CONSERVATIVES CAN ONLY PLACE BLAME, BUT HAVE NO WORKABLE SOLUTIONS

 

Placing blame without offering real solutions: That’s the Republican Party.

 

Here’s a basic question for the conservatives in the GOP.

 

Why do you hate today’s America?  Why do you always say you want to go back to the era of Ronald Reagan, when based on your current policies, Reagan’s philosophies would not be allowed in today’s GOP.

 

As the demographics of our great melting-pot of a nation continues to change, all we hear from the candidates in your party is that they all want to return to the white majority America of the 1970’s and 80’s.

 

So you ask, aren’t there some things I would want from the America of 40-50 years ago?

 

 

Well, I guess that I would like the nation’s infrastructure to be in the shape it was 50 years ago.  I would like the middle class to be as solid today as it was back then.  And I would have liked the wage structure of the average working American to have continued keeping pace with the top 10%’s incomes.

 

 

It would have been nice if the American auto industry did not have to spend 20 years catching up with the Japanese and European auto manufacturers.  In addition, it would have been great if the many industries that had previously flourished in the US, such as the textile, shoe and various other manufacturers had not been forced to move their factories off-shore.

 

And of course, I would like to travel and to leave my doors unlocked as we did back then, when we were not required to be concerned about home-grown or foreign terrorist attacks.  Also, to be back when we weren’t dealing with the current proliferation of hand guns and assault rifles.

 

However, would I like today’s America to be without the Internet, the smart phone, high def TV, my Kindle book reader, on-line shopping, and to lack the ability for fact checking politicians that is available today? 

 

I don’t think so.

 

My professional history was that I traveled around the world in Asia, China, Japan, So. Korea and most of Europe.  Being exposed to so many cultures has made me appreciate the demographic changes that have been occurring in today’s America.  The different available cultures and foods in our local markets and restaurants have seriously widened American’s cultural palates, which is a direct result of our changing demographics.  Within my household, we continually experiment with trying different cultural markets and food choices.  However, we do usually stick with our traditional meal choices for those special holiday celebrations.

 

It has been very disturbing to hear the Republicans candidates, particularly Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) continually preaching about how they dislike the America of today. They talk of how they seem to yearn for the United States of the past, as they refer to today’s America as being a totally failed nation.  As an example, Donald Trump’s campaign slogan is to “Make America Great, Again.”  That implies that America is no longer great, even though it is the only real super-power left on this great globe.

 

Trump says that America’s current chief executive is a failed president, while most historians say that President Obama will probably be regarded as one of the nation’s most successful presidents.  Trump continues to say that the leadership in both parties is “stupid”, and to use his words, we should deport 11 million undocumented immigrants while blocking all Muslims from entering the country.  Most of the GOP candidates still seem to say that any discussion against going after illegal immigrants or all Muslims is just noise from a bunch of liberals being “politically correct.”

 

At least the three current Democratic candidates have all agreed that the cultural changes that have reshaped America are welcomed as part of our historical growth toward racial and cultural justice and overall inclusion.

 

I find it very sad that the Republican party has become so internally divided and disjointed that they almost need to run as two different parties when they run for their nomination versus running in the general election.

 

Oh, I agree that the Democrats also have a bit of a divide that they will run more toward the left for the presidential nomination, versus how they will run in the general election.   But it’s nothing like the divide within the Republicans. 

 

Within the GOP, only the evangelicals and the far right voters seem to come out and vote in their state’s primaries.  Therefore, the candidates have to run super conservative to get these initial votes.  Once the nominee is chosen, it is very challenging to get this same slice of the voting Republicans to vote together with the more moderate Republicans.  Since the Republican party is smaller than the Democratic party, they need all the votes from all the factions of the party for winning a national election.  That's especially  true since they’ve done nothing for going after America’s growing minority parties.

 

One of the Democratic candidates, Martin O’Malley put the issue pretty well for what has become a problem for the GOP candidates. Per O’Malley, “When you listened to the Republican debate the other night, you heard a lot of anger and a lot of fear. Well, they can have their anger and they can have their fear, but anger and fear never built America.”  And the reality is that, anger and fear will not make America greater than it is today.

 

This is what is so disappointing and frightening about the Republicans.

 

Most of what you hear from the GOP candidates are claims of how bad it is today in America, and how much better it was years ago and all their yearning for those days of the past.  Yet with all this, they have very few suggestions or plans for how they will make it better, if they are elected.  All they seem to do is lay the blame on the other side with little or no suggestions for fixing any of what they say are the problems.

 

They just keep casting the blame on the other guy and saying the answer is to get rid of them.  However, they seldom get beyond just placing the blame.  All they have are accusations, but no real solutions.

 

Hopefully, the American voters will see what’s being offered by both parties and will make the right voting decision.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2015