Today I watched some of the reports on the so-called G-20 Summit that is happening (or happened) in London – Barrack Obama’s first “foray” onto the international “stage” as the President of the United States.  While I’m absolutely certain the Republicans of this nation will find many things Obama did that were “anti-American,” by all accounts he was a very refreshing change to the people of the rest of the world who were probably more sick of GW Bush than we were.  I am trying to keep an impartial view of how Obama is doing, as best I can, because I am so happy that we have finally removed Bush and the Republican party as it is presently constituted from the mainstream scene.  Despite the few misgivings I have about his first 75 or so days in office, I was pretty impressed with what he accomplished during this London conference (and his wife was even more impressive – based on the results I saw).

The first complaint I saw that was stirring Republicans was that Michelle Obama evidently put her hand on the Queen’s shoulder (while the Queen was putting her hand on Michelle’s back) and I thought these people have no boundaries which they will stoop to in order to attempt putting a negative “face” on what President Obama is trying to achieve.  Now, as I’ve stated on a couple of my earlier posts, I’m not all that happy with everything that’s coming out of the White House since Obama’s inauguration.  For example, I’m sure there are many who are happy that the stock market has taken a strong move upward in the past 3 or 4 weeks.  I have to say that I’m very concerned that we will judge the “recovery” based on the health of the stock market – in other words, Wall Street will continue to “rule.”  I really hope that is not the case – it feels to me that we are pouring so much money into Wall Street, in an attempt to (for some reason) allow them to escape from their misdeeds in one piece (while GM is headed for bankruptcy) and, as I’ve said before, I hope that we start measuring the health of this nation by somehow measuring the health of the middle class.

We are seeing first hand the obscene salaries of the “moguls” on Wall Street, and if we prop up a system that is so top heavy in rich people – that is, continue to support an economic system that funnels money to the few at the expense of the many – my take is that we haven’t learned anything.  Everyone knows that the family unit has been deteriorating in this nation for a generation, and, in my view, the only way to turn that statistic around is to “retool” in a way that better rewards “work” and productivity, and more realistically rewards bankers and executives.  It is hard for me to “get” that a Wall Street banker is worth a bonus which is 50 times my salary as an experienced teacher.  They talk about the huge risk involved in their jobs – but what kind of risk is it when you can fail and still receive an obscene salary.  The truth is the risk these guys are taking is with other people’s money – and when they lose, it’s the other people who lose and they apparently walk away as if nothing happened.  People got up in arms when the 160 million of AIG bonuses were dished out recently, but they didn’t say much when $3.5 Billion in bonuses went to the executives who “crashed” Merril Lynch (and millions of American’s retirement funds) or the other $15 Billion in bonuses to banks receiving so-called TARP funds from the government.

Internationally, we saw the results of this greed personified with the protestors at the Summit meeting President Obama was attending.  People around the world are hurting and the recession is intensifying – no matter what Wall Street says.  I really want Obama to succeed and, as I said above, I was very impressed with how he handled himself at this summit – but I caution anyone who reads this blog that there is a lot left to solve before we are on sound footing again.  And we need an opposition party in the United States – one that can participate in the dialogue of how to get out of the mess left behind by the Bush administration (I honestly don’t know how he sleeps at night).  Some of Obama’s supporters are sounding too much like the Republicans under Bush – whatever he says is going to be OK with them.  If that is the case, then we haven’t gotten very far in the struggle to get this nation back on the so-called “solid ground.”  And, as the Republican party is constituted today, it is a joke.  They either need to completely change their leadership and their message, or we need another party to emerge to keep the Democrats from feeling too good about themselves.

I mean, I didn’t read the Republican budget, but I listened to the guy who was chosen to present it, and all I could think about was that it was April fools day, and this must be a joke.  These people are unbelievable!  More tax cuts for the wealthy (maybe they should just propose no taxes for the wealthy and get it over with) and a reduction in spending.  And, of course, their budget proposal would increase the deficit even more than Obama’s despite the desparagy in government spending.  On top of this they are being led by people like Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell, and Dick Cheney (the guy will probably only go away if he’s put in jail, where he belongs).  Well, I forgot to mention John McCain – the man who proved his incredible incompetence as Obama’s “foe” in the previous election – and Mitt Romney, the liberal Republican turned Conservative (he’ll be whatever you want him to be – mark my words – as the public views become more internalized by Republicans Romney will be like the Prodigal and he’ll return to his “liberal Republican” ways – whatever might get him their nomination) – and then there’s the one they would really want, Jeb Bush, but I don’t even think the Republicans are stupid enough to put another Bush in front of the voters any time soon.

What we need are Republicans who will actually stand for family values – not for rich people.  Republicans who will take the anti-abortion fight to a realistic place where they attempt to find programs which minimize the demand for abortions and where support for unwanted pregnancies goes beyond the birth of the baby.  That is the party needs to get some empathy regarding the average people in this country – and the plight they face in today’s world.  They need to actually stand for fiscal responsibility and get off of this platform that “deficits don’t matter.”  For them, the only time deficits matter is when a Democratic President inherits their ridiculous deficits – then you hear them squacking about “tax and spend” liberals – when they are actually the guilty party.  They need to stand firm for the constitution and stop manipulating it as a document that only has meaning to the “little people.”  The other day the present Attorney General set a great example of how they should treat our constitution and system of justice when he vacated the convicion of Republican Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska because of “unearthed” prosecutorial misconduct.  He didn’t allow partisan politics to interfere with a fair judicial decision.  That is the way Republicans should act – with fairness to the system we all depend on.  Instead of wanting Obama to fail, Republicans should be standing for traditional values which will make this a better nation when he succeeds.