2 posts tagged “democrats”
The big oil company rhetoric has ramped up over the weekend. As usual the party lines are drawn and nothing is going to get accomplished. The Democrats want more tax money and blood from the big oil companies and the Republicans say it is just how business works and good for our 401k retirement plans.
Watching what is going on capitol hill is like watching people on P.C.P. trying to fly or people taking acid trying to fight with the air. Lots of strange activity, but no real accomplishment except when they hurt themselves.
I have to admit however, in hearing both sides of the argument, that both sides were partially right, but the truth is that again partisan politics overrides simple reason.
First off, making record profits by the destruction of our economy and whole industries (such as the airline industry that will be completely destroyed if the price of gas does not go down) is never okay and I am not sure that a tax break or giving such organizations more money for research is not rewarding those that are damaging our great nation.
I am not convinced however that public flogging is the answer, but some sort of limitation on what profit margins can look like might be in order. Look, you are free to do pretty much whatever you want to do in this country until you start to abuse the privilege or severely damage others. At that point you become the enemy of every American.
As a person who is severely opposed to our current party system, I have to say that I was put off by the rhetoric of both sides on this one. But, the argument that I have heard several times of the past few days that it is okay because many of our 401k plans benefit from the profits of the big oil companies is flat out stupid.
How does five or ten dollars a month in interest into my retirement balance out doubling what is costs to put gas in my car every fill up? How does that compensate the truck drivers who have doubled what they pay in gas (or more)? How does that compensate the rising cost of things that are shipped by truck? What does that do for those who don’t have a 401k plan (maybe he or she is one of those statistics we keep hearing denoting the jobless)?
It is sort of like dividing the country into classes and saying it is okay to steal from those at the bottom and some of those in the middle to help those at the top with all of the big investments.
I live in an area where most people have long commutes and most people can barely afford to live here even though when compared with other parts of the country incomes are higher (everything simply costs more). In my area, gas is already over the four dollar a gallon mark which means that there has been a huge cut in our individual economies.
I am not saying that there may not be some good explanation for why the price of gasoline is so high (it rose a lot faster than the price of barrels of oil did), what I am saying is that this explanation is stupid and an insult to the intelligence of everyone on the planet.
On the other hand, where I do agree with the Republicans, is that we need to drill in our own oil fertile areas and stop protesting, filibustering, or anything else to oppose such measures. When the price of gas was a dollar and some change we had such a luxury. Right now, the price of gas and the other factors that are influencing this bad economy are going to strangle those in poverty, those at the bottom levels of our income brackets, and a bunch of those considered currently to be “middleclass.”
The idea that we are sitting on huge solutions to our problem and a large segment of our society wants to fight those perceived to be causing the problem while fighting against the obvious solution is ridiculous.
The plan in the works is to invent cars that will not be available to the public for 4 years or more, that will run on these new fuels that you will not be able to get anywhere.
I agree that something needs to change, but first the partisan hogwash has to be done away with. There is an old saying in my family: “If you are not a part of the solution you are probably part of the problem.” I don’t know if all of the folks on capitol hill have noticed their approval rating lately, but the American people are convinced that they are a part of the problem along with all of their rhetoric.
I am middle class. I have a retirement plan. I pay taxes. I served my country honorably in the Marine Corps along with three prior generations of serviceman. I work and contribute to my society and to charity. I commute to work and fill the tank in my tiny commuter car at least once or twice week (my 12 gallon tank now takes almost fifty dollars to fill). I am also one of the victims of the record profits that I am supposed to think is okay because I will get something like fifty cents more income monthly toward my retirement.
I am old enough to remember the last time something like this happened. The siphoning of gas (which has started again), the fights at the gas stations as people went to gas stations on alternating days depending on if the first number on their license plate was odd or even, etc. This is worse as there are several other contributing factors that are taking us down fast. I do not think that allowing large segments f the population to suffer to bolster some political stand is acceptable from either party and I am angered by this whole thing.
If you watch, listen to, or read the commentaries on the primaries taking place every couple of weeks, the news has drifted into a public battle of race, age, and gender. I have been struck by the amount of news that basically states that Senator Hillary Clinton is winning over middle class, whites (the exact words that the media seems to be comfortable using), older “white” voters and is campaigning to win over women. The other side of the coin is that Senator Barack Obama is winning over African-American voters (in the media known as “black voters”) and new, young voters.
This race may not be what has split the party, but no matter how you think it got there, I think it is safe to say that, the party is split and it is being made obvious to the whole planet.
The last few days of news has brought lots of stories and discussion about the possibility that events of this primary season are negatively affecting the party as a whole. Some say that the events of the last few months are not negatively affecting the party. Again, that may or may not be the case, but the party has a huge negative point at this minute: The party is divided.
I have been befuddled by how comfortable the media has been in reducing the campaigns to the group that seems to vote for the candidates. Now we can all think of Sen. Clinton as the candidate of middleclass “white males” and “older white” voters while Sen. Obama as the candidate of African Americans and new voters. But, in thinking about it, although these facts are uncomfortable, they are true and this is news.
The problem is not the reporting, the problem is that the Democrats are comfortable with this as a whole. It does not matter if the party split yesterday, over this primary season, or ten years ago, it is still split and the gap between the different factions is growing.
The problem has the potential to move from a large crack in the party to a completely broken party in the near future.
If Sen. Obama wins, the middleclass white males will feel disenfranchised and may not be in as much of a hurry to vote for him simply because he is a Democrat.
If Sen. Clinton wins, by the overturning of the popular vote by superdelegates, or by getting the states that Sen. Obama did not campaign in to count, a large part of the African American community will feel cheated by the candidate that represents middleclass, “white” America. Has the party not thought through how overriding the popular vote of the people or including the votes of states that the first African American candidate did not campaign in (in accordance with instructions from the party) would speak to the African American populous.
In polls the voters have made it clear that if their respective candidate did not win, they may vote for a Republican, Independent, or at the least no longer affiliate themselves with the Democrats.
Both middleclass “white” and the “black” voters are major demographics that have been the base of the party for the past few years. One of these groups is likely to be alienated in the next few months. Then what? How about the young voters that are voting for the first time? Alienate them and you have succeeded in alienating the future!
I suppose the party has counted on being to get the two candidates coming together after some sort of solution is reached and running together as presidential and vice-presidential candidates. This would be the case normally, but this current unusually prolonged primary season and the nature of the “firsts” represented in the candidates, has allowed more time for voters to get their heart set on their candidate and to foster more dislike for the opponent.
The end of the party seems to be coming faster than the end of the primaries. If I were a Democrat (and not a complete independent) I would think that this has to stop now, because this one presidency is not worth risking the destruction of the party. As an independent that thinks the party system is broken, I think if the one party explodes in front of the entire planet it will force the government and the country as a whole to look at revamping the party system.
