JMO - Think Before Voting

When you look at the candidates this fall, and go through your thought process to select the one you think best reflects your values, I hope you think more than just your values, and especially what the candidate is saying. Think about the candidate's history. Think about what the candidate isn't saying, meaning not what they are for but what they oppose without saying it.

But most of all, think about our country.

This is because if you remember the 1994 election when the Republicans put forth the "Contract with America" which turned out to be devasting when they took control of Congress. They refused to pass the President's appropriations bills and they shut down government for two periods, one 6 weeks long and another 2 weeks. They created a backlog of work then President Clinton wanted but couldn't get through to help Americans when they simply refused.

This is pretty much the same Congress when Bush was elected and look what happened. He gave us a right-wing focused Supreme Court which will be there for years, if not a decade or two, past his presidency. He gave us the crash of the financial market when he refused to regulate the industry. He gave us the housing crash when he refused to deal with predator lenders. And worst of all he gave us two wars, one of questionable necessity, meaning there was alternative than invasion, and one of choice.

All of this while he increased the national debt more than any two-term president in history. He squandered a budget surplus which could be used to pay down the debt for future generations for tax cut for the corporations and wealthy, giving us pennies when they got dollars. And he put this country into a deep recession, the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930's. This is what you should think about when you consider candidates.

Do you want Republicans who want to go back to that and not solve the real problems of this country but simply find ways to make the wealthy richer, leaving pennies for us again? Do you want Republicans to return to the rhetoric of talking cutting spending, but spending more on pork-barrel projects, wars, government contracts to corporations, and tax credits and incentives to corporations for oil and natural gas in deep-water, off-shore areas of our coast?

That is what this election is about, our future. Do you want your elected representatives who like the past and want it back, or do you want them to look for solutions to America's problems with at least something which will give us our country, our jobs, our economy, our government, and most of all our future place in the world. I won't argue all the Democratic candidates are the best, but I will argue almost all the Republicans aren't the best.

And that's my point. When you have the Republicans who proved in latest (2008-2010) Congress to be the party of "NO!", conductiong filibusters on any legislation which would help America and Americans. Every legisltation, even ones they proposed, sponsored and supported in past congressional sessions, was meant with a party-unanimous, "No." They voted against their own previous bills!

They've blocked more government and judicial nomination than all previous congressional sessions, even when the Democrats were in power and let the President have his appointees. They have simply dug their heels in and say the only thing they want is tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy. They will sell you everything under the sun, but that's their goal, scam government funds, your tax dollars, for the weathly.

This election is about your tax dollars. This election is about your health and healthcare. This election is about your children's education. This election is about yours and our environment, shown is the BP oil disaster, something the Bush administration created with the corporate corruption of the MMS. This election is about returning government to us than them. This election is about "our" government.

And while the Democrats haven't proven to be what they could, and mostly because they like the political spine - I'd say balls but that's inpolite - to do what's right and damn the politics. The Democrats have pandered to the party of NO than the party of the people, us who elected them. They need to get their collective head out of their asses and do their job for us, not the party of NO.

This election is about our economy and mostly about jobs, our jobs and our future. Each of us and our families. It's about being able to afford to live with something to look forward to, a career, good, affordable healthcare, savings, retirement. and everything else everything candidates will sell you and promise, the American dream. But do they have the history for that? Or is it just words to scare you against their opponenent or words for their values they know can't be done in Congress?

That's what's at stake here in this election, yours and our future. Think about that first and foremmost. Don't sacrifice our future for rhetoric or a pretty picture, neither of which is true or real.