The New Civil War

I haven't been posting for awhile because it's just damn depressing. In fact, I think I may give this up soon. For awhile there I had hope. Obama tried very hard to bring the country together, even saying he didn't want to pursue war crimes against the war criminals or even hold any of the crooks in the Bush administration accountable. I didn't particularly like that, but, OK, forgiveness is a Christian virtue and he is a hard core Christian. I'll give him that one. It's the nice thing to do.

He even made concessions to Republicans in the first big economic recovery package, and those concessions made it weaker. I disagreed with that too. But I guess the three Republicans who had the guts to stand against the Neocons deserve something. So I gave him that one too.

However, the Neocon Republicans absolutely DO NOT want any form of bipartisanship at all. When Obama gave the three what they wanted, that was compromise. That was bipartisanship. Those three Republicans won some concessions for their side. What the hell is that if not bipartisanship? But the Neocons don't want that, and those three Republicans are about as welcome in their party today as a homeless man at a Republican fundraiser in Phoenix.

To the Neocons, bipartisanship means they get their way. It means nothing but tax cuts for the wealthy. It means further weakening government. It means all the disgusting, illegal and un=American things the Bush administration did to the country for the past eight years.

The mainstream media seems to support the Neocons. Every day they give more play to the right wing garbage than they do even to Obama's comments. Even NPR does that.

What I think is that we are in a new Civil War. A war of the überwealthy against the middle classes. A war of Neocon neofascist extremism against rational thought. A war of unregulated capitalism (and unregulated capitalism inevitably becomes fascism) against legitimate business done in the best interests of America. A war that, so far, stupidity is winning.

Let's face it, folks: There are no more real Republicans out there. By real Republicans, I mean legitimate conservatives. People like Eisenhower, like Goldwater. They were honest, intelligent men who put the good of the country against party dogma. Neither one would get to first base in today's right wing Republican party.To a Neocon, the phrase "Goldwater Republican" is an insult.

For me personally, all this is just too damn depressing. What good does it do to talk about it. I write letters to the newspaper and three or four a year get published, a mere drop in the inkwell to all the right wing comments that get published. Nobody reads this blog except people who agree with me, meaning those who do not pursue any dogma one way or another. What I think is that the Neocon Republicans have, in a single generation, managed to so polarize the American public that there is no turning back. For any Republican to look at the facts and admit in public that their policy of tax cuts for the wealthy ("supply side economics") is nothing more than voodoo economics and that history has proved that not only does the policy not work, it has caused incredible damage here and all over the world would be an admission that their most cherished beliefs are wrong-headed. People who are blinded by dogma never will do that. They will never admit to the facts. When given a fact, they try to say the provider of the fact is evil, that the fact is wrong, even when proved correct. These people are like religious zealots--reality simply does not matter. They are going to do what they are going to do, regardless of what the facts may be.

I don't like parts of Obama's stimulus package. But it is an attempt to help the situation, rather than just giving more money to the wealthy in the form of tax cuts--a policy that would only dig us deeper into the hole.

What Obama has done, is doing, is at least a step in the right direction. I would prefer complete nationalization of the big banks, instead of this partial thing. But, it's better than nothing and has a chance. Problem is--it's not enough. The failed Bush policies have drug the economy down so far that Obama has started out with the worst deficit in the history of the world and now has no choice but to make it even worse.

OK, smartass, people say to me, what would you do that's better? Me? I'm not an economist. All I had in college in that are was one macroeconomics course, wherein I learned that Keynsian economics worked historically while supply side economics did the opposite. But, even though I'm not an "expert," I have a solution. Unfortunately, it's too late because too much money has already been given away. Let's don't forget the $750 billion bucks Bush gave away with no controls at all before he left office. That's almost a trillion dollars. Another trillion or so from Obama. So, let's just round it to two trillion dollars that's being spent. (I'm ignoring the Iraq mess now and all it's cost, just talking about bailout money.)

Here's what I would have done if anybody had put me in charge:

Step 1: Figure out how many American taxpayers there are who make less than $100,000 a year each.

Step 2: Send a check for $100,000 to every American taxpayer who makes less than $100,000 a year each, with no taxes on that check.

Step 3: Sit back and watch the economic recovery happen overnight.