America's Plan To Vote Republican: Anger or Foolishness?

Election night is coming up in under one week and the airwaves are awash with predictions of doom for the Democratic Party. From the Senate races to the House of Representatives races, it's all gloomy news for the Democrats and the prognostication is that of a total clean sweep by the Republican Party. Chief among the reasons given for this impending annihilation of the Democratic Party in this election cycle is usually that the people are angry about the direction of the country. Other reasons include the state of the economy and the fact that this is a mid term election, and no incumbent party has ever survived a mid term election.

Among these reasons given, I find the anger reason, as why the Democrats are going to be swept out of office, the most intriguing. This is because I ask myself what this supposed anger is all about and I think that if the anger is about the state of this country, then the Democratic Party is the wrong target for it. I say this because, as an American, myself, I understand why people would be angry with the way things are right now. I understand that Americans are suffering in no small measures, and I understand that people are worried about the deficit.

I fully understand that the economy is nothing to write home about, what with the jobless rate that appears to be intractably hanging at very high percentages. I understand that people are hurting everywhere in the country because their are no jobs to be had. I get it that even when jobless people are willing to take a lower paying job than the ones they left, they can't even find such jobs. Yes, I don't question the people's right to be angry at this very difficult times in our country's existence, but what I do question is the rationale for the chosen direction of that anger. The reason for my decision is simple and clear for all to see who want to be rational and fair. Those reasons are what I'm about to state in this article.

That the economy is in the doldrums is an agreed upon fact but who is responsible for it being there? Who put in place the policies that brought the economy to this place where it almost completely collapsed and had to be resuscitated? Who deregulated Wall Street so much that they had the freedom to gamble with the economy with reckless abandon? The answer to that is the Bush administration which means the same Republican Party that the people are on the verge of putting back in power.

And if the fact that they put the economy in this shape is not enough for you, let's talk about efforts to try and get the economy back on track. Who has been working tirelessly to sabotage every effort that has been made by the Democratic government to bring the economy back? Who voted a hundred percent against the Wall Street reform bill? A bill that is made to bring Wall Street under control and prevent the same irresponsibility that everyone agrees brought about the economic crash? The same Republican Party who almost killed the country when they were in power.

The Republican Party tried all they could to kill the economic recovery bill without which this economy would have descended into complete depression. The Republican president that presided over the making of this economic debacle was the one who initiated the recovery bill when, even he was overwhelmed by the mess he and his party had made. He realized, rightly so, that for the economy to stand a chance of surviving, it needed a huge injection of money which is why he initiated the recovery bill.

Even when the bill passed, after they had cut it down to a level that greatly reduced its potency, they have gone out and lied about the effectiveness of the bill. This despite the fact that they all had requested and got money for their states and constituencies from the same bill they demonize. Despite their lies about the bill, independent economists have said that that bill was the difference between a recession and an outright depression. Evidence abound, everywhere around the country, of the success of the economic recovery bill in the form of jobs saved, jobs created and lives touched.

The people are also angry at the Democratic Party for raising their taxes which is a manufactured lie of the Republican Party, because about three hundred billion dollars from the economic recovery bill was dedicated to giving tax breaks to about ninety five percent of Americans. This tax break was incorporated into people's pay checks and was given, in little bits, every pay day. This was done in order to get people to actually spend the money to stimulate the economy. The tax break amounts to up to four hundred dollars per annum for single people and up to eight hundred dollars for families. If you have not noticed this tax break - and I know many people have not - just find a pay check from last year and compare it with your current pay checks.

The rationale behind giving the money in little amounts was that when people got that little extra with their pay checks, they are more likely to spend the money thereby stimulating the economy. Most of the time when people get bulk money, they would either save it or use it to pay down debt and that does not help to stimulate the economy. That was the problem when the Bush administration gave their tax breaks by sending people checks with the bulk amount.

The people are also angry because the financial deficit has ballooned out of all proportions and keeps growing in leaps and bounds. This is understandable but who is really to blame for this ballooning deficit? Is it the Republican government under Bush who dragged the country into two unpaid for wars whose costs, when eventually they are calculated, could be up to three trillion dollars? Is it the Republican Party under Bush who gave unpaid for tax breaks to the tune of $1.8 trillion dollars?

Unpaid means borrowed money therefore, this means that most of the deficit that Obama and the Democrats are being blamed for were brought on by the Republican Party. Even much of the money that Obama has added to that deficit was money that he had to spend as a necessity in order to keep our economy from tanking completely -for example the bailout bill. Added to this is the fact that the Republican Party which claims to be fighting against deficit are insisting that the Bush tax cuts be extended indefinitely for the richest two percent to the tune of over $700 billion in borrowed money.

The Republicans also point at the health care bill as an example of Obama running up the deficit but they forget to tell you that the total cost of the health care bill, that has been a life saver for many Americans, over the next decade is less than the money they borrowed and spent on the Bush tax cuts that could not stop the economy from going into a recession. Meanwhile the health care bill is completely paid for by savings made from streamlining the system and cutting out wastes.

So, what is the rationale for directing this anger at the Obama administration and the Democratic Party when it's clear that all they have done is try to find ways to remedy a really bad situation that was brought about by the Republican Party? Obviously, it cannot be because the Democrats are the cause of this suffering as that will be a lie, because they are not. So is it because this is a mid term election and incumbent parties usually get pummelled in mid terms? I want to believe that that is the reason which is why I want to also say that that will be a foolish decision for Americans to make.

Given what Americans are faced with, it will be extremely foolish of them to just base their voting decisions on tradition.  This is because there's too much at stake in this election to just go with the usual mid term flow. There has never been a mid term election that is this important to Americans' welfare because this is basically a choice between keeping the America we know and getting an America where the one percent rich will all be walled off in their castles, and up in their skyscrapers looking down on the wretched other inhabitants of America. In other words, this is about fighting for the very existence of the middle class in America.

No, this election is too important and it will not be anger but the worst kind of foolishness if we don't recognize that and give it the attention it deserves. It will be foolishness that Americans will regret if they go with the emotional tradition of mid term elections over physical evidence, this time.