Propaganda.  Today as I was travelling to school I wondered first, how many Americans understand that word and secondly, how many Americans are cognizant of the propaganda machine the Republican party has created in the last 30 years.  I have to give them credit, they are very good at this.  But the reality is that their propaganda machine is one of the main reasons I think they should be escorted into the memory books of this nation’s history.  There is a growing number of Americans who agree with my contention that the Republican party in this country is interested in only two things: power and money.  As I’m looking at the economic meltdown two thoughts come to mind in relation to their interests.  They have lost power and they’re willing to do anything to get it back.  That’s the first thought, the second is that because of their tax cuts for the wealthy and their other policies that favored the “rich” –  people like me will have been broke for a long time before the effects of this recession/possible depression hits many of them.  And, until it hits their pocket books I believe they will still be calling for more tax cuts for corporations and investors as the way to “create jobs” in our economy.

I could go on and on here.  And each example I could give would border on stupidity – at least in my mind.  The other day I watched tapes of John McCain standing on the Senate floor actually proposing an alternative “rescue” plan which was totally made up of tax cuts and the vast majority of them were corporate tax cuts (most of these corporations don’t pay taxes already) and capital gains tax cuts (presumably to encourage more people to try to make a living gambling on the stock market).  Can you even imagine if he’d won this election?  At least with President Obama there is some hope.  I’m guessing that McCain still believes the “fundamentals of our economy are strong.”  The guy is a nimwit – I have no idea how he has managed to stay in the Senate for so long – makes me wonder about the idea of retiring in Arizona.

Then today, while driving around I heard another Republican who was against the “stimulus plan” being presently debated because he felt there needed to be “private” jobs created.  Evidently, the guy thinks that the 100+ Billion in infrastructure spending would be done by government businesses.  However, the only government businesses I’m aware of at this time are the big banks which were “bought” by Henry Paulsen and AIG the big insurance company which has received over $150 Billion in government “investment.”  I thought “This is par for the course.”  Of course, My brother-in-law who works for Granite Construction in California would think otherwise.  He is the epitome of a hard working engineer for a PRIVATE construction business – he’s an engineer who masterfully builds roads and bridges – and people like him and the company he works for will be the beneficiary of this government investment along with the rest of us because what they build will be around for the next century – it will just be that federal tax dollars will pay for it.  Every time we drive through California, “We the People” will benefit from this spending for many many years to come – and, believe me, Granite Construction is a well run PRIVATE company.  There are many stories and PRIVATE companies like this all across our nation which would be virtually saved by this “stimulus.”

And then there’s the Republicans who are complaining that we will be running up huge deficits.  I actually heard one of them today complaining that the cost of this stimulus package will be borne by our grandchildren.  YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!  After the combination of Nixon, Reagan, Bush, and Bush has pushed our national debt from the billions (it was close to being in balance after Lyndon Johnson) to the 12 trillion level in about 30 years and put our economy in a state of ruin – how can they even say this?  (it would have been about a trillion worse except for the “tax and spend” policies of Bill Clinton – and believe me, the Republicans will have some kind of rationalization to explain why Bill Clinton’s surpluses were either because of them or excessive taxes – both bold faced lies – and they will NEVER talk about how they didn’t waste a second of their time thinking in terms of paying down the national debt with the surplus before Bush II frittered it away shortly after assuming office) They are going to complain about deficit spending now? – AT A TIME WHEN IT IS CRITICALLY NEEDED!?  If there ever was a time for deficit spending (well, except for 1933 of course) now is the time.  These guys are nothing more than lying blowhards and hypocrits!

Propaganda is when you keep repeating the same thing over and over until people actually start to think you know what you’re talking about and start believing you.  Now, I thought the American people had gotten beyond these Republicans as of November 4th, 2008.  However, two things seem to be happening at once.  First, President Obama seems determined to work with Republicans (giving them undeserved credibility) and push for a “bi-partisan” spirit in Washington.  Second, the Republicans could care less if they take this nation down to its knees, if it will help them insure the failure of the Obama administration.  And, make no mistake, they are very good at this.  Lying is second nature to virtually every Republican I am familiar with.  They’ve got Rush Limbaugh calling the shots from his radio mike with an audience of billions (if you ask him) – he calls them ditto heads (just the thought of that word makes my point – a bunch of peolpe who can’t think for themselves all repeating the same thing over and over until every last one of them believes that their lie is true – you know ditto (like ditto machine) – I call them butt heads – the kind of people who made Hitler powerful in Germany during the 1930’s.

If President Obama doesn’t succeed, and if the so-called stimulus package that comes out of Congress fails to stimulate the economy, I believe it will be because of Obama’s attempt to placate Republicans.  Today I heard that the so-called Blue Dog Democrats and the “moderate” Republicans had come up with some kind of compromise – and I truly hope it gets passed and it works.  But it has been very interesting, at the very least, watching this process.  The first 100 days of any Presidency, by all accounts, are critical to establish your administration.  To me, when you have a 70% approval rating and you’ve just won an election in a landslide, and the people on the “other side of the isle” have been leading you off a cliff, you don’t placate them – PERIOD!!!  If Obama fails, I believe this will be the simple answer – he tried to placate the Republicans.  This “stimulus” package is just the tip of the iceberg.  These guys are arguing over a few minor “flaws” in the plan as if to try to get their constituents to think they are really looking out for our nation’s interests.  There is a lot more arguing ahead of us!

Republicans are still controlling trillions of dollars which they have gleaned from taxpayers over the past 8 years, and this recession is a “buying opportunity” for the greedy ones.  They aren’t thinking for a minute what is the common good.  They can outlast, economically, all but the very few Democrats and don’t think for a minute that they wouldn’t attempt to do this.  I feel confident that they are scared to death of Obama coming in and being the second Roosevelt.  It would mean another 40 years or so on the sidelines for their party.  And, to them, their party is more important than our country.  During the Bush fiasco, one of my real frustrations was the Democrats willingness to “cave” in to Bush.  I just think they felt he was the President and they were thinking “country first” – the supposed Republican campaign slogan of 2008 (what a irony!) – that’s why they didn’t cut off funds for Iraq (which I still believe they should have), that’s why there has been millions of illegal wiretaps, and that is why Bush was not impeached – the Democrats were thinking “country first.”  This led to a miserable 8 years for many of us waiting for the Bush Presidency to FINALLY end!

Well, from the looks of things and despite the McCain campaign slogans, it doesn’t appear the Republicans are capable of “Country First.”  Obama will get some kind of “stimulus” package, but he will be considerably weakened by the time it’s done.  And make no mistake, this is just the “tip of the iceberg” as far as any rescue of our economy.  By my thoughts, the best that can be hoped for from this “stimulus” package is that the downward spiral will be stopped or considerably slowed down – so that we can take a breath and think things through more carefully as we proceed.  There is going to have to be ADDITIONAL SPENDING to the tune of possibly a couple trillion dollars – that’s just the reality of the situation as I see it.  And there’s no way of avoiding the fact that there will need to be ADDITIONAL REVENUE – YES! MORE TAXES – NOT LESS!!!  Now, that might be a year away or so, but it is going to have to happen – I don’t see any way around it.  At some point, we Americans, are going to have to realize that we must start paying for things – even if that effects our “standard of living” which everyone knows is exhorbitant – and can be easily reduced for most people.

I’m predicting – or suggesting – a 50 cent per gallon gas tax as a way to start.  That would spread the burden across the board (you could figure ways to exclude low income people, truck drivers, etc.) and it would bring in massive amounts of revenue while discouraging the use of gasoline.  Additionally, I’ll be very disappointed in President Obama if he fails to repeal the Bush tax cuts instead of just letting them run out.  That would NOT be what I would call a bold move.  Bold moves won’t be happening as long as there is this sense that we need to be bi-partisan.  Essentially, what I’m saying is the Republicans, despite a sound thrashing at the polls in November, despite a hugely poplular president from the opposing party, despite policies that have been proven failures, despite record low poll ratings, have used their skills at propaganda and their utter lack of concern for the future of this nation, to put President Obama on the defensive.  If he doesn’t quickly figure out what they are doing and counter act it with aggressiveness, I believe he will be a one term president and we will spend the next four years experiencing the kind of garbage that cluttered the airwaves during Bill Clinton’s Presidency – it will just be choreographed especially for Barrack Obama.

 This is all grandstanding on both sides, as far as I’m concerned.  And, in my mind, the Democrats are no match for the Republican propaganda machine.  As of this morning, based on polls that I heard, the Republicans had succeeded in “spinning” Obama’s support down to about 51 or 52% from the 70% where he started.  He had better figure out quickly that they don’t want him to succeed and he MUST go into attack mode – or his presidency will be doomed before it starts.  I was watching Chris Matthews the other day (the guy makes me want to throw up) and I realized that Obama has to overcome the intrenched media who seem to be willing to give “time” to some of the lowest of the Republicans as well as the Republicans themselves, evidently because controversy drives their ratings.  But, as far as I’m concerned, people like Matthews are concerned about as much for this nation as the Republicans who they regularly give a platform.  Either the Republicans are in better standing with these media folks, or the Democrats  just don’t know how to fight back.  But it’s almost unbelievable to me that I’m hearing Republicans on national TV proposing tax cuts to solve this problem and supposedly intelligent media people are letting them get away with it.  Every time Republicans suggest more tax cuts, they should be getting ridiculed.