Let me preface today’s discussion by stating that I do not intend to endorse a political party here. I am not promoting the party line of the Democrats, Republicans or Tea party. I am just stating the facts that I see before me.
The new Jobs program promoted by the President has gotten a lot of interest. For me, the problem is that so did all his other programs, from continuing to bail out the brokers to his economic stimulus plans. The brokers are bailed out and our economy is worse than ever. All the banks did was raise their fees. The economic stimulus program gave us some money but it did not last long enough to improve the economy. Most of us spent it catching up on bills. Then there is the health care issue. The administration put the economy on a back burner to sell us a health care plan whose only enduring effect was to divide the nation. Here we were being ram-rodded with a health plan most of us did not want, all the while the economy has been slip-sliding away.
I look at all the things this administration has tried and I ask myself: has any of it helped me? Not that I can see. In fact, some of it actually hurt me at a time of financial fragility. One thing is for sure. I am not going to vote for this guy in 2012.
Have we not had enough? Eight years of George Bush was bad enough. Bush was a recovering alcoholic on an eight-year dry drunk. He did some very stupid things. People hoped Obama would restore sanity to government. Many took his inauguration as a sign that something truly special was happening. Two million people at the Inauguration and not a single arrest. It was a fluke. Look at the facts. The Obama administration has not been a roaring success. Our economy is worse than ever and the health care plan will only compound the damage.
We have illegal immigrants holding small towns hostage, and Obama’s administration does nothing to help. I see it here. In my town, over 65% of the students are the anchor babies of illegals. My taxes rise because of the schools and extra police work and courts. My hospital bills rise because of the unpaid bills left by illegals. They are an added tax on my community. Obama not only does nothing, but his homeland security director wants to give them a free ride. Once again, the Obama administration is doing me and millions of other Americans real harm. This is a case of taxation without representation.
It is clear that Obama’s platform is to push the Democratic party line. That health care bundle was a Democratic plum long before Obama got elected. Even if a different Democrat runs for office, many of the same policies will re-emerge. The only way things will improve with Democrats is if the Democratic party changes its programs.
The Republicans are no better. They have had control of Congress for over a year now and the results are nonexistent. They have not improved things one bit.
The Tea Party makes a lot of noise, but they have not made any improvements, either.
The bottom line is that none of them have done anything to improve our bottom line. The only change we have experienced is that they have hurt our bottom line. There has been nothing out of Washington that has improved our situations.
The unspoken result of bipartisan politicking is that both parties are sending us their hacks rather than sending us effective leadership. That is no surprise. In 2000, the Democrats ran Al Gore when they could have chosen the kind of candidate who could win easily. They did it again with Kerry, who was the personification of “unelectable” on a national level. The Republicans saddled McCain with Sarah Palin when they should have chosen a candidate with whom the people would feel comfortable. These folks care less about good candidates than they do about taking care of their party’s favorites.
Use a sheet of paper. Make three columns and list them as Obama, Boehner’s Crews and Tea Party. Part one is to write down all of the things they have done that have actually helped you. Part two is to write down all the things that have hurt you, be it economically, socially, quality of life, etc. Take ten minutes to do it, and them put it away for a few hours. Come back later and look at it. You will get the point.
As practical people, we see that we have no control over the buffoonery that passes for politics. We can only control ourselves. It is up to us to see the tide that is coming and to prepare for it accordingly. To rely on the politicians is a false hope. We need to rely on ourselves to weather the storm as best we can. Likewise, when a politician’s policies have hurt us, then we have to make it known that it is unacceptable. The surest way to send a message is to refuse to give him our support. We might not be able to control them, but we can stand up for ourselves by refusing to support them.
Once again, we the people are on our own. Our government has dropped the ball time and time again. Neither party has succeeded in improving conditions. There is a lot of talk but no results. We cannot count on either party to present us with acceptable candidates, but we can count on ourselves to thrive in spite of them.
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The only politicians who seem to be doing something are the Governor and our Congressman. Gov. Chris Christie is actually taking on the unions and the state workers who milk the treasury dry. He is working on the state economy and getting results. Rep. Chris Smith has actually come to our town to help us on issues regarding the local post office. He has also been very effective on veterans issues. They get the kind of results that are helpful to me. It can be done, so why aren’t the people in Washington doing it?
