Iraq war, their message is the same, 'we won’t leave until we win.' They are feeding us with the recent temporary ‘success.’ First, we are not winning the war on Iraq. Turn off the TV and get online to read some European or other sources on what is really happening in Iraq—constant sectarian violence and insecurity. To suggest that because there has been some reduction of casualties, we are winning the war, is simply ridiculous. Second, contrary to the assertion of McCain, the American presence in Iraq is very much about casualties. He is stressing that it is the American casualties, not the American presence that we should worry the most about. How can he say that when the target of the extremists is the American soldier on the ground?!

While I agree with the Democrats that leaving without good planning and some sort of safety net for the friendly Iraqi government is wrong, Republicans are dead wrong in their vision on Iraq. I think they will lose the election with that message.

Second, again and again, these people are talking about permanent tax cuts for the few in the face of economic stagnation and poverty. How do they intend to finance their plans in Iraq when they do not want to get some revenues for the government by raising the taxes for the rich? Continue borrowing from China? They talk about cutting the spending of the federal government, but definitely not in the military, since they want to continue the catastrophic war. So, all they are saying, we will bankrupt this nation by a 100 year long commitment in the Middle Eastern mess without changing this administration’s failed policies and we will continue driving the middle class into poverty by cutting the federal government’s ability to do something. So, spending in defense will continue, tax cuts for the rich will continue, the deficit will continue, and the federal government will continue its impotent existence giving in to ‘states’ rights’. How honest are they when they claim Democrats are about 'big government' when their military defense spending exceeds any proportions proposed by Democrats. You need to understand that currently most of the federal money goes into defense and the Iraq war. So, their argument for reducing spending and continuing the war is fiction.

They are worried about the recession and praise the values of free markets and business without realizing that we are in recession precisely because of free unregulated market and predatory business acts. Shouldn’t they read more about how FDR took the country out of the Great Depression essentially by semi-socialist policies?

All they talk about is how Lincoln and Reagan were great Presidents without really understanding why. First, none of them has understood that Lincoln was really not a Republican. We all know of the great shift in American politics at the end of the 19th century. The Democrats of the South during the Civil War in fact became the Republicans of today and the Republicans of the Union are the Democrats of today. So, to suggest that Lincoln was Republican is simply nonsensical. He was Republican only in the name. While Reagan was a Republican, by the end of his Presidency, the economy was beginning to get into a recession.

A lot of people simply cannot understand that today Republicans have a failed vision on most issues affecting this country. How do they hope to win these elections—by misinformation, skewed reality and appealing to conservative ideals that dominate in many states and many portions of our society. In these elections, conservative or liberal, all should vote for Democrats because while Democrats can be conservative, Republicans never try to be liberal. I also would like to suggest that conservative versus liberal dichotomy does not perfectly coincide with the Democrat-Republican division.

My point is that even if you are conservative, you have to vote for Democrats if you want change from Bush.

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