None Of The Above. Observations On The State Of American Politics
Traditionally, the Democratic Party has been the champion of the poor and the middle class. It has increased the size of government, increased taxes and espoused liberal causes such as welfare, various types of equal rights, homosexual marriage and so on. The increases in taxes go to pay for all the social and welfare programs. The Democratic Party is considered to be politically center to left of center.
The Republican Party has been the champion of Big Business, small government, less spending, decreased taxes and a cessation of welfare programs. Keeping America militarily strong and maintaining a strong posture and presence in the world is considered a Republican priority. The Republican Party is considered to be politically right of center.
Times have changed in that while the Democratic Party is still the same or more so, the Republican Party has become much more like the Democratic Party. Under the Republicans, government spending has soared to heights the Democrats only dreamed about and the bureaucracy has massively expanded with the Department of Homeland Security and many other sub-departments mostly related to internal and external spying, National Security and the military.
Where the Republicans diverge from the Democrats is in dealing with problems at home. Nothing pointed this out more than when Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana and devastated New Orleans. It was well known that the old levees were in drastic need of rebuilding and the city was in grave danger but the Republicans were spending every available cent on the war in Iraq and didn’t want to allocate funds for repairs. After the city was mostly destroyed, Pres. Bush didn’t even react for days and when he did, it showed his complete lack of planning. It was obvious that his mind was elsewhere, in Iraq.
For this same reason, all of the American infrastructure, bridges, highways, schools, sewer systems, everything that relies on matching Federal funds for creation, rebuilding and repair has gone without and is steadily falling apart. The only Federally-assisted new schools built since 2000 have been built from funds established by Pres. Clinton in 1999, for example. The No Child Left Behind Act put through by the Republicans actually withholds states Federal school funds unless all teachers are “highly qualified” as defined in the law. The law has saved a lot of Federal money from being handed out while doing nothing to improve the quality of learning as this meant the retraining of many teachers and the inability to fire many others who have tenure. The law works for the Fed but not for the kids.
It is a tactic of each party to paint the other as being a disaster for America, when in truth, both are a disaster for America. This was not formerly the case.
Today, Jon Edwards, considered by most polls to be the “most electable Democrat” quit the race after another abysmal showing at the voting booths. Polls usually are pretty accurate but it seems lately that people being polled are either lying or they have no idea what they really mean to do, because the polls are consistently getting it wrong.
Likewise, Rudy Giuliani, considered to be the top contender, came in a poor third today in Florida and is likely to drop out. The two top blog favorites among Republican bloggers are Ron Paul and Fred Thompson. Both are at the bottom of the vote tally.
Both parties have strayed far from their original mandates. Virtually all the candidates are either party clones or themselves out of sync with their parties and the result is that confusion is the rule of the day. Voters aren’t sure what to do. The number of “Undecided” compared to those who are committed to a candidate is greater than in many past elections.
Today there are really only three leading contenders, John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, with Mitt Romney trailing behind McCain. I personally don’t want any of them as my President and when Election Day rolls around I’d like to see a “None Of The Above” box added to the ballot.
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