Election Eve

Well, tomorrow's the big day, the day that all the political predictors are telling us that the Republicans will regain control of the U.S. House of Representatives, which will probably put America's second most famous golfer, John Boehner, back into the job as Speaker of the House. God forbid. But putting all the hysteria aside, let's look at what's really going on.
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One thing that's always confused us about Republicans is that they don't seem to have any reason for wanting power other than to... well, have power. The Republicans crave political power like a Hollywood whore craves a night with Charlie Sheen, but what do they want to do with that power? To find that answer, you don't have to be history major who does an indepth analysis of political trends of the past 100 years, just look at the past 10 years. When the Republicans last held the White House and control of Congress, did they push for legislation which would have improved our broken health care system, or legislation which would have taken a serious stab at improving our schools, or tried to reform our tax system or the way that Wall Street does business? No. They didn't. During those years Republicans pushed for more tax cuts for the wealthy and big business and pushed for even more deregulation of corporations and environmental controls. It doesn't take a rocket scientist, or even a political scientist, to see that Republicans' sole interest in governing is to use their political power to continue to rig the American system in their, and their friends', favor. Meanwhile, when Democrats lead the national agenda, that's when we see pushes for improvement in health care, education and regulation of out-of-control business and financial practices.
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Oh sure, we can hear the voices from the Right saying that our opinion is a naive simplification of political history. Okay, prove us wrong. Go back for the past twenty years and look up which political party pushed for legislative reform which would have actually benefited American society in some way, and if you can find even one example of Republicans creating and pushing for some sort of legislation which would have created real positive societal "change", we'll eat our shorts.
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The Republicans are screeching for an end to "spending", yet in the same breath are clamoring for an extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. We've said it before, and we'll say it again: irony is completely lost on Republicans. What the Republicans really mean when they want an end to spending is an end to spending for programs which they don't support; when it comes to doling out tax money for their programs, then the tax well seems bottomless. The Republicans are also intent on "repealing ObamaCare". Really? Almost everyone agreed less than two years ago our American health care system is broken, and that it desperately needs reform, yet now, the Republicans have vilified the first real health care reform in 50 years. So where is their plan for reforming health care? Good luck on that one, because they simply don't have one. And more to the point, they don't want one. They have theirs, and they don't care if you have yours. And more importantly, real health care reform would cut into the profits of their core constituencies, i.e. big business, big pharma, etc.
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Last night "60 Minutes" had a very telling story on California's ballot measure which would create a state income tax levy. Big corporations are fighting the measure like crazy, even threatening to leave the state if the measure passes. Now consider that California has promised that the bulk of the new tax revenue would go toward improving the broken public school system. You'd think Big Business would be cheering this revelation, considering that they've been decrying, for years, the fact that they need an educated work force to populate their places of business. But look at the reality of the Republican mindset, when it comes time to "man-up", and help to pay for that educated work force, the Republicans and their Big Business cronies want nothing to do with it. Lesley Stahl even went so far as to ask Bill Gates' father if this was really just about "greed". At first he said, "no", thinking that to say that people who don't want to pay more taxes to improve society are simply "greedy", but then he reconsidered, and said that it probably was something as simple as greed. Of course it is.
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It really is shocking that less than two years after the vast majority of American people realized that the Republican Party had created disastrous situations from which it might take our country decades to recover, that they're almost eerily giddy to put those same Republicans right back into power. Just remember when you go to the voting booth tomorrow, that you get what you ask for. If you vote Republican tomorrow, and in a few months, you're shaking your head at the worsening American situation under Republican leadership, you'll only have yourself to blame.
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One person who won't be getting her hands on some of that new power tomorrow is Meg Whitman, who is currently trailing Jerry Brown in the race to be California's next governor. Whitman has spent over $160 million of her own money on the race. Oh Meg, Meg, Meg. How better could you have spent $160 million? How many college scholarships would that money have bought? How many schools or community hospitals would that money have paid for? How many illegal immigrant maids could you have hired? What a waste.