Independent Dependencies
I listen to NPR most mornings and evenings on my commute to and from work, but I listen to the Classical/Symphony channel on XM most evenings now as work is extremely demanding and stressful this month. It helps my brain unwind while driving from work.
On NPR this morning they were reporting on a study of people who claim to be Independent but actually swing pretty loyally to Republicans (the conservative right) or Democrats (the liberal left). While most are actually moderate, they are pretty much set in their ways with very little to sway them.
I feel this is due to the tone of politics these days. It has become a winner-take-all game with no wiggle room for compromise or trying to work together. The Democrats tried to work with Republicans for four years recently to no avail as the GOP strangely seemed to be at once pouting that they weren’t in charge anymore, licking their wounds while backed into a corner, and saying, “Not only no, but HELL NO!” to anything the new half-Black, fully Democratic president wanted. If you are already leaning one way and have some of those strange feelings about half-Black, fully Democratic presidents inside of you, you’ll probably go right along with that group of people and mindset.
Yes, I went there.
What happened to not simply winning, but doing what was best for the country? Politics was already a game, but it appears that toddlers are trying their hand at it now and the country is losing. How in the world can you stand there and tell me that the Republican plan of virtually no taxes for the rich will enable them to be free to hire people when that was the same logic and lie that GWBush sold to so many Americans who are not benefiting from that theory?
Less of this…
Listen: Wall Street is doing extremely well and corporations are profiting big time in spite of these “strangling regulations” on the financial markets and businesses. Yet, we still have companies moving overseas (for the cheap labor, nothing to do with a tax rate with which they can find a loophole to escape) and slow-to-no hiring for these businesses. They can lie and promise that they will hire more once the tax question is answered, but if you’re not paying that much in taxes due to loopholes, I’d like to know what question you need answered. Besides, you get more of a write-off if you hire people because that reduces your taxable income.
My point is that the Bush tax cuts didn’t work. Trickle-down economics didn’t trickle down to anyone. The Middle Class is carrying too much weight to continue like this due to things we did to ourselves and too much weight from poorer and richer Americans. All the while you have people who are Independents in favor of tax policies that have proven to not work. There isn’t a time requirement for the policies. We’re dealing with about 11 years of the Bush tax cuts and we’re still in a recession. Obama hasn’t been able to get many economic policies through this Congress. You can’t tax your way out of this, but you need to raise them on people who can afford to pay a fairer percentage. You can’t totally cut your way out of this either, but you can cut things that are bloated (yes, Defense is bloated). (There are fewer rich people who actually care about being responsibly rich. Many (far too many) do not care about others and only want to provide for themselves. There is nothing wrong with being rich, but it would be nice if you weren’t greedy and feeding people lies about how you’ll change once a policy changes. If you were going to change, you’d just change without any need for outside influence.
I hate that politics has turned into this team versus that team with no money or recourse for a viable third- (or multiple) party system. That would make both sides either fade into obscurity or take notice and do some major revamping. Everything is an argument. Everything is a fight. Even Independents aren’t fully independent anymore. We can’t even argue or debate on middle ground anymore because that space is quickly eroding. This is crazy.
…and more of this. We’ve got work to do.
You like? Share!
Category: Conservatives, Liberals, News, Politics
