Tea Party a Cancer on the Republican Party

When I first heard of the Tea Party back in 2009-2010, I thought to myself;  "Oh good,  a group of people that understand what this country needs is to go back to its roots".   I had just read Common Sense by Thomas Paine (a masterpiece !) and also the biography of John Adams, one of my favorite founding fathers.  These men were true patriots.  Intelligent, passionate, committed studs who helped establish the foundation of our country with bedrock ideas and truly brilliant solutions to the challenge of governing a fledgling nation.
As the weeks and months went by I came to realize that the "Tea Party" is nothing like our founding fathers and that they in no way resemble patriots.  If anything they are a pack of traitors that wishes all actions of our President to fail miserably so they can point to his failure as proof of their superior philosophy, no matter the harm done to ordinary Americans.  They pretend to celebrate our founding fathers but in what way is that true?  Our founding fathers understood that to govern the people that it's important that the opinions of ALL the people be heard and that a compromise was absolutely essential.  The Tea Party wants its own way or it's the highway and it will do whatever it takes to block the "other side" from getting what it wants.   No one person or group of people have all the answers, and the governing philosophy that embraces such a concept is not a Democracy or a Republic but would best be referred to as a Fascist state.    

Many of the core ideas of the Republican party use to coincide with my philosophy;  personal responsibility, self reliance, small business virtues.  Today, with the help of the Tea Party I now think of them as  uncompromising, unsympathetic, selfish, anti-environment, and anti-science.  They're incapable of even conceiving of agreement with the other branches of government - a critical function of our leadership.  So, what has happened to Congress as a consequence ?   They are less popular than roaches and communists a recent survey revealed and absolutely nothing gets done, because any sort of productive legislation requires the two parties agree on SOMETHING !

Now, with national health care,  they are bound and determined to stop Obamacare.  I don't know that much about Obamacare 'nor do I have any idea if it will work. I do know that it was legislated by a government controlled by the Democrats in 2009 that was elected by the American people.  So, if the Republicans want to repeal Obamacare then they should take back the government and repeal it !  That's how it works.  The way they're doing it sets a dangerous precedent that whatever is done by one party will be in danger of being blocked by the other party through threats of government shutdowns and the defunding  of  legislation that was legally written by a previous Congress.  When does it ever end?  That's something for the Tea Party to consider;  "If you do get control of the government, the Democrats will never let you get anything done.  So, stick that lump of sugar in your cup and drink it."

What Will Our Times Be Called?

Right now the news is boring because Congress is out of session.  I'm thinking that about the same amount of work is getting done as when they ARE in session.  Such are the times we live in.  One day, when all this is over ( I hope and pray) I'll be an old man in my rocking chair watching the History Channel as the young whipper snappers refer to the early 21st century as the "Age of the Inept", or perhaps "The Decade of Incompetence",  "The Reign of Dunces" ?  Will they ask us old folks what it was like to live in such a powerful country with such incapable leaders?  Will our grandchildren ask us to tell them stories about the old days when America was run by a group of buffoons?

 "Was it scary, Grandpa?"

"Terrifying", I'll reply and then I'll proceed to explain how Congress was held hostage by two idiotic groups called "parties".  I'll tell them they had a purpose at one point in our history but in the early 21st century they became so full of themselves and their "so called" ideals that they forgot they were there for Americans, not their particular party.  "They lost sight of their country and decided that fighting each other was far more important than serving the people., and so they made our democracy nothing more than a helpless, fat and flabby beast that they sucked the life out of like leaches.   No leadership. No ideas.  No compromise.  A pompous group of stuffed shirts that slithered around with lobbyists for any advice on actual legislation.  They were off more days than on, and unlike the rest of the population they often didn't show up for work at all as they had important meetings with said lobbying friends on K Street- their future employers.  They were unprincipled, uninspiring, sniveling little toads that were for sale to the highest bidder.  A herd of blithering cattle incapable of an original thought except in terms of how it might make the sitting President of the opposite party look bad.

"I'm glad we have a good Congress that  works hard to fix our problems, right Grandpa?"

"Yes indeed, you are very, very lucky to live in a country that is lead by intelligent principled men that are in Washington for one purpose;  to solve problems".

"I'm sorry you had to live during the "Days of the blithering Idiots" grandpa"

"Me too sweetheart, but it was worth all the anguish and suffering if it meant you don't have to deal with it.  The "Days of the Blithering Idiots" are over for good".

Sigh..... I can dream, can't I?

Can the Republicans Offer Solutions for Healthcare ?

     Recently in the Orlando Sentinel there was an article on how Senator Marco Rubio has warned that our quality of health care is in serious danger if the “Affordable Health Care Act” moves forward.  I think he has a good point in that there are few federally controlled agencies that we can look at with admiration for their success.   I wonder though, what ideas might he and the Republicans have?   All I hear on so many major issues is what the Republicans don't want. But, what is it they DO want?   What ideas do they have to make health care affordable ?  Surely there are intelligent options that could come from the right other than what they don’t want.      

     On a monthly basis the average premiums for a family of four are approximately $1000 per month.   If you’re fortunate, you work for a company that pays for half of that. In comparison, when I first graduated from college in 1987 I paid around $30 per month to cover the full premium for myself.  Consider that this money put back in people’s pockets could go towards improvements to homes, vacations, entertainment and education.  Positive economic catalysts.   The high cost of health insurance as a percentage of income has become a drain on the economy.  It needs to be fixed.  

     Our leaders don’t understand our struggles.  I’ve always liked the idea of having our Senators and congressman pay the same health care premiums most Americans pay so they can relate to what we’re going through.  I wonder what Senator Rubio pays?  I'm very sure it's not 10% of his net income as it is for most middle class Americans.  

     The pharmaceutical and medical professions have spent over three billion dollars on lobbying in Washington DC since 1990.  That's a lot of convincing.   What exactly did they convince our government to do for all these years ?   Could it be this lobbying has created a warped medical economy where normal laws of supply and demand no longer apply?  Can that be fixed?   Also, could there be limits on litigation so that the mistakes of Doctors don’t automatically make someone and their lawyer a millionaire while simultaneously causing everyone's premiums to surge as a consequence ? 

     As a voice from the middle, I would like to hear some good ideas from the right that could improve our health care system as it stands today.  The Republicans are against Obamacare. That is obvious,  But if their mindset is that the status quo is fine,  then they have already failed the American people.  

In My Humble Opinion. 

The Media Defines Justice for Us

     I hesitated to write about the Trayvon Martin tragedy.  I really avoid "popular" events and media-hyped "non" stories.  I avoid them because they're not political, they're just news stories that the media stirs up because they need something to draw eyeballs.   This story though has turned political thanks to the media and our existing leadership in the executive branch of the federal government.  I also felt compelled to write a criticism of the left as I've been laying into the Republicans for several blogs now.

     Since the President mentioned that Trayvon "could have been his son" he was signalling for something to happen.  The street protests and the outrage of the left and most Democrats turned a tragic death into a "left vs right"., "white vs black" thing.  The media knew if they kept stirring the pot that the profits would come oozing out of their cauldron of maleficence.  And they were right.  Now, out of the many thousands of youth murdered every year, this particular tragedy is the defining moment of modern judicial process.  The outrage over the actions of a very stupid "white Hispanic" have turned our nation against itself.  This time I really blame the left wing for fueling the fire with mostly "fake" outrage to satisfy their black constituents.  The final bit of blithering nonsense.? The Attorney General of the United States has ordered an investigation to see if Zimmerman violated Trayvon's civil rights.  Huh?  That was already tried by the feds when the entire investigation started.  Why is this suddenly going to work?  So the director of law enforcement for our entire country of 300 million people is demanding action because he and his liberal cronies don't like the verdict they heard.  What a ridiculous waste of time, money and effort to placate a bunch of malcontents that don't understand the law.  Surely the left can come up with many, many more appropriate situations to be "outraged" over that do fall under violations of civil rights.  This was a tragic run-in with a hyperactive Barney Fife and a street smart kid.  Both misjudged the situation very badly.  There are many, many much more outrageous things going on in our country that merit all this attention from the media.  

     I  understand the anger that is out there regarding the verdict.  I felt the same way about  Casey Anthony and even wrote a blog about it.   I understand the outrage.  My opinion of the verdict?  You guessed it.  Somewhere in the middle.   They charged him with second degree murder, but all the physical evidence suggested he was defending himself.  It's common sense that if someone has their nose broken and their head is being bashed into the ground that the person is going to defend themselves.  Who among us would not?   Since the evidence was that he was defending himself the logical plea should have been manslaughter.  That's the only way they could have convicted him and they had a very good case.  George Zimmerman was told NOT to pursue the youth he was following around his neighborhood.  He was also negligent in getting out of his car.  He used bad judgment in challenging a strange youth who did not know him  and who could have sincerely felt his life was in danger.  He was reckless to carry a gun on his body in this situation with no official uniform or badge indicating he was trying to enforce the law.  Manslaughter would have brought a conviction.  Manslaughter was not pleaded against Zimmerman because the protesters in the street would have howled their disapproval, and after all,  "he could have been the President's son".  What a sad waste of time and attention, except of course, for the media.  They've made a fortune on the whole thing.

In My Humble Opinion.....

Immigration Reform : Will the Republicans Find their Brain ?

My wife is an immigrant.  She and her parents fled  Cuba in 1985 under an agreement Ronald Reagan signed with Castro to release political dissidents.  Her parents were against the communist regime and they were legally allowed to come here to the US.   In true Hollywood fashion they were on the last plane out of Cuba before Castro changed his mind regarding the entire treaty, and halted any further flights out.  Janet and her family were fleeing political oppression.

Right now, we have 11 million "illegal" immigrants living in the US.  Many of them have been here for a long time and a huge majority are from Mexico.  More often than not they sneaked across our border with Mexico.  Most of them do jobs that Americans don't really want to do.  They were fleeing poverty.

Now there is a debate in Washington to reform what we do with these people that are here illegally.  The US Senate passed an immigration reform bill that  gives these illegals a path to citizenship.  As usual this has become a partisan (what a surprise !) issue where the Republicans have one idea and the Democrats have another.  To their credit, the Senate passed the bill with a decent number of Republicans siding with the reform bill, following the lead of the Republican darling, Marco Rubio- a Cuban-American many believe will be the next Republican nominee for President.

The Democrats are saying that we should help these people who are here because they've been here so long and it would be inhuman to not give them alternatives.  To which I ask "So, it's inhuman to live in Mexico?".  I don't think Mexico is Cuba.  Although it is not a rich nation, Mexico is still essentially a democracy where leaders are chosen by the people.  I hardly think it's inhuman to send these people back to their own country.    I can see where a person who is "Americanized" and has lived here all their lives would have a very difficult time of it,  but I don't think "inhuman" would be an effective adjective.  I'd buy "cruel".  But, the law is the law., which is the position that the Republicans have taken.  They are saying they are here illegally so we need to form a process of removing them to their country and keep any more from coming in.  Although they've learned not to take the Hispanic voter lightly, I think they still essentially want them gone... or at the very least, controlled.  They see them as a threat to their  power because these people tend to vote Democrat and they are an enabling part of the "victim" mentality that they say (albeit, quietly)  has infected our country.

The problem is that the process of executing the law would mean rounding up people all over the country and driving them back across the border.... 11 Million !  Not only would it be logistically impossible, but the vision of people being herded onto buses to be "transported" is eerily similar to the Jews of Europe being loaded onto trains for transport to concentration camps.  Is it the same?  Of course not, but the visual image would never be tolerated in the United States.   The fact of the matter is, the horse is already out of the barn.  We have to come up with another way.  What the Republicans really want is impossible.

So,  neither side is going to ever get exactly what it wants.  Isn't that how it should be?   What bothers me is the Senate has done their job and come up with a viable solution (although wrapped in the red tape that any bill today offers), at least it is action to correct a problem.  That is something that has been missing in Washington for some time now.  There are no good solutions to problems, only the talking points of the right and the left as they jockey for political advantage on the talk shows.  With this bill, there are concrete avenues to address all concerns.  Now I fear we will watch as Congress modifies any action to the point where solutions are debated into oblivion.  I hope I'm wrong, but I anticipate the house of representatives turning into another political "freak show" featuring the Tea party and it's unbending attitude towards any solution.  If it's not written exactly the way they want it, then it's a "no go".   We need the Republicans to offer effective arguments against the left wing.  Anything other than the shrill tantrums we see from the Tea Party.   I'm so tired  of never hearing of an effective solution from the right.  They need to start compromising with the situation and stop wishing they could run the entire show.  They must accept their weaker hand in the today's political environment or their stubborn positions will make them even weaker.  Once again, they'll be seen as the party of "no", and they just might wind up being the party of "no power".