The Politics of Insanity

As I have written previously, I was born and bred a Republican. I left the Grand old Party quite a few years ago. I have become more liberal and they became more conservative. Now they have passed beyond the point of conservatism and have become absolute lunatics. It would be funny if it were not so frightening. Their statements are laughable. However, the thought of a Republican returning to power or returning to the White House makes one seriously consider running for Canada. Not as far north as Alaska, just north of the border of Michigan, or across Lake Erie from Ohio.

George Bush had eight years to destroy America. His stated goal was to "Starve the Beast". That meant, bankrupt the country. That way no one could afford the programs the Republicans dislike, such as social security, medicare, and medicaid. He cut taxes for everyone, which meant no money was coming into the treasury. Then he started two wars; not one war, but two wars. This resulted in spending all of our money and then creating our great deficits. He and Congress have taken two trillion dollars out of social security. Then he said with a straight face, "Social Security is in trouble". He tried to put the social security money in Wall Street stocks. At least the American people did not fall for that. Bush totally deregulated the financial markets; the banks and Wall Street proceeded to bring down the entire world economy. Has anyone on Wall Street, or any banker, or any Republican apologized? Not that I have heard. All they do is carry on about the deficit. They created it.

Now Republicans are saying, "Obama has had a year and a half to solve all of our problems, he cannot blame it on George Bush anymore! Hilarious!

Now we have oil wells exploding in the Gulf of Mexico. People say, "Why hasn't Obama fixed them?" Are they kidding? Is Obama supposed to put on a wet suit and dive to the bottom of the Gulf? Obviously we have to stop the drilling. In Florida we have so much sun we are burning up. Why aren't we using solar energy? Because the gas and oil companies don't like it. Our government is subsidizing the oil companies. We have to stop this insanity. Here we are in Florida, drilling for oil. Absurd.

This is all a comedy of errors. Is anyone trying to deal with the problems? Certainly not the Republicans. All they can say is that Obama is a Muslim and not even a citizen. Facts mean nothing to them. They believe that if they repeat a lie loud enough and long enough people will believe it. And they are apparently right. People believe most of the lies.

Businesses are not simply trying to earn money. They are scheming to destroy everyone they can. The banks are furious that they can no longer charge people fortunes for "overdraft protection". If that is "protection" who needs it? The drug companies are charging three times the price of medications for people on medicare, because the government, under Bush, let them set up their own drug plan. They are laughing all the way to the bank. Allergan is now being forced to pay the FDA 600 million in fines for their attempts to mislead people into using botox for many unrelated health problems. They taught companies how to file false claims for Medicare coverage for botox. They paid kickbacks to doctors who prescribed it. Is there such a thing as an honest business any more? As if this is not enough, the banks and businesses are furious with Obama for setting up regulations to try to protect the consumer. They are all going to vote Republican in order to once more do away with regulations and consumer protection.

The interesting thing is that billionaire businessmen are stirring up the people to make them think that the Republicans will solve all of their problems. People seem to be unable to realize that it was the Republicans who created all of these problems, and they will just make everything worse if re-elected. The November elections will be a great comedy. The billionaires will be laughing all the way to the bank.

Former President Jimmy Carter wrote a book about the problems we are facing, OUR ENDANGERED VALUES. It is worth reading.