There’s an old joke, “Republicans want a leader, Democrats want a meeting.”

Jokes are seldom funny unless there’s a grain of truth to them.

Stop. Before you read any further, answer the question, do you think the joke is true about your political party?

Now that we got that out of the way, let’s get to the point.

Go find yourself a copy of the US constitution and find who is supposed to be the leader of the people. It’s a short and easy read. The president? Congress? But if you don’t want to go check it out for yourself, I’ll give you a clue. There isn’t one!

The framers of our constitution and the forefathers of our country didn’t want there to be leaders. It is We the People who is supposed to lead the government.

And, what’s the best way to lead the government? Through meetings, negotiations, and compromise.

Got that? The Republicans make lousy American politicians because they try to be leaders. Take George W. Bush as an example. He acted like a leader. A lousy leader with all the wrong and stupid ideas but the Republicans loved him. Why would Americans love a leader who did the damage that Bush did to America? Because they have the mistaken belief that they need a leader. That’s what makes it so easy for a strong leader with destructive ideas to become the leader of the Republicans.

America doesn’t elect leaders. If you’re electing a leader, you’re doing the thing that our founding fathers didn’t want you to do. Don’t be a follower. Be a leader and tell your REPRESENTATIVES what to do.

How much of the violence and terrorism in the US is attributed to Muslims and how much is Christians? You would probably be surprised to know that Muslim attacks only accounted for a small percentage of the attacks while the largest group of terrorists attacks on America came from Christians. Check out the FBI website for specifics.

The awful and senseless mass murder in Norway was followed just now by a fire bomb at a family planning center McKinney, Texas.

I’ve heard it over and over how it’s just the crazies and not every conservative. Well, I’m seriously doubting that anymore. I question if Conservatism isn’t really a sickness. It’s the closest thing you can be to suffering without the capacity of empathy without actually being clinically psychopathic.

How can anyone who cares about those around them agree with cutting or destroying Social Security and Medicare and other programs that are the difference between life and death for millions of Americans? Only someone without empathy could do this in order to save the billionaires from paying their fair share of taxes. It’s a sickness, plain and simple.

The line between being a voting psychopath and a clinical psychopath is so very thin.

I would like to see a serious study into this disease we call the Republican party and their Tea Baggers. It doesn’t just border on violence and hatred, it’s steeped in it.

The sad part is that many otherwise healthy people get suckered into voting for this party of sickies not knowing or refusing to believe just how bad it really is.

Anders Behring Breivik was arrested for the murder and destruction he brought upon the innocent people of Norway. The crimes are abominable and he deserves any justice he received. But the bigger picture isn’t so much who or where but what.

This fanatic was spewing the same hate-filled nonsensical talking points that America’s right-wing crazies in the Republican party chant. It’s becoming a thinner and thinner line between the crazies who perpetrate the crimes and those in American politics who stoke up the fear and hatred.

Yes, here in America we’ve had our Timothy McVeigh and an assortment of other conservative right-wing fanatics. We’ve got preachers burning Korans, lunatics shooting up liberal organizations, right-wing nuts killing doctors, The list goes on and on.

Americans need to ask where all this hatred is coming from.

I can tell you where it’s coming from. It comes from our right-wing politicians. We all know that to be a fact. The right is full of the most vile and hate filled nuts that you can find anywhere.

Just think for a moment that a politician puts bulls-eyes on a map of Republican home states and used the language of reloading. If this was a Democrat, nobody would vote for him. He wouldn’t have a chance of getting elected.

Conversely, Republican voters vote for these monsters all the time. The party is sick with them.

This, my fellow Americans, is where all the sickness is coming from. You’re voting for it and making it mainstream. Now, I can hear it already, about how the Democrats do it too. But that’s just not true. Any investigation shows that it’s a right-wing disease and only the Republican can quit voting for the hatred.

We’ve been hearing a lot of commotion lately by the Republicans about how we need a balanced budget.

At first blush, this might sound like a great idea. After all, don’t you and I have to balance our checkbook at the end of each month?

No, actually, we don’t. We can go out and borrow any time we feel like it.  In fact, if our federal government becomes hamstrung with a limitation like this, it would be the best thing for the billionaires and the worst thing for you and me. That’s why the Tea Baggers are all over this. Their billionaire leaders (behind the scenes) are telling them how important it is that the government can’t borrow money.

But, let’s look at what would have happened if our founding fathers were as stupid as a Tea Bagger. Without being able to spend more money than they had, we would never have been able to protect ourselves from attack as a young nation. In fact, we wouldn’t even be able to protect ourselves from Hitler during the second world war if we hadn’t been able to borrow money.

Imagine what we would have done during the Republican Great Depression of the 1930s. Without being able to borrow money to get our people back to work, this great country of the USA would have gone broke. We wouldn’t have been able to start up all the jobs programs that saved us from republican stupidity.

Here we are, a century later and the Republicans are trying to destroy our country again. When will America ever learn not to listen to the Republicans?

Imagine for a moment, or maybe you don’t even need to imagine, that your employer decided that even though the business was doing good, it was time to cut your wages and improve profits. No better time to take advantage of the times than right now, when people are worried about their jobs.

So your wages have been cut and you can no longer afford to enjoy the lifestyle you’ve grown accustomed to. What do you do?

If you’re a typical American, you’ll look for better work. No one needs to put up with unethical employers. That’s right, you look to bring in more money. When would anyone say, “oh darned, I better sell my house and start living out of a cardboard box?”

No one would, except the mentally challenged.

So, when our country is dealing with insufficient funds, do we just say, “okay, it’s time to move into that third-world-country?” No! Only the mentally challenged would consider that as the first option.

So, why do we Americans ever listen to the Republican party saying that we have to start expecting less? We’ve been doing with less for over 30 years now and it’s time we started demanding more.

What happens to America if the fools get away with convincing us that we need to expect less from our country? America becomes less of a country. It’s the same thing that happens if you choose the cardboard home rather than a better job.

We can’t afford to listen to the Republican failed misconceptions any longer. If we want America to remain strong, if we want to remain a first-world country, we have to act today and say we don’t want the cardboard box.

Will we ever get back to prosperity if we keep expecting less?

Do you want to live in the best country in the world or the cheapest?

We’ve discussed supply side economics many times on this blog and there are countless websites that compare the two economic models, Keynes vs Friedman. But this time I’m going to add a bit of history to the discussion. After all, if we can’t learn from our mistakes, we’re doomed to repeat them, and repeating them we are.

Supply Side Economics

Probably the best way to describe Supply Side Economics is Voodoo economics. This is the idea that if you give money to the rich, they will hire people and pay a good wage and the heavens will open and the angles will sing and leprechauns will dance. It’s also referred to as trickle-down economics.

In other words, people will run out and buy just because the stores are full.

Keynesian Economics

This is the old model of economics where demand drives the economy. In other words, when people have money they will buy.

Now this is obviously just broad strokes and there is a whole lot more involved in each of these models of economics. You may find yourself interested enough to learn economics and get into the nuts and bolts of these, but this is as technical as I plan to get.

Alright, so here’s the little bit of history I promised you. Neither of these perspectives of economics is new. Since the beginning of economic times, the concept of supply and demand has been the fundamental core of the study of economics.

However, back in the early days of America, the concept of unfettered free trade was the approach the government took and this freed up the companies to be as greedy and they could. This allowed America to become quite wealthy, or at least our wealthy became wealthy.

Of all the leading countries, we were becoming the most wealthy. This seemed to convince many people that if a little free is good, oh my gosh, totally free trade must be the be-all end-all of wealthy. So, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, America decided to pull all the plugs and let the rich get as rich as they wanted.

So by the 1920s we saw the roaring 20s when the wealthy were insane with their greed and wealth. At lease back then, they were smart enough to protect our industries through tariffs.

Then, the big crash.

Following the Great Depression, many economist admitted that the whole idea of completely unregulated greed was bad for America. At this time, Keynes came back to the idea that maybe really, demand drives the economy. This wasn’t the first time economics thought of this, but it was back in vogue.

Then, about 50 years ago, Friedman brought back the greed and supply side economics.

So, fast-forward to today and we’re all the rage back into supply-side economics and unfettered free trade. Of course, we’re also seeing the return of the economics of the Great Depression.

When will we learn from history? When we start exposing the idiots who keep pushing failed economic policies on us. When we eject the same people who got us in the First Republican Great Depression. The Republicans.

Unfettered Free Trade doesn’t work. All it does is impoverish a nation and make a handful of greedy people insanely rich.

Free trade doesn’t work.

Supply Side Economics don’t work. It’s a myth.

Voodoo Economics always brings disaster. Read your history.

Why is the billion dollar corporate media downplaying the 100,000 person rally going on in Wisconsin? You would think they have a personal interest in keeping the middle class uninvolved. Maybe they’re afraid we’ll start demanding that they pay their fair share.

If this was a rally of Tea Baggers, there wouldn’t be any room in their programming to cover Japan but since it’s only the middle class…

Here is what it looks like from CNN’s coverage:

Wisconsin Rally according to CNN

And this is what it actually looked like:

The actual size of the march on Madison

Amazing!

A few years back I blogged about the dismal state of the Republican party and asked if Bush was driving the final nail in the conservative coffin.

Republicans Aren’t Conservatives

Today’s Republican party hardly represents the Conservative American. As we’ve seen, the Republican party platform has completely flipped on its head. This is from the 1956 Republican platform:

• We are proud of and shall continue our far-reaching and sound advances in matters of basic human needs—expansion of social security—broadened coverage in unemployment insurance —improved housing—and better health protection for all our people. We are determined that our government remain warmly responsive to the urgent social and economic problems of our people.
• We favor a comprehensive study of the effect upon wildlife of the drainage of our wetlands.
• We favor recognition, by the States, of wild-life and recreation management and conservation as a beneficial use of water.
• We subscribe to the general objectives of groups seeking to guard the beauty of our land and to promote clean, attractive surroundings throughout America.
• We recognize the need for maintaining isolated wilderness areas to provide opportunity for future generations to experience some of the wilderness living through which the traditional American spirit of hardihood was developed.
• We will vigorously promote, as we have in the past, a non-political career service under the merit system which will attract and retain able servants of the people. Many gains in this field, notably pay increases and a host of new benefits, have been achieved in their behalf in less than four years.
• We condemn illegal lobbying for any cause and improper use of money in political activities, including the use of funds collected by compulsion for political purposes contrary to the personal desires of the individual.

The Republican party claims to be “fiscally conservative” and even says they’re “fiscally responsible” yet the Republicans are responsible for 9 trillion dollars of our 13 trillion dollar national debt. So why isn’t this screamed from every news outlet? It’s disinformation in action.

I personally know many conservatives who have disowned the Republican party because the Republican party isn’t conservative or isn’t even the Republican party any more. Looking at the platform, above, one can see that the Republican party is not an American party anymore, but the anti-American party. Everything that this country needs, and needed back in 1956 are things the Republican party is against today.

Why Anyone Believes the Republican Party

But, the Republican party survives. You should be asking why. Why does anyone still endorse the Republican party? The answer is most unpleasant.

Back in the 1920s our country crumbled under the Republican Great Depression. There is no way to deny that the crash was caused by the Republican policies. Just read a history book. We had the same financial systems in place then that we had when Bush’s latest Republican Great Recession almost became the second Republican Great Depression. The only reason this one didn’t turn into a full-blown depression is that Americans threw out the Republicans in 2008.

Obama was able to implement a few of the economy-saving programs similar to what the Democrats implemented in the 1930s to get us out of the Great Depression, but this time the Republicans used the filibuster to block a lot of the necessary changes. What this means is that this recession is not going away. In fact, we may go headlong into the depression anyway since the Republicans got back in power in 2010.

But, why is the Republican party still supported by 20% of America?

Polluting our Information

One of the most unpatriotic things that political zealots do is pollute our information. Even back in the days when the Republicans were thrown out of office and the Democratic party was given the task of cleaning up after the Republican train crash, the Republicans were constantly saying the things the Democrats were doing were destroying America.

After many decades of Democratic rule after the Great Depression and many years of the country’s healthiest economy, the Republicans were still lying and saying the economy improved in spite of the Democratic policies, not because of them.

In those days, no one believed the Republican lies. The Republicans were not voted back into power for decades. But, the lies continued and now, in today’s history books you can find the Republican lies no one believed back in the 30s. Many history books repeat the lies that it wasn’t the Democratic policies that got us out of the Republican Great Depression but it was the war. Even a grade schooler should be able to see through those lies.

No one believed back then and no one should believe it today. But, the lies are marketed so well that many people are led into believing them, especially our school children.

We Need to Stop the Lies!

How could we have possibly gotten back into a Republican Great Depression in less than a century? How could we have let the Republicans institute the same failed policies that got us into the first depression? Well, we forgot the lesson of the first depression because people are constantly trying to market the lies to us.

America needs to respect the value of our information. We need to shut down lying news organizations that lie. We need to shut down conservative think tanks that lie. We need to respond with screaming headlines when we catch people biasing our information. We need to shut down the right-wing think thanks who are out there posting lies on the blogs and editing reference sites like Wikipedia. It’s a crime against society and we Americana need to put a stop to it.

When will we learn from our mistakes? Not until we can rely on our news and our history, and that means exposing and discrediting those intent on marketing the failed policies to us.

If you’re waiting for President Obama or our congress or any other part of our government to clean up the abomination we call the Supreme Court, you’re uninformed. The government only does things when they get enough pressure to do so. The only time they will impeach tax felons or judicial hacks is when we the people get fed up and start demanding change.

About twenty-five percent of America are brain dead zombies believing Fox and Beck and the rest of those destroying America. Another twenty-five percent know something is wrong with the other side and try to serve as a counter balance to big businesses strangling our government. That’s about an even draw. So whenever our representatives hear anything from us Americans, all they hear is that we can’t make up our minds. According to them, America is split 50/50 on everything.

That’s because half of this country is too lazy to get involved. They’re waiting for someone else to get involved so they don’t have to. Am I talking about you?

Let’s talk about just how corrupt the Supreme Court of the US is.

We’ll start with the tax cheat, Clarance Thomas. Just the fact that his wife makes almost a million dollars a year (bribe money?) working for a think tank funded by multinational corporations and billionaires stinks of bias. Just this fact alone should make any judge resign. There’s no way you can be impartial when you’re owned. Just the fact that you pretend that you’re not biased by this shows your inability to decide anything that is important to our country.

It seems painfully obvious that anyone who is supposed to be able to adjudicate fairly should be completely free from biased involvements. But this case is exactly that. Even Congress has to ask him to recuse himself.

Clarance Thomas was appointed to the court by George H. W. Bush and he later appointed the son, George W. Bush as president in Bush v Gore. The decision was already made before the case was even heard by the justices and Thomas’ wife was soliciting resumes for Bush’s cabinet the night before the case.

But our representatives will only do something about these blatant crooks in our justice system when everyone gets out and starts demanding it. Get out and be heard. Call your representatives and the white house and demand this disease be removed from our Supreme Court.

Last week the Republicans in the House of Representatives voted to restrict the definition of rape, and almost every single Republican voted for it.

Now, the definition of rape depends on how hard the victim fought. It’s not enough that a woman gets drugged and gang raped and mutilated and becomes pregnant. No, the Republicans want to do one better and say it’s not a rape since she didn’t fight back.

Handicapped women who can’t reasonably fight back are no longer raped. I guess the Republicans will call that just a little fling and if she gets pregnant, in the immortal words of Nevada’s Senate candidate, Sharron Angle, she gets to make “lemonade”.

So, your little girl gets abducted and is too frightened to fight back and the Republicans are saying, oh, that’s not really rape.

How can any woman with a fifth grade education or better ever even consider voting for these morally vacant Republicans?

What’s next, Republicans? Stoning the little girls for not fighting back hard enough?

I read post after post encouraging the Republican voter to take back their party. I can’t really believe they didn’t let their party get this far out of touch with reality by accident.

Hate America? Hate women? Vote Republican!