The BetsyG-Spot

Here’s a bonus post. I guess the political season has gotten me pumped up. (See my endorsement of Obama yesterday for another example.) Certainly McCain’s recent approach to campaigning has brought out my rabid opposition to that approach and to the policies he is selling.

It distrubs me when middle class people vote Republican for fiscal reasons. The Republicans sell this notion that Democrats want to take your money and give it away to the great unwashed and that they will somehow put more in your pocket. Great notion, great sales schpiel, but what a mistake to buy it! It has never worked that way. The Republicans have, in my experience, financially favored the wealthy, screwed the middle class, and taken away services from those who need it most. They’ve blown the budget out of the water (this Bush beyond all reason), and then we have to pay for that deficit. Fiscally conservative, my eye! (That was so old-fashioned. Sorry.)

I wanted to share this perfect, spot-on column by Boston Globe columnist Derrick Jackson. This is how it is. This is exactly the reality I have witnessed throughout my life. I understand why the wealthy may choose to be Republicans. I cannot understand middle-class Republicans, unless it is for social positions. (Let’s stay off of that topic for now, as it’s far more subjective.) The notion that you will pay less in taxes but still somehow get a decent public education for your children, roads and highways, police and firefighters, armed forces, etc.—it just doesn’t compute. The wealthy can afford to buy what those shrinking tax dollars won’t supply, and they are the ones most likely to benefit from tax cuts. That’s typically where the tax cuts are aimed—at the wealthy. I’m not saying tax the hell out of the wealthy and redistribute their wealth. But there has to be a balance, and the interest of the middle class has to be given greater priority than it has been. The middle class is screwed right now. We’re going to pay for this bailout of freakin’ WALL STREET. Unbelievable. We’re paying to repair a country that Bush annihilated to take out one guy. What he did to Iraq is like Elmer Fudd going after Bugs Bunny—shooting his giant rifle into every rabbit hole until the countryside is nothing but a bunch of craters. Sure, Bush caught Bugs in the end, but the result was every bit a Tex Avery landscape.

Well, here is the link. Excuse the Saturday a.m. rant. I have trim to paint, a house to clean, laundry to do, columns to write, but this somehow seemed more important.

Derrick Jackson’s excellent column

Let me know what you think. Honestly, I think people are starting to get it. I do hope the Republicans regroup and redefine themselves in a way that they could potentially be a true option for someone like me, and not faith-based, financial extremists. Right now, nothing would budge me from my party. We are just too far apart.

Thanks for listening,