Why I Think Republicans Will Lose In 2006
Two simple reasons might explain the inevitable demise of the GOP:
1. They’re currently in power and abuse of power runs ramped.
2. Most people simply don’t trust the government and they “run” the government now.
I don’t think you’ll find lifelong Republicans voting for Democrats but what you’ll likely find is a huge base staying home in November in support of the new “Apathetic” party.
I’ve supported Dubya since he became President but let’s not get too carried away with the notion of that support. I liken it to opening my refrigerator, thirsty as all hell, finding a carton of sour milk and a terribly flat bottle of Pepsi. I don’t prefer either but since I felt the need to pick one, I chose the flat Pepsi. That should not equate to an implied love of flat Pepsi and all of its distasteful properties. But there are some good properties, just as there are for sour milk (but more for the Pepsi in my view).
The oversimplified essence of this note is, we are stuck with two choices and both are corrupt, self-serving groups and neither is motivated to change in a meaningful way. It’s supposed to be up to *us* to “vote” in the changes we want but guess what, all you get are endless rows of refrigerators full of sour milk and flat Pepsi. Take your pick.
Example: The Patriot Act seems like a good idea, and it would be, if you could trust those running it. But you can’t so it’s bad. Why? Why can’t we trust those people? The answer is, because they’re not there to represent us — they’re on Capitol Hill to further their own agenda which happens to collide with some of our agendas as a coincidence from time to time. Whoever has the higher level of collisions seems to win.
One reason why Liberals are better positioned this year is, they’re already “selling” to those who are sick of government intrusion (even though they advocate more intrusion than anyone else!). The Conservatives don’t typically like such things but their leaders have betrayed them. And more and more of them are being exposed to this betrayal. Here’s what I mean: If you’re a good citizen then you have nothing to worry about with regard to The Patriot Act, right? Wrong. Because with more and more oppressive laws, “good citizens” are being turned into not-yet-prosecuted criminals simply by trying to live their lives. The Republicans are supposed to protect against this but they are not. And then they want more powers of intrusion which puts more good citizens at risk. At some point (at this point) it becomes an irreconcilable difference. More…
You want the Patriot Act and support for it? Get rid of unmanned cameras that can issue traffic tickets. Get rid of the “guilty until proven innocent” mentality with cops, unless, if the cops are proven wrong, get to do hard jail time the *first* time they’re found to be incorrect. Basically, treat us like the paying fucking customers that we are. You want The Patriot Act, remove the 98% of bullshit laws which are designed to both generate revenue and expose good people to the reaches of the government.
I drank up the Conservative kool-aid for years but after having been victimized, something I thought was saved for the “undesirables” who were “probably guilty anyways”, I came to the conclusion that any power, unless completely checked (including rigid consequences) is not yours to have, even if we lose everything because of it.
There’s an old Jewish saying that goes something like, “It is better to die standing up than it is to live your life on your knees”. And another along the lines of, “Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither”.
I’m all for extra resources and powers to defend against terrorists but only if those exercising the power can be held to big time account if they misuse that power to the detriment of us peons who pay their salaries. There is nothing in place today that can make that happen so I say, no, piss off! The roles have been reversed on us and those who are supposed to “serve” are beyond reach while we who pay (we fucking pay!) are under the microscope — Guilty, unless proven innocent.
Could I go on? Yes. If you aren’t turned off by now you might find the next segment interesting. Here’s where I make some dramatic proposals.
1. Stop chasing our jobs away! Unions are like government… nice and corrupt. Oh, there’s likely a place for Unions but their power is crazy and is a core reason why Ford is laying off 30,000 people over the next several years. Teachers, auto workers and (dare I say) firefighters have unions that are killing our economy, using fear and power as their tools. Be Liberal as you like but if you’re intellectually honest you’ll agree here. Like I said, there’s a place for unions but not with the destructive power they have today.
2. Stop overtaxing based on fear or misinformation. Both sides abuse this platform and us little guys always pay the price. Example: Previous Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block built two huge jails and refused to open them because he wanted more money for his cause. He *could* have opened them but he refused, to the detriment of society (more clarification on this later). If we have a need to incarcerate more people, take cops that write you a ticket for the technicality of a “rolling stop” at a stop sign and have them guard prisoners. Nope, he decided to let more criminals go until he could extort more money from the constituents. Small example, I know. But I chose a tiny little piece of shit to demonstrate just how nasty the problem is. Apply it to all city, state and federal officials and the problem is completely unmanageable from a fiscal perspective.
3. Stop overtaxing based on fear and misinformation. Yes, this is duplicate on purpose. Why must everything be taxed? We pay income tax, property tax, tax on gas and sick tax on everything one might consider to be “fun” (beer, liquor, cigarettes, blah). If we pay tax on our weekly check, why on earth are we getting taxed on everything we spend that already-been-taxed money to obtain? We’ve long passed the threshold that the smart people use to determine if we’re over taxed. Who are the “smart” people? The folks who bring in and sell untaxed items. So we spend billions in tax dollars to defend the tax dollars that might be lost by these illegal outfits. It’s a never ending battle except, we have to pay pensions to those who are trying to thwart those who would sell untaxed “fun” items. We’re upside down here but the powerful would prefer to have more government at a loss than freedom at a profit.
4. Let personal accountability take the place of new laws. Some idiot left his gun on his night stand and his son shot the neighbor’s kid. Our response? Force all gun owners to place a lock on their pistols — That way, when someone breaks into your house to rape your wife you can say, “please sir, may I have just a minute to unlock this darn thing?”. More kids drown every year in small bit of water than are accidentally shot by Dad’s gun but there’s [rightfully] no law that requires you to have a combination locked top on your mop bucket. What this sort of thing does is make good citizens criminals because they feel the need to protect their families by having a gun handy. So if the cops ever come into the otherwise good citizen’s house, they now have a reason to harass. Laws need to be passed with extreme caution but our lawmakers seize moments to impose more restrictions, get themselves in the limelight and, if I can just be a bit more redundant, cause good citizens to become law breakers.
5. Copyrights and patents and holy shit. The words that come to my mind are: Ludicrous, corruption and plain stifling. Hey, I’m for copyrights and patents for *real* things. I’m even aware that they mean nothing in many parts of the world. I’m not for patenting an “idea” or a “method”. I’m
not for copyrighting something that I “saw” (like the stats of a baseball game). If you invent “intermittent wipers” for cars and have developed a working model… cool. If you think time travel is possible and you patent that idea, it is not cool. You haven’t done it yet for goodness’ sake! You should not get paid for a writable CD Rom that I bought just because it is *possible* that I could copy music to it. Does anyone else on this planet see how ridiculous that is? Why doesn’t Microsoft get a percentage too? I could copy their Office CD as easily as I could copy music. Why don’t I get a percentage? This piece here is copyrighted material and might end up on a CD. What the hell is going on? Patents and copyrights should apply reasonably if they’re to be applied at all. Otherwise, they should be washed down the street along with the leaves in the gutter.
6. Public Education sucks, make it an option. Think about this… we went from “every child should be able to have an education” to “every child must have *our* education, unless you can afford to pay for two”. I’m curious how many of our Senators send their kids to the public school system. I bet it is a very small number. Our school system is horrible and the numbers prove it. But in California, if you want to “Home School”, you need to have the proper credentials. It matters not that you can plop your child in front of a video game for 5 hours in the evening or never interact with them or feed them junk or blah, blah, blah. Nearly half of our state budget is spent on “education” and what do we have to show for it? Nothing. But the State gets Federal money so they need a higher body count, giving a small hoot about how that child does. Additionally, we no longer teach the kids math and reading. We teach them about STDs and they find out very young that there’s a difference between black kids and white kids… something they don’t naturally give two shits about. If any issues need to be handled outside the house they are reading, writing, math and science. The “social” issues are deliberately home based. Many folks spend more time undoing the damage from public school indoctrination than the good things they could be doing. Oh yeah, I’m a product of the public school system so blame them for my terrible grammar.:)
7. Get rid of the lawyers. Now let’s not get all crazy here… I’m not talking about all of them, just most of them. IIRC there are more than 1 million lawyers in the U.S. today and a good portion are simply causing unnecessary work. You’ve got to implement plans from above to make this feasible (get rid of silly patents, intrusive laws, over taxation, etc.). I know some exceptional people who happen to be lawyers and this is not meant to be a dig on them. But life is as difficult as it is today because of the challenges manufactured by lawyers. Lawyers are like cops to me — We do need them but there are way too many and mostly for the purpose of self propagation. Here come the examples: You park your car in a metered location and so to collect those fees we need cops to give tickets for those metered locations. If not enough money can be made by a single cop we may need to have more cops so the area can be policed with greater frequency which will generate enough money to possibly have even more cops. See? A lawyer won’t likely be able to help you if you get a ticket because laws have been written by lawyers to make you *guilty* simply on the basis that the cop says so. Unless you can afford a real high powered attorney and possibly some appeals to pick apart what the first attorney wrote out as law. So, if you have the money and are determined to beat the rap, you might be able to do so. Unless the city wants to make an example and gets another attorney to thrash on your attorney. In the end, the lawyers win and you were guilty, regardless of whether or not a ticket was warranted.
In closing, it seems clear to me that our freedom has been hi-jacked and the roles have been reversed. The folks that were supposed to serve us are only serving themselves, on our backs. If we don’t have the money (which most of us don’t) we’re at *their* mercy while we pay their salaries. Our freedoms are removed, our lives disrupted and our futures given to big business. These are all of the things that the GOP has promised to protect us from and they have failed miserably. Will my apathy fuel our demise? Possibly. But I won’t give an affirmative nod to another candidate who sits in the pocket of those who would see me picking cotton in their fields.
I’m so glad I got that off my chest. Oh! Look at that butterfly!
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