Being the Change I Wish to See

Today is the 75th anniversary of Social Security and Unemployment insurance. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the bill into law 75 years ago today in 1935.

To celebrate, the Republicans (especially those new candidates associated with the Tea Parties) want to privatize or end Social Security. They and sitting GOP Senators and Congressmen have also been hating on the unemployed by calling unemployment insurance a welfare handout that is making them lazy and spoiled, and they’re probably taking the money and doing drugs with it (TRMS). Unconscionable.

The GOP seems to have forgotten:

• We’re in a serious recession
• Unemployment is close to 10%
• There are 5-7 people for every job that is created or opens up
• Unemployment is insurance that employees pay into so they have a cushion should they become unemployed because of an economic down-turn or lay-off (or both)
• Laid-off people with a mortgage and family can’t live on the minimum wage; it is nowhere comparable to the paychecks they lost
• Unemployed middle-class people vote

It is abundantly clear to me that none of these block-heads has suffered hard times any time in the past 40 or 50 years, if ever. In fact, most are quite wealthy and have no clue what struggling without a job is like. I seriously doubt they even know anyone who is unemployed or have met with anyone who is unemployed and really listened to that person.

The GOP seems to have no empathy for anyone who needs any help at all, except huge corporations. I wouldn’t be surprised if Orin Hatch, Jon Kyle, Rand Paul, Sharron Angle, John Boehner, or Paul Ryan kicked someone lying on the sidewalk instead of helping them up. They’re sure good at kicking the unemployed when they’re down.

The GOP also seems to want to kick old people in retirement by taking away the program they paid into all their working lives, Social Security. (See Social Security Scorecard here) Forget the health care death panel myth. Instead of unplugging her, the GOP just wants Grandma to starve in poverty.

Has the GOP forgotten that the majority of people who vote in mid-term elections are 45 and over?

President Eisenhower realized the folly of mucking with good policy and programs that protect the people:

In 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower (R) wrote a letter to his brother. “Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history,” Ike said. The president acknowledged in the letter that there are some who advocate such nonsense, but added, “Their number is negligible and they are stupid.” — Steve Benen, Testing the Limits of Grabbing the 3rd Rail, Washington Monthly, Aug. 13, 2010

If Ike is right, the Republican party may disappear entirely if they keep this crap up. That would cause another major problem in U.S. Government. Our system is based on a two-party system of adversarial debate and compromise. Just as we have a balance of power between three equal branches of government, we have a 4th check on excessive power with a two-party system. If we end up with only one party as a major party, I’m not sure what will happen to our system. There doesn’t seem to be a third party that can step in and take the GOP’s place right now. Maybe another William F. Buckley Jr. will appear and straighten the GOP out?

So thanks, GOP, for such a great present for the upcoming mid-term elections. You’re pissing off a lot of your own voters. Those voters may vote for a Democrat just because you’re so far off the cliff that they can’t trust you, or they’ll vote in Independents, like Florida Governor Charlie Crist who left the GOP to remain moderate, and frankly, sane.

Bonus video on the Social Security anniversary from TRMS (7:22):

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On Monday, March 9, Congressman Patrick McHenry said the GOP plan is to bring down the Democrats as much as possible before the 2010 mid-term elections:

We will lose on legislation. But we will win the message war every day, and every week, until November 2010. Our goal is to bring down approval numbers for [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and for House Democrats. That will take repetition. This is a marathon not, a sprint.

Congressman Patrick McHenry
(R) North Carolina

Source: National Journal

This country’s economy is in serious trouble and its people are in serious trouble. The economic problems we face must be dealt with head on and now. In the midst of this crisis the Republicans decided their agenda and party are more important than we the people, more important than the United States of America, and more important than the world economy.

The conservatives and GOP are showing themselves to be unconscionably selfish and self-centered at a time when this country needs Congress to work together to find solutions for the huge problems we face. So far, they are the party of “no” and no new ideas.

Conservative and GOP policies won’t work and it’s been proven in history. They want to freeze spending, balance the budget, cut taxes and reign in monetary policy. President Herbert Hoover’s policies of cutting taxes, freezing government spending, balancing the federal budget and monetary policy that didn’t provide a sufficient money supply are what made the recession that started in 1929 the Great Depression of the 1930′s. These idiots are dumb enough to ignore history, or worse, take part in revisionist history that actually blames President Franklin Roosevelt for creating the Great Depression so he could have his New Deal!

The recession that turned into the Great Depression started in 1929, 4 years before FDR was sworn into office in 1933. It took seven years of substantial government spending on public works projects and social programs to help the people who were suffering, and the massive government spending needed for World War II to get out of the Great Depression. By World War II, FDR reduced unemployment from 25% to 15%. The build-up to the war took that unemployment figure down to 1-2%. It took so long because President Hoover refused to do anything about the recession for 4 years, not because FDR’s programs didn’t work. They worked and brought us out of that horrible time in our history. Had FDR’s policies been implemented within the first year of the recession, it might not have been so bad and so long.

The GOP and conservatives are delusional enough to believe that by obstructing the House and Senate Democrats and federal spending that there will be a country and an economy left in 2010 to win back. They fail to realize that if our economy fails, so does the world’s economy.

What would a post-modern world look like? I don’t know, but I feel like it would be really bad and there would be lots of wars over dwindling supplies of everything we need to live a modern life. The worst could be that since there isn’t really anything to live for anyway, why not destroy a lot of the world using nuclear weapons?

By using this strategy, the GOP will insure it is marginalized for a long time to come. It may take the party decades to rebuild if another party doesn’t spring up in its place, and there are a lot of contenders out there. One thing is certain. We can’t have a major political party that doesn’t know when to work and when to play politics. We sure can’t survive with a party that is dumb enough to fail to learn from history. And we definitely don’t need a party with hubris enough to put itself before the very country it is meant to lead.

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