If you’ve been reading any of my previous posts, I have to make something abundantly clear. I DON’T HATE REPUBLICANS! It’s just that I believe the ones who have been in charge for the past 30 years or so have been very deceitful and have put their own selfish interests ahead of the good of this great nation. The train wreck that has hit this economy has been predictable. A lot of my acquaintances didn’t believe me 2 years ago when I warned them to get out of the stock market and to start saving more money. Many of my friends have been disgusted with me for my anti-invasion stance regarding Iraq. And many of my long time friends who make a lot more money than I do refused to accept that the Bush tax cuts were poison on top of what had been done during the Reagan/Bush (the first Bush) years – and I’m talking about what had been done to the national debt. Personally, I never believed that “deficits don’t matter.” My point tonight, is that there are many, many good Republicans out there – it’s just that the crew that is in charge (the Congressional leaders plus their mouthpieces such as Limbaugh, Hannity, O’Reilly, etc.) won’t let any of the good ones into a leadership position.

And make no mistake, in my mind, we need at least a two party system for our government to work properly. At present, I’m just not sure that the “opposition” party should be the Republicans. If they can’t cleanse themselves of this crew who believe the solution to every American problem is more tax cuts – then I think we need a new group to challenge the Democratic party for national leadership. Don’t get me wrong here either, I’m not too happy with the Democrats. One thing WE DON’T NEED in a time of national crisis is a bunch of timid leaders. While I’m happy that the Congress just passed a stimulus bill to attempt to “jolt” our economy in the right direction – I honestly believe the “package” was WAY too little, and possibly – based on its size – too late. What I mean by this – it is kind of like trying to stop a virus with an anti-biotic that isn’t strong enough – and sometimes if the cure isn’t strong enough it only makes the disease even stronger. YOU DON’T WANT THE DISEASE TO GET STRONGER THAN THE AVAILABLE MEDICINE. To me that is what is being risked here with the so-called “stimulus” package.

There are several possible reason for this – especially considering that President Obama won a clear mandate from the American people with just short of a commanding control of Congress by the Democratic party to go along with almost 400 electoral votes. The first, I’m sorry to say – yet in a way I’m happy to have a President who is trying to do what he said he would do – is President Obama’s determination to instill a “bipartisan” spirit in Washington. I too would love to see that, but the reality is that Washington clearly isn’t ready for that (so, I suppose, the question is what is the path to bipartisanship after so many years of angst) and at this point in time effective legislation, even at the cost of this dream of cooperation, is far more important than how many Republicans vote for anything. The second reason is a Republican party that says it doesn’t want to be the party of “no” while saying no to virtually everything (remember their campaign slogan during the Presidential election was “Country First” – what a joke!). Either they don’t realize what an incredible plague they’ve put on our economy and our position as the leader of the “Free world,” or – as I believe in my heart – the leadership of the Republican party would rather this nation failed if that is what it takes for them to regain power. I for one will go to my grave, if necessary, letting as many people as possible know who has caused the crisis that is potentially destroying this nation. OK, and the third reason is the weak (yes, I can agree with the Republicans on one thing) leadership of the Democratic party. I’m a school teacher, and these guys remind me of teachers who want the students to “like” them, and end up getting “runover” by the very people they are trying to “impress.”

Take for example this stimulus bill. The Democratic leadership and President Obama got something in the neighborhood of what they wanted, or so that is what they are saying. However, I believe there was hundreds of billions of dollars worth of actual stimulus that won’t happen because of the Democrats allowing the Republicans to manipulate the process. I still haven’t seen Harry Reid actually force the Republicans to filibuster. If he can’t get 60 votes to stop debate on something – that seems to be it. I keep thinking back to Bill Clinton’s first budget. It passed with a 50-50 split in the Senate. Why didn’t the 60 vote rule stop that bill? And when Newt Gingrich and the Republicans took on Clinton in the mid nineties, Clinton let them stop the government. And the public opinion prevailed just as it would have this time had Obama and the Democrats taken the high road – with a trillion dollar, or so, bill with only minimal tax cuts – and pushed it through Congress – forcing the Republicans to filibuster until they couldn’t talk any more. Believe me, the public opinion would have allowed the President to prevail!

The problem now – as I mentioned above about the medicine not being stronger than the disease – if the stimulus package doesn’t work, or doesn’t sufficiently slow the downward spiral in our economy – it will be even harder to find a cure, because the “disease” will be far worse than it is now. Under the present leadership in Congress, getting anything done at that point will be exponentially more difficult than doing it right the first time. I believe the “bipartisan” plan should be put on “hold” until we get this mess straightened out. If Congress has to go back to the table (as I suspect) we can’t afford more “watered down” legislation. To Obama and the Democrats: It’s time to take a stand and push through legislation that you believe in and can be clearly held accountable for – win or lose. Whether it’s domestic or foreign policy – make a clear “change” from the past 30 years. Give the American people a good look at the results of progressive vs. Republican (I don’t call them conservative because I believe Republicans have sullied that word) policy. Only then will a true “bipartisan” debate be possible – once the McConnell’s, the Boehner’s, the Limbaugh’s, the Hannity’s, the McCain’s, the Palin’s, and all the “Joe the Plumblers” out there have been put in their proper place.

At the beginning of this post, I mentioned there are many good Republicans out there, and I feel it will take a strong stand by Obama and the Democratic Congress to create the environment where the Republican leadership gets “fixed.” Tonight, I listened to the new Transportation Secretary – I can’t remember his name – but he’s one of the two Republicans in Obama’s cabinet. This guy is a good Republican. What he said made total sense and he wasn’t hiding behind some “voodoo” philosophy that refuses to accept reality. All I needed to hear from the guy was that we need to create Jobs in this country and the best stimulus right now to do that is the government – the investor of last resort, so to speak. We also have Robert Gates as the Secretary of Defense. In my mind, this guy has been a bright spot to our nation since he took over for Donald Rumsfeld after the 2006 elections. He seems like a quiet, effective, and honorable person who REALLY does believe in supporting our troops.

Now, Gates and I might have some differences on Iraq, I suppose that would be a no-brainer – considering my position as a teacher thousands of miles away from the spotlight he’s in (although he stays out of that spotlight as much as he can) and my opposition to the occupation – but the man has earned my respect. He appears to be the epitome of a true public servant to me. And the fact he can work for people as diverse as Bush II and Obama is a real testament to that. My point is that there are some outstanding Republicans out there – they just don’t seem to be wielding much influence in their party. My hope is that the Democrats will somehow stop this trainwreck that was left behind by Bush/Cheney and in the process put the “trickle down” tax cutting Republicans out to pasture – making way for some true conservatives who believe in our traditional values, being responsible about paying for the services we receive (of course in times like this – deficit spending is a must), and finding ways to work toward restoring the true “family values” that they like to say they believe in.

This country has regressed in so many ways since the “Reagan revolution,” which I believe is the bottom line cause of today’s calamity, and it has been the Republican party that has initiated so many policies that have undone the very things they say they believe in. The anti-union policies have been effective in destroying unions, but it has also led to an assault on the middle class. The family structure that Republicans supposedly stand for has been steadily deteriorating since the first days of Reagan’s first term in office. Our national debt has almost doubled five times – that in itself is unbelievable to me for the supposed party of fiscal conservatives (and somehow they’ve managed to get ordinary Americans who are being devastated by this to vote for them). And, during the Bush/Cheney administration they pre-emptively invaded a soveriegn nation who had not attacked the U.S. for the first time in our history – and worst than that, they not only borrowed every cent to pay for this invasion (leading to abominable treatment of our troops) but they cut taxes at the same time – when they should have been asking all Americans to pony up and support the troops by paying MORE taxes. The fact we had soldiers dying because they didn’t have sufficient armor on their vehicles is an incredible national outrage – and I honestly don’t understand why more people weren’t outraged by this!

So, my fear is that the “pendulum” will swing in the totally other direction and the permanent Republican majority scheme will, ironically, produce a permanent Democratic majority. I don’t think either one is healthy. Our founding fathers did everything they could to prevent that from happening. We need two vibrant parties in this nation to debate issues and come up with the best possible solutions. The atmosphere in Washington has been polluted over the previous (I don’t know how many) years – and, to me, both parties are responsible in different ways for this – and somehow this needs to change. I respect President Obama and his determination to do this – I’m just not sure of the timing. While it remains to be seen whether or not Obama’s “medicine” will work to save our failing economy – one thing we know – the Republican’s scenarios of either doing nothing and letting the economy correct itself, or cutting taxes AGAIN, just won’t work. Even if the intitial stimulus package stops or slows the downward “spiral” which our economy is presently experiencing – there are still many legislative battles looming. In my mind, the time is right to make a stand against these obstructionist Republicans. They aren’t going to support anything Obama does. So, if they want to vote against everything, I say good for them! The present Republican leadership needs to be run out of Washington and right now Obama has the political capital to do this. And if decent leadership can’t be found to replace them, then maybe it’s time for a new political party on the American scene!