We are a society that depends 100% upon science. We need to constantly strive to understand and harness science by investing in scientific research for the betterment of all mankind.
Even that left wing loony, the Pope, has finally recognized the validity of scientific wisdom in altering his stance on condom use.
With this in mind it is interesting to note that the republicans and the tea partiers pride themselves in the denial of science, preferring to be the party of the dark ages. They are either fools or snake oil salesmen.
No matter, it seems the American people have a soft spot for both.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR
Americans wanted heaping portion of divided government and come January that is what they shall have.
The republican victory was fueled by the voter anger that has engulfed this country and made possible by white, male, non college educated, blue collar, everyday working class Americans. If I was among those who were not highly educated and saw the only kinds of jobs that I was suited for vanish, I would be angry too.
I suppose just that fact, that this group is not highly educated and therefore unable to filter out the distortions and outright lies told to them by the republicans and tea partiers and decipher the facts on the important issues that face them and the nation is what causes this group of hard working Americans to consistently vote against their own interests.
Seemingly, they vote based upon their emotions rather than with their heads and the republicans know just how to manipulate those emotions for their cynical purposes. When the republicans scream tax cuts, tax cuts these working class people believe that they are talking about tax cuts for them. The reality is that these people will never even sniff the tax cuts that the republicans have in mind for the wealthiest among us. The reality is that Barack Obama is the one who provided 98% of Americans with the tax cut he promised for middle and working class Americans and withheld one from only the top 2% among us as he also promised.
Just today I spoke with a self employed individual, who lives in California who over the course of the past 15 years has had two battles with cancer. I asked her what she thought of Health Care Reform. She complained about the rising cost of her health insurance which now costs her $1,500. a month and thought the President was to blame. When I explained to her that health insurance premiums have been rising at the rate of about 20% per year for at least the past 15 years she was still not sure what to make of it.
When I went on to explain to her that the new health care law was actually good for her in that it untethers her from her current carrier who she would never be able to leave under the old law because any new carrier would have excluded her preexisting conditions she did not quite get that either. To this minute I am not sure she understands what a benefit health care reform will be to her. The sad part is there are millions like her.
To be sure, these are complex issues that require some level of education to understand. I suppose that is why you hear so many republicans advocating for the abolishment of the department of education, or for the teaching of creationism in our schools, or why the public education systems in the southern states where the republican party is the strongest are so lacking. It is to their advantage to keep people from being educated. It grows their base of mostly uneducated white working class males. It is the reason they have been able to convince these very people to continuously vote against their own interests.
This in turn allows people like republican senate minority leader Mitch McConnell to vote against the interests of America. When asked today, the day after the mid term elections what his priorities for the country were, he said to ensure that Barack Obama was a one term president. The reporter was stunned and asked him but what about the problems facing the country, how would you address those? McConnell did not offer a position on those.
You see, the party of NO has no real solutions to the issues that face us. They are primarily concerned with maintaining or regaining power and not the common good. For two years, in the face of the worst economic crisis this country has faced since the great depression, the republicans have focused solely on how to regain power and not on the many pressing issues facing the country, the American people be damned.
The ignorant and the uneducated and the educated who care only for themselves and their own pockets eat it up.
To those who gorged themselves at the republican trough yesterday, be careful what you wish for because you are now going to get it.
bon appetit!
The republican victory was fueled by the voter anger that has engulfed this country and made possible by white, male, non college educated, blue collar, everyday working class Americans. If I was among those who were not highly educated and saw the only kinds of jobs that I was suited for vanish, I would be angry too.
I suppose just that fact, that this group is not highly educated and therefore unable to filter out the distortions and outright lies told to them by the republicans and tea partiers and decipher the facts on the important issues that face them and the nation is what causes this group of hard working Americans to consistently vote against their own interests.
Seemingly, they vote based upon their emotions rather than with their heads and the republicans know just how to manipulate those emotions for their cynical purposes. When the republicans scream tax cuts, tax cuts these working class people believe that they are talking about tax cuts for them. The reality is that these people will never even sniff the tax cuts that the republicans have in mind for the wealthiest among us. The reality is that Barack Obama is the one who provided 98% of Americans with the tax cut he promised for middle and working class Americans and withheld one from only the top 2% among us as he also promised.
Just today I spoke with a self employed individual, who lives in California who over the course of the past 15 years has had two battles with cancer. I asked her what she thought of Health Care Reform. She complained about the rising cost of her health insurance which now costs her $1,500. a month and thought the President was to blame. When I explained to her that health insurance premiums have been rising at the rate of about 20% per year for at least the past 15 years she was still not sure what to make of it.
When I went on to explain to her that the new health care law was actually good for her in that it untethers her from her current carrier who she would never be able to leave under the old law because any new carrier would have excluded her preexisting conditions she did not quite get that either. To this minute I am not sure she understands what a benefit health care reform will be to her. The sad part is there are millions like her.
To be sure, these are complex issues that require some level of education to understand. I suppose that is why you hear so many republicans advocating for the abolishment of the department of education, or for the teaching of creationism in our schools, or why the public education systems in the southern states where the republican party is the strongest are so lacking. It is to their advantage to keep people from being educated. It grows their base of mostly uneducated white working class males. It is the reason they have been able to convince these very people to continuously vote against their own interests.
This in turn allows people like republican senate minority leader Mitch McConnell to vote against the interests of America. When asked today, the day after the mid term elections what his priorities for the country were, he said to ensure that Barack Obama was a one term president. The reporter was stunned and asked him but what about the problems facing the country, how would you address those? McConnell did not offer a position on those.
You see, the party of NO has no real solutions to the issues that face us. They are primarily concerned with maintaining or regaining power and not the common good. For two years, in the face of the worst economic crisis this country has faced since the great depression, the republicans have focused solely on how to regain power and not on the many pressing issues facing the country, the American people be damned.
The ignorant and the uneducated and the educated who care only for themselves and their own pockets eat it up.
To those who gorged themselves at the republican trough yesterday, be careful what you wish for because you are now going to get it.
bon appetit!
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