IT TAKES GOOD IDEAS TO CLAIM A MANDATE

 

Don’t forget, tomorrow is one of the most important mid-terms in decades

I’m writing this article even before any results are in from the November mid-term elections.

And I’m saying right now that regardless of the final numbers, there is no way the Republicans will be in a position to declare an election mandate. 

The reason I can say that, is in order to have a mandate, there has to be something positive offered in which all the American constituents can totally believe.  Since that is what is required, other than being totally obstructionist, the Republicans have offered absolutely nothing for those of us going into the voting booths on Tuesday.

So far, all you get from the conservatives is that once again we must all be, “very afraid”.  Today, they want us all to be afraid of the Ebola disease coming to the US, ISIL coming into the US over the southern border, and the nation being over-come with illegal immigrants from virtually everywhere.

This is so reminiscent of the days and months after the 9/11 attacks.  That was when the Bush Administration had previously ignored dealing with the threats from al Qaeda, which eventually allowed the terrorist, Osama bin Laden, to do his horrible deeds with our commercial aircraft in New York; at the Pentagon; and in a remote field in Pennsylvania.  At the time, all that Bush, Cheney and the Bush administration could say to the American public was that we should all, “be afraid, be very afraid”. 

Then they re-directed the nation’s attention and we were misled into being afraid of an Iraqi Dictator and his non-existent WMD’s that we were told were going to become an atomic mushroom cloud in America.

Today, all this same group now has to sell the average American is that we should close the door on helping the Africans get rid of the Ebola disease in Western Africa.  They want us to isolate ourselves and to hide under our beds in total fear.  God forbid that we should attack the disease at its source to keep it from spreading willy-nilly all over the globe.  No sirree….as usual they just keep saying that we should all continue to “be afraid, be very afraid”.
 

Just look at what the conservatives do or do not support.

·       Over 50 times they voted in the House to get rid of Obamacare, but what were their ideas for replacing a program that now has millions of supporters?  Not one suggestion was offered except to repeal the Affordable Care Act.  Yes, they want us to go back to the insurance companies canceling your policy for a pre-existing condition.  Let’s again take the kids under 26 years of age off of their parents insurance.  Let’s once again charge those exorbitant fees for women’s well-care check-ups, and of course, let’s not close that expensive “Donut Hole” in the prescription drug bill.  Oh and yes, let’s also let the insurance premiums continue to sky rocket which as of today, due to the ACA, are starting to decline. 

·       House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) had previously promised a “replacement plan for Obamacare” over the past 2-3 years, but to date, nothing has been presented by Boehner or the Republican House.

·       The basic Republican plank still supports anti-abortion even in cases of rape or incest.  One Republican politician in the deep South is actually running on an anti-birth-control pledge.

·       Don’t forget that the Republicans do not want an increase in the minimum wage.

·       The GOP is against equal pay for equal work and equal pay for women.

·       No US president has ever faced the obstructionism that the Republicans have shown this administration.

·       Even though, no thanks to the Republicans, the nation’s unemployment is at its lowest point since 2007, the Republicans are saying that President hasn’t done anything for jobs in America…..?

·       The president offered a true “Jobs Bill” for building and repairing the nation’s infrastructure of roads, schools, airports, bridges, freeways, and public buildings.  The House  Republicans have not allowed that bill to be voted on.

·       The Republicans have no clue in what to do regarding the problems in the Middle East.  Many from the GOP, such as Senator’s John McCain and Lindsay Graham, just want to go back to war using US ground troops

·       High gas costs were blamed on the current president, but he is given no credit that they are now at the lowest point, and going lower, since 2003.

·       All the voter suppression rules across the nation were brought on by those state’s run by Republican governors.  This is because they don’t want any eligible ethnic Americans to be able to vote, or vote early, or on Sundays, or in a reasonably accessible poll location.

·       The stock market is at an all-time high, and the latest quarterly gain one of the highest in decades, but no credit has been given by the GOP to the Obama administration.

·       No Republican in Congress will vote for a required federal background check in order to buy a firearm in the United States.  (This would bring on an immediate ban of the congressperson from the NRA.)

All the Republicans have been able to say over the past 7 years is “no, no, no” to anything and everything, regardless of whether the program was a good for the American public.

To those people that say, “But if that’s the case, why is the president’s approval ratings so low?”

Well, the Republican’s “message machine” has always been very efficient, and human nature has a tendency for people to hear the negatives over the positives.  This is especially true since the Fox News channel was added to the conservatives media arsenal.  Even though that has been the main reason that nothing has been getting done in Washington, the Republican’s machine has been able to spread the blame over both parties in Washington.  Even though they have no fixes to offer, they keep selling that the government is broken and doesn’t work.  They neglect however to admit that they were and are the main reason it continues to be broken.



 

…President Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican President

Republicans tend to forget that they were the original “Party of Lincoln”.  President Lincoln also had said in his first inaugural speech in looking for reconciliation between the North and the South, “Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

President Lincoln must be turning over in his grave regarding the despicable approaches used today against the Republican’s opposition party, and especially against the first black American president.  Not exactly the “better angels of our nature”, as was presented by this great US President.

So, even if the GOP does take the Senate, they still won’t have the 60 votes that would be needed to overcome a Democratic filibuster.  This Senate tactic was used by the Republicans because they did not want to work on any policy compromises with the Dems.  Therefore, now “turn-about is fair play”, and you can expect the Democrats to do to them, exactly what they have been doing to the Dems for years. 

Since the GOP has never been good at governing, and so far has offered no ideas besides their “lower taxes and less government” mantra, or stated what they would do for you and I if they were in control.  If they do take the Senate and they don’t get positive things done quickly for the American public, their chances to then take the White House in 2016 will been very slim.

Therefore, the next two years could be very interesting.

Copyright G.Ater  2014