Government is Evil, Please Vote For Me

I saw this quote by President Reagan and it caused me to ponder the lack of legitimacy of the anti-government Republicans, who are campaigning to serve in the government that they claim is "the problem." What really irks me about Ronald Reagan, is that he betrayed himself and his party when he left the Democrats and started preaching the conservative fallacies of the Republicans. The reason I say this is because when he was a Democrat, he was an admirer of FDR and acknowledged that FDR's policies saved his family during the Great Depression. How can a person who would have lost everything, if it wasn't for the humane government policies of the New Deal, turn around and despise the very government that saved his family from economic despair?

The whole statement is based on hypocrisy and ignorance of the progress that America made after the New Deal. They say that government is the problem but it was the government, laid out by FDR, that created the economic landscape that turned a country where most people didn't have plumbing in their homes, into a country where most people not only had plumbing but also telephones and automobiles. There is a natural urge to blame the Government for all of the country's problems but it is truly hypocritical to do so while running to be a part of government. If you think government is evil and can't do anything, get out of the way and don't run for office. Because contrary to what many conservatives believe, most Americans want a government that works; not one that obstructs progress and hinders society's improvement.

The truth is that when Republicans say they want to limit government, they are really saying that they want to limit democracy. Anyone who says the government is evil and shouldn't do anything for the good of the people is blind to the simple fact that in a democratic society, the people are the government and the government is the people. Many have been deceived into believing that if the government does more to benefit the "General Welfare" (See Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution) of the people, the people will lose their freedom. But if we are as Lincoln declared, "A government of the people, by the people, and for the people," we should not fear a big government, because in democracy that simply means that the people have achieved greater control of their destinies and the people that lead them. We are the rulers, we are the kings, and we ultimately dictate the kind of country America will be, now and in the future. So the next time you hear someone say that they want limited government, just remember who the government truly is and who they really want to limit.

Mo money Mo problems

For a while, many conservatives were bowing their heads in disgust because of the seeming inevitability of Mitt Romney being their nominee. But thanks to their fellow "conservative" Newt Gingrich and his super pac, the likelihood of a Romney nomination has been greatly diminished. The reason the Romney campaign is faltering is because the only thing that Romney had going for him--his private sector experience--has been deduced to a symbol of the current corruption of our political and economic policies.

Many say that Romney's critics are engaging in class warfare and despising success, but it is much deeper than that. It is about exposing just how corrupt our current policies are so that we can replace them with smarter, fairer policies.  This is the thing that Republicans are fighting fervently to prevent.

When the Republican nominees (e.g. Gingrich, Huntsman, and Perry) began cannibalizing Romney on his "conservative" business record, it did a great service to President Obama. The reason it was so beneficial to Obama was because of the obvious entertainment value of being able to watch the Republicans eat each other alive and contradict everything they claim to stand for--out of their narcissistic desperation to be the President--but the biggest reason it helped him is because it brought the reality of how corrupt our current system is to light.

Proof the Economy is Improving, the GOP is Campaigning on Social Issues

I noticed something very interesting when the unemployment numbers for January were released. Republicans went from talking about the economy nonstop, to talking almost exclusively about birth control and gay marriage. They have attempted to paint an illusion of religious freedom being on the ropes, but what they are revealing--in a very entertaining fashion--is that they are the ones who are on the ropes. Now that the economy is improving, Obama's approval numbers are increasing, and their numbers are falling, they have had to resort to the last weapon in their arsenal--social issues.

The desperate attempt to pump life back into the dead elephant cadaver that has become of the Republican  platform is faltering and causing them to dwindle even more than they were, because something happened while the Republicans were lost in lala land; America woke up. The days when conservatives could target a minority group and win support among the masses, are over. America is a different place from what it was 10-20 years ago, and Republicans are meeting that reality with the force of a brick wall of public opinion polls. On just about every social issue that Republicans have exploited over the past century, there has been a dramatic shift to the liberal position. It seems that Americans, today, are not worried about what a woman does with her body or the things that people do in the privacy of their own bedrooms, but they are worried about making their mortgage payment and they are worried about the kind of economic climate that their children will have to adjust to if America continues down the path that it's on.

These are concerns that the Republicans are not able to relate to because for too long, they haven't had to. With the ability to buy elections and play off of people's fears and prejudices, there is little need to actually be a man or woman of the people. But now as the people are struggling to survive, and all the Republicans are proposing to do is cut taxes even more for the super wealthy, there is no time to worry about nominal positions of ignorance and bigotry. The people are ready for a leader who is willing to fight for them, as fervently as he is willing to fight for an unborn fetus, and many Americans are waking up to the truth that this leader has been there for the past three years, fighting for them--against a group of people who have done everything in their power to impede progress in order to try to make Obama a one-term president. Because the Republicans tried to make America fail for their own gain, they will be the ones who ultimately lose.

The Faith-Crushing, Liberal Guillotine of Destruction

Today, I heard one of stupidest things ever spoken in the history of politics. It was uttered by none other than the Pro-Life, Pro-Sweater-Vest, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum (If you google this, you will laugh every time you read headlines that say "Rick Santorum Surges" hehehe... I digress). At a town hall meeting on Wednesday, Rick Santorum made a historically inaccurate likening of President Obama to the French Revolution and the use of guillotines because of a recent bill--which has overwhelming support from the American people--that was signed by Obama, which requires Catholic hospitals (not churches) to include birth control in their health insurance plans. What most see as a common sense measure to improve women's health and reduce abortions, some see as an all out attack against America's faith institutions.

Over this past week, conservative pundits have stood upon their soapboxes of self righteousness and constitutional ignorance, and condemned the mandate as an attack against religious freedom and an example of government overstepping its constitutional bounds. However, it does nothing remotely similar to the claims made against it and most Catholics and the majority of Americans support it because it is simply common sense to make birth control available to all women--so as to prevent the need for a woman to ever have an abortion--but that didn't stop Rick Santorum from offering a display of pure stupidity. In his speech, he compared Obama's move to the French Revolution and warned that "for the French it led to the guillotine" and implied that Obama's decision would lead America to something similar.

A Tale of Two Presidents (hint, they both have Muslim sounding names)

There is little truth to be found in the realm of politics. From quoting Thomas Paine with words he never said to referring to Western Europe as a failed Socialist Bureaucracy, Republicans have done an incredible job of painting an imaginary version of the way the world actually is. But their greatest work to date, is the imaginary version of Obama they have created out of the clay of logical fallacies; an Obama who many Americans have embraced with hallelujahs and pitchforks.

If there is an imaginary version of Obama, there is a real Obama, and my objective in this post is to separate the real Obama from the imaginary Obama.

I want to start with a description of the imaginary Obama. The imaginary Obama is a guy who says he's Christian but who everyone knows is really a secret Muslim working for Al Qaeda. He is a Nazi, who also happens to be a Fascist, Communist, Socialist, Marxist, Maoist, Anti-American terrorist. The imaginary Obama is a person who secretly, for the past 30 years, has been causing the gap in economic inequality to grow through the "failed" Socialist policies he has implemented over the course of his three year Presidency. Worst of all, he doesn't believe in work and wants America to become an entitlement society where everyone is dependent on the government and everyone receives the same reward --no matter how hard they work.

Imaginary Obama hates America and everything it stands for and showed his true colors when he went around the world apologizing for America and befriending Communist dictators like Hugo Chavez. The imaginary Obama has a clear objective to destroy America and turn us into an Islamofascist caliphate. Imaginary Obama, because he has been President for the past three years, is responsible for everything bad that has happened in America over the past 30 years. To put it bluntly, Imaginary Obama is the greatest threat the US has ever seen since... Bill Clinton! And if we don't get him out of the White House soon, by voting Republican, America will literally cease to exist in 2012.

When placed next to the conspiracy theorists who believe the world is going to end in 2012, the imaginary Obama conspirators possibly have less credibility but they both are equally stupid. Now that we have heard the version of Obama invented by the Tin-Foil-Hat Society, let's analyze the real Obama.

The real Obama is a faithful Christian who has attended the same church for over 20 years and he is an American Liberal, which, is the antithesis of being a Nazi, Fascist, Communist, or any of the ridiculous titles that are often attributed to him. For 30 years before he became President, the American Dream had been deteriorating because of a political system rigged in favor of the top income earners and he has been working tirelessly throughout his entire Presidency to return America to the system of fairness and equal opportunity that it enjoyed before the implementation of our current corrupt system. Because of his "Socialist" policies, America has had 22 consecutive months of private sector job growth and has avoided falling into a second great depression. His policies do not represent simply taking from the rich and giving to the poor; his policies represent his sincere belief that every one deserves a fair shot to achieve their full potential, regardless of what social class they are born into.

The real Obama loves America through and through, because he understands what real American ideals are truly about. For the past decade, Republicans have created a high level of hatred and animosity towards the US, through inhumane military actions, and a complete disregard for our neighbors in Central and South America. When Obama traveled the world seeking to improve US international relationships (which have improved greatly since he has been President), he wasn't apologizing for America, he was seeking to undo the damage that has been done to the US image by warmongering Republicans who have done little more than oppress other nations and place America's national security at risk for the past 20 years.

The truth is that as long as he remains President after 2012, America's economic recovery will be complete and eventually our relationships with nations around the world will become relationships of peace and mutual prosperity.

The Republicans would like Americans to believe in their imaginary Obama so they can regain the political power that they lost and so they can go back to destroying the American Dream and America's international relationships but when all is said and done, people see who the real Obama is, and though they are  unhappy that he hasn't been able to fulfill all of his promises, the path of peace and economic opportunity that he wants to take America down is much brighter than the path of perpetual war and economic imprisonment that Republicans want to take America down. Republicans know that his ideals are much more appealing and popular than theirs and that is why they have created out of desperation, the imaginary Obama.