America: Dictatorship or Compromise?

23 DECEMBER 2011

In Forms of Government, you can have dictatorship, gridlock, or compromise. (Gridlock equals a dictatorship by the minority. Compromise is rule by the majority, with protection of the minority.)

A pledge not to raise taxes equals a dedication to the art of “Cut and Spend” government. The efforts of the Tea Party Republican’s to impose their minority ideology on the rest of us constitutes dictatorship by gridlock.

Our representative democracy can’t afford a government dictatorship by gridlock.

America Can’t Afford a Continuation of Republican

 “Cut and Spend” Government.

In 1789, the American people, having won our freedom from dictatorship through our Revolution, voted for a government of compromise.

In 2012, we, the people, will get to vote for a government of compromise once again.

Regards,
(($; -)}
Gozo!

An Ode Against “The Republican Oath for Failure”

08 NOVEMBER 2011

What part of “We want America to fail!”
don’t they understand?

When the Republicans wanted “this President to fail,”
which America did they think he was president of?

When a majority of the American people elected Barack Obama to succeed,
what part of “majority rule” did congressional Republicans
think their oaths of office excluded them from?

When Republican pledges to Grover Norquist
overrule their constitutional oaths of office,
what country do our Republican legislators think they govern in?
____________________

Forcing America’s constitutionally elected President to fail:
what form of treason is that?

What part of “We want this President to fail”—

    during a time of great economic crisis—
    following an administration that started off-the-budget wars
        and an unsustainable Medicare program—
    with tens of millions of Americans unemployed—
    and pensions ruined—
    and teachers and police and firefighters laid off—
    and two wars waging—
    and Wall Street bailed out by America’s 99%—
 
what part of this ideologically obsessive partisanship
would ever make any American vote for any Republican ever again?
____________________

When it comes to government,
we want a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
Nowhere in our constitution does it say,
“Government for the good of the Republican Party.”

Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan and Dwight Eisenhower knew that...
____________________

We, the people of the United States of America want a government
by majority rule,
with protection of the minority
under the terms of the Constitution.

We, the people of the United States of America
want America to succeed. That’s why
we, the people,
voted for President Barack Obama
in the first place.
____________________

As for what the leaders of the Republican Party of America believe they were doing?
By setting out to make this President fail?

That’s anybody’s guess.

On November 6, 2012,
that’s for “we, the people” to decide.

How do others look at this Republican goal of failure?
What do you think of it?
____________________

For me, the next election can’t come soon enough:
I plan to take America back.
One more step
back from the brink of “Just Say No.”

What part of “we want America to fail!”
don’t we understand?

Regards,
(($ ;-)}
Gozo!

Tea Party People: Spoiled Kindergarteners or Angry Adolescents?

18 SEPTEMBER 2011

Over the Past Year, I have spent a good deal of time on a Topix forum titled, Tea Party Rallies: ‘Impeach Obama’. At first, I found it interesting to read the vehement, anti-Obama sentiments, all of which seem to be based on a set of imaginary grievances.

My Purpose for continuing to visit this site is the same as what I do here: I work to clarify some of the ideologically beclouded thinking which seems inimical to the best prospects for our shared future, and which seem to be running America’s greatness into the ground.

My Struggle, as I See It, is to help wean America from its intellectually lazy and easy ideological blindness. We need to winnow out the fallacies that drive both sides, Left and Right. If we can get more of this “chaff” out of the way, then, left with the “wheat” grains of valid opinion that remain, we can choose among them, try different courses of action, and restore American preeminence—from a jingoist slogan (“Americans are the champions!”) to a fact-based reality—before it’s too late.

Otherwise, We Can Leave our preeminence prospects to China or India.

It’s Our Choice....

Here Is a Link to my Topix post:

Tea Party Rallies: ‘Impeach Obama’

You Might Find some of the other posts there insightful.

Best regards,
(($;-)}
Gozo!

Fear of Failure or Fear of Success ?

17 SEPTEMBER 2011

Why are our people in Congress so fearful of everything that President Obama tries to do?

What makes Congress so afraid of President Obama’s “American Jobs Act”? Are they afraid it might fail?

Or Are They Afraid it Might Actually Work?

Some 46,000,000 of our fellow Americans are either unemployed or under-employed.

How about if our leaders in Congress get out of the way and give President Obama a chance to fall on his face?

.....46,000,000 Americans. And our senators and representatives fear success? Or failure?

President Obama has gone out on a limb with this jobs bill thing. What’s the best that Congress can do?

Pass this Bill.

Congress should let the chips fall where they may. But: Congress should finally take a chance and:

Pass this Bill.

Regards,
(($;-)}
Gozo!

For Pete’s Sake, Why Won’t They Hire????

 

16 SEPTEMBER 2011

 Getting to my local coffee shop the other day, I was surprised to see the place overflowing with customers. The line of people waiting for their coffee stretched out the front door, down the steps, around the building, and halfway across the parking lot. There must have been two or three hundred people out there. All waiting in line, looking at their watches, growing disgruntled, wanting to buy their lattes and espressos.

Skipping the line, I went in to talked to the manager, who happens to be a friend of mine.

I asked her, “What happened? Did some of your baristas not show up?”

“No,” she said. “I don’t have anybody else. These are all the baristas I have.”

“Oh?” I asked. “Why not? You can obviously use the help. Can’t you find anybody to work?”

“Oh, I guess I could find plenty of unemployed Americans and put them to work,” she said.

Then she added, “I just feel too uncertain about taxes and regulations and the economy to hire anybody else right now. It’s just the uncertainty.”

Yeah. Right.

Regards,
(($;-)}
Gozo!
____________________
Please see my related post on uncertainty and job-creation, at the following link, below:

Democratic Obstructionism: What Is It This Time?

Ode to Wide Freeways at Rush Hour

14 SEPTEMBER 2011

It doesn’t take much brain time,
while sitting at rush hour on a 12-lane freeway
that was just 6 lanes wide forty years ago,
to realize that it will have to be 24 lanes wide in another forty years.

In eighty years, when it grows to 48 lanes wide,
it will probably butt up against its neighbor freeway,
with rush-hour traffic going in another direction,
and equally slow.

Will America keep doubling the size of its roads?
Or might we come to our senses
and begin rebuilding our rails?

It is commonly said that “government doesn’t produce jobs.”

Tell that to the builders of the First Transcontinental Railroad
from 1863 to 1869. (Started during the Civil War.)

Tell that to the builders of the NASA space program
and to Al Gore (who invented the Internet).

Tell it to our future generations of Americans—
our grandchildren and their grandchildren—
as they stand on a railway platform at rush hour

Waiting for their high-speed trains.


© 2011 Gozo Rabat
________________________________________

The Republican Mythology of “Spending Like a Democrat”

“[North Carolina Representative Patrick] McHenry may pretend to be a Republican, but he sure as hell spends like a Democrat—or even worse.”

  —Republicans Against Patrick McHenry

26 FEBRUARY 2011

This idea—that Democrats “spend” more than Republicans do—is clearly a flawed mythology. It is wrong in two different ways.
____________________

First, if you listen to Republican language (especially over these Obama years), you hear almost-exclusively the word, “spending,” and rarely hear the word, “investing.” Given that the Republican Party prides itself so vocally on things such as “fiscal responsibility,” you would expect it to make the distinction between items limited to “Expenses” on the income statement and items to be listed as “Assets” on the balance sheet.

Republicans Avoid this Distinction.

It’s as if you were to call someone out on the carpet about where the heck all their money goes, saying something like, “All you do is spend, spend, spend. Look at this! You’ve spent $4.00 for a café latte and $400,000 for a house. That’s more than $400,000 spent in one year—for coffee and other stuff!”

Without the transcontinental railroad and the Interstate Highway system and the NASA space program,  where would American be?

Spending like a Democrat.
____________________

Second, if you look at the lessons of history, you may be surprised at recent examples of “Spending like a Republican.”

An example notable for its relationship to one of America’s greatest examples of Republican leadership, is the spending that President Reagan motivated, in his effort either to build a Strategic Defense Initiative (AKA “Star Wars”) or to bankrupt the Soviet Union (a legitimate “Mission Accomplished”). You may be too young to remember the fears that Democrats expressed when the Reagan years produced the greatest level of non-wartime debt that America had known. Democrats then were convinced (as Republicans are now convinced) that such deficit spending could not possibly be corrected. And it was not corrected until two presidents later, when the engine of American entrepreneurship turned that “spending” debt around.

Then, of course, we have the unfortunate example of President George W. Bush taking us into an arguably unjustifiable war in Iraq and into the Medicare-D program. Both of these items demonstrate irresponsible Republican spending—which may represent legitimate, if intangible investments—in that no provision of paying for them was part of the process.

Listening to Democrats speak—notably the members of the Congressional Black Caucus—one hears them speak over and over about how they plan to pay for their “spending” programs. From Republicans, one hears only the continued promise of “trickle down,” which clearly has not occurred in our economy over the past thirty years since we first elected Ronald Reagan to accomplish this economic miracle. The vague hope, expressed with strong conviction, that lower taxes for the wealthy somehow result in good-paying jobs for those lower down in the economic “food chain” just never becomes reality.

Conservatives like to disown the latter President Bush as not one of their own. But no one who knows anything about this man could consider him to be either a Democrat or a Liberal, hiding in Conservative, Republican clothing.

At some point, any true “fiscal conservatives” remaining in the Republican Party will need to face the truth:

American Democrats “invest” in America’s infrastructure for the future, more than they just “spend.” And “pay as you go” is a Democratic expression of fiscal conservatism.

The false Republican delusions that this party opposes under the combined labels of “Democrat” and “spending” are just an easy target, painted on the backs of those Americans actually committed to making our great nation a better place. And not just a better place for eviscerating the middle class.

Regards,
(($;-)}
Gozo!

Republicans Lie with Good Intentions:

15 MAY 2011

The Politicians on the Right lie for the best of reasons—love of country—but lies are lies, nonetheless.

Over the Past Week, we’ve heard Republicans speak on the budget, the oil industry, and the economy. As their lies have been repeated, each one gets easier and easier to say.

But They’re Still Lies...

What Gets Blamed on the Current Administration and on the Democratic Party is what’s called “circumstantial evidence” in the legal system. For example, high petroleum prices result from unrest in the Arab nations—the “Arab Spring”—and are about to turn back around. But it makes a convenient and easy spear to chuck at President Obama and the Democrats.

What a Way to Treat Your Country in challenging times like these...

If You Want to Score Political Points with Stuff like This, you keep selling it. And the Tea Party folks keep chugging it down.

But It’s Still a Big Lie...

Just Think What this Country Could Do if we ever decide to work together again, instead of all this ideological dishonesty disguised as a deficiency of common sense.

Best regards,
(($;-)}
Gozo!

Democratic Obstructionism—Again? What Is it This Time?

26 FEBRUARY 2011

For Too Long, businesses were prevented from creating new jobs because of the uncertainty that the Democrats would raise taxes on them, by letting the Bush-era tax cuts expire.

Luckily for America, these taxes were extended at the last minute, under the threat that the newly elected Republicans brought to bear on the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives.

All Conservative-Thinking Americans cheered this opportunity to let free-market enterprise flourish once again.

That Was Two Months Ago, at the end of  December.

Where Are the Jobs?

Regards,
(($;-)}
Gozo!