It's the Economy Stupid
So rang the cry from Bill Clinton and Al Gore in 1992. Ironically the slight recession that resulted in that cry came from George HW Bush having violated his promise to voters when he compromised with Democrats and raised taxes. Today we listen to pundits saying the Republicans have an advantage over Democrats in 2010 totally because of the economy. If candidates believe this, it will be at their peril.
Certainly the economy is the 800 pound gorilla in the room. You can't ignore an unemployment rate of 9.6% and substandard growth. You can't ignore the intent of the Obama administration to allow the Bush Tax Cuts to expire and the problems such an increase is bound to make on an economy already in trouble. But, the economy is not the only gorilla in the room.
Despite the economy being the biggest issue, the economy by itself is not what brought Americans out in droves for Town Hall Meetings in 2009 or Tea Parties in 2009 and 2010. People are concerned about their liberty and increasingly believe they are being disenfranchised. Americans believe in fair fights, sportsmanship and may the best ideas win. This is not what they saw when Obamacare was passed in early 2010. A large majority of Americans told their Congressmen and Senators they did not want the healthcare program proposed by the Pelosi-Reid-Obama axis. They attended Town Hall Meetings with Senators like Arlen Specter and told him they did not want this by attendant majorities of two to one. Still Arlen Specter voted for the package. Is there anyone who believes that Arlen Specter was beaten in the Pennsylvania Democrat Primary because of the economy? Look again. Arlen Specter was handed a pink slip because he no longer represented his constituents. He ignored them and it was at his peril.
The same can be said of others who compromised too often and ignored the values and the desires of their constituents. How else can one explain the Primary wins of Tea Party candidates in Alaska, Nevada, Kentucky, South Carolina, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Virginia and Delaware? This electorate has awoken from a fifty year sleep and it is telling politicians that we will not be ignored.
As we hear stories that Christine O'Donnell is "not electable" we must remind ourselves that this woman defeated a candidate who was undefeatable. Scott Brown had no chance in the Democrat stronghold of Massachusetts. Chris Christie had no chance in New Jersey. Joe Miller stood no chance to defeat Lisa Murkowski in Alaska. Rand Paul had no chance to defeat the establishment candidate in Kentucky. The list goes on and with the exception of Arlen Specter, the only politicians that have lost thus far have been establishment Republicans. We might anticipate a high turnout on November 2 who will deal similar defeats to the Democrat incumbents who arrogantly ignored their constituents with Obamacare and then rubbed salt in our eyes by passing legislation they admitted they had not even read. It may be that the economy is the 800 pound gorilla in the room, especially for those who are either currently unemployed or who have concerns about losing their employment but there are other gorillas in the room. Obamacare is a 600 pound gorilla. Illegal Immigration is another 600 pound gorilla. National Security is yet another 600 pound gorilla and the sovereignty of each of our fifty states is yet another 600 pound gorilla. In many instances these are related however it is because they are not mutually exclusive that the American public who have often been accused of short memories will remember what they have seen done to them instead of for them over the past twenty months and they will vote in November with a vengeance that may be felt by a lot of incumbents who had been taught to believe the populace didn't matter, that they weren't watching and if they were, they would forget by election time when they would tell us they didn't do what we saw them do only one year before.
Democrats, grab your ankles. The voters are coming with their paddles.
Categories: Election
Tags: National Security Paul Obamacare Tea Party Primary Christie Miller Brown O'Donnell Illegal Immigration Specter Economy Murkowski
I believe you are blaming the wrong people for the economy. When Obama entered office in January of 2009 that month 750,000 jobs were lost, that was because of Bush's ideas. Since that time there has not been a month like that, the economy is stablizing, but it is going to take time to get it right.
According to the U.S. Census of 2010 the poverty level was raised to 50 million people and the amount of people without insurance is about 37 million people without health insurance, under the Healthcare Reform Act most of these people would be insured, your group and the Republicans wish to repeal the Healthcare Reform Act and keep those 37 million people without insurance. Why?
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By no means would I ever try to completely absolve GW Bush from his role in the recession we are now in. My concern is that during the last two years it has been made worse.
The article that you are actually commenting on points to other factors besides the economy that should give everyone reason to vote against democrats in this next election. For a view of the economic problems we now face and who might have primary blame I would like to refer you to another article in this blog that I believe fairly assesses the role of both Republicans and Democrats in our sad economic affairs. http://theteapartyplatform.com/2010/07/17/our-economic-problems-are-bushs-fault.aspx
If you have studied government you will understand that the President does not control the purse strings of government. All Appropriations Bills originate in the House of Representatives. The House was controlled by Republicans during the first six years of the Bush Administrations but fell to the Democrats in the 2006 election. Beginning in 2007 our economy began a similar fall.
You will surely remember the abnormally low unemployment rates through the majority of the Bush Administration. I will blame Bush for many of his domestic programs and other Republicans for their extravagance during this period, for example that infamous Bridge to Nowhere. However, it was the chicken in every pot social programs as promoted by the Democrats in both the House (Barney Frank) and Senate (Chris Dodd) that destroyed Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and set us on a path for home foreclosures.
You reference Obamacare. To quote Dick Martin, "You bet your booty" that I want to repeal that monstrosity for a number of reasons. There are many reasons to repeal Obamacare the primary being that 70% of the American public does not want it. It is too expensive. It exacts a price both financially and to our liberty. The federal government has no Constitutional authority to interfere in the private healthcare choices of its citizens. The federal government has no Constitutional authority to require that anyone buy anything. The costs of Socialist medical program in both dollars and delays have been proven time after time all over the world. It is through a Capitalist free market that availability and access to care increases, not through government involvement. At this time the uncertainty involved as to what the final costs will be to insure employees and the taxation that will result from this obamanation leave employers with no choice but to hold the line on any hiring until those factors are known. Obamacare is only one of many measures taken by this administration that have depressed growth and that have exacerbated the problems that were begun in the last quarter of the Bush Administration with that original stimulus. We should not have done that. We should not have done the second stimulus in February 2009 and Obama had a role in both stimulus bills. As a senator he promoted the idea in the fall of 08 and as a president he called for the second stimulus in 09 plunging this nation more deeply into debt. Bottom line: we cannot afford this and Obama's classic Marxist policies of distributing the wealth from one to another is nothing short of stealing from productive Americans.
No one wants to deprive Americans of health insurance we simply want those Americans to have the choice as to whether they want to buy it for themselves. I am personally willing to talk about how to help those who can't afford healthcare or healthcare insurance on their own but this does not demand a 2,700 page comprehensive bill to achieve such a goal. The answer for those who are truly unable to afford medical care is not in a plan that will destroy the very industry they want to access. It is elsewhere.
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