Boehner Makes Ugly Threats on Debt Limit Increases

**The following is a guest post from our friend Tony, better known as Bluzdude, at Darwinfish2 . Bloggers make terrific friends, and we are honored to count Tony among ours. Thanks, Bluz, for this terrific post! Oh and the remotes, all five of them, are on the end table.**

Right off, I’d like to thank Rich and Cher for inviting me to invade some of their space. (I promise I’ll move out once I get back on my feet. It should only take a couple weeks. Seriously! Now where’s the remote?)

Cher asked me if I might whip up a little political post for them, and as someone who is adept at throwing gasoline on our nation’s political fires, I was happy to agree. In fact I’ve had this one rolling around my brain for months.

Note before I start: When I refer to “Republicans” here, I’m referring only to the national party leaders and apparatus. The same goes for my use of “Democrats.” Local jurisdictions may vary and I have no knowledge or comment about them.

Often when I do a political post on my own humble blog, if I get any kind of blow-back in Comments, along the lines of “The Democrats do that too,” or “The Democrats are dirty too,” or “Oh yeah? Well double dumb-ass on you!”

The thing is, I don’t care about that. I think that there is ample evidence that both sides play dirty pool and both sides seek to enrich themselves and their benefactors while prolonging their grip on power. That’s a draw. The fact remains that one side is trying to accomplish things in which I greatly believe and the other side is fighting tooth and nail against them.

If the Republicans are right about one thing, it’s that elections are about values. We vote for what we value. The Republican Party values two main things: unfettered big business and regressive social policy (usually in the name of religion).

Actually, I believe it’s really just the one thing, or what I call their Prime Directive: the freedom for big business to do whatever they please in support of their bottom line. But because only Big Businessmen are prone to voting on such a platform and there aren’t very many of them around, Republicans need something else to get people to vote against their own economic interest. That’s where the religion and “family values” come in. I’m not saying that the rank and file Conservatives don’t actually believe that stuff; I’m saying that the top of the party doesn’t. But they’ll use it to keep their voter base in line because it doesn’t do any harm to their Prime Directive.

Now, I don’t have anything, per se’, against Big Business. Heck, I work for one of the biggest. But you don’t have to be a history major to see the damage that deregulation of the financial industry has done to the country. There is one party in favor of deregulation, and the other is in favor of preventing another year like 2007.

Likewise,

• There is one party trying to set up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to function independently as they look out for the kind of financial malfeasance that robs the common people and enriches the executives of the financial industry. So far, that “one party” has tried to create political oversight of the department, (which completely defeats the intended purpose), to withhold approval for anyone to run the department (especially anyone that might be effective) and tried to defund it so that they are too understaffed and financially strapped to operate. Does that sound like it’s in the best interest of the average American?

• One party is trying to strip away any and all environmental regulations and contaminate the EPA the same way they’re contaminating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The other party is trying to maintain the viability of our planet to support our very existence. Adhering to environmental regulations costs money and so is in direct violation of the Prime Directive.

Any rational person would be concerned about continuing to spew contaminants like mercury and carbon monoxide into the atmosphere or water supply. A rational person might be concerned about destroying the living conditions on which we depend for our survival. But somehow there’s a disconnect. Republicans don’t believe in safeguards for the environment, outside of providing places for the privileged to hunt, fish and play with guns. Many go so far as to deny that humans have contributed greatly to our planet’s change in climate. A couple of hacked emails was all it took for people to plunge their heads into the sand and overlook overwhelming scientific evidence that the earth is warming and the polar caps are dissolving. This mantra is driven by the businesses that would be most affected by any tangible change in environmental policy.

Perhaps they have plans for a giant bubble to encase a small homeland for coal, oil and other fossil fuel industry execs, probably somewhere around Branson MO. It has to be inland because the Smokey Mountains will be the new eastern seaboard once the polar caps melt.

It’s alarming to me whenever someone “disbelieves” proven science because it goes against one’s political platform or costs money. It’s a sad state of affairs when our highest elected official can ignore decades of physical, provable science and say something as inane as “the jury is still out” regarding evolution. No, the jury is not out. It went out, came back 5 minutes later with the verdict and then went home for dinner, saying something about a mountain of proof. The proof is what makes it science and not opinion. Thank you, Republicans, for ushering in the Age of Ignorance.

• One party is loading pro-business-leaning judges on the Supreme Court. The other is placing those sympathetic to working class Americans. The next time the Roberts court finds in favor of the common people over the interests of big business, it will be the first time. We need look no further than the Citizens United case, which allowed corporations to be “people” and therefore flood the market with unlimited, anonymous campaign ads designed to misdirect people into voting against their own well being.

The saddest part of all that is that if we Americans were better at critical thinking or questioning what they see on TV, all those dollars wouldn’t matter. Unfortunately, all too many lap up anything they see, especially if it supports their existing opinions.

• One party aims to dictate what women can do with her body and the other considers women capable of deciding for themselves. You would think that all the “keeping government out of our business” mentality, would apply to our own personal business as well, but it doesn’t. The Republicans have spent years doing everything they can to prevent abortions, from required waiting periods, forcing doctors to read misleading and dogma-driven messages to patients and preventing insurance coverage (even among paying subscribers).

What they won’t do is promote the single most effective abortion preventative: birth control. It’s hard to believe that in this day and age, the Plan B pill is still controversial. Republicans provide a great hue and cry about Planned Parenthood providing abortions, either omitting or outright lying about the fact that abortions only make up 3% of Planned Parenthood business. Birth control and STD testing and treatment make up 70% of the primary services provided.

If you ask me, the problem is with the clientele. The well-to-do (Republicans) are not likely to go to Planned Parenthood. The poor and working class (Democrats) are. Heck, you’d think that they would be eager to keep Democrats from breeding. Maybe they ought to reconsider and then everyone will be happy. Of course, their solution is to fund abstinence programs instead. Unfortunately, they don’t work. Those subjected to abstinence programs don’t delay having sex by any significant margin, but they are far more likely to get pregnant when they do.

So, their solution is no abortion and no birth control, so don’t have sex. And obviously, that’s only for we here among the unwashed masses, not our Congressmen.

• One party is working to allow people that love each other to get married. The other is determined to prevent that.

“The Gays are Coming! The Gays are Coming! Hide your children, lock up your pets!” This is one of those wedge issues that through fear mongering, unsubstantiated claims and gross exaggeration, get people good and scared enough to vote Republican. Again, you’d think that the aversion of government intruding into lives would include the right to live and love those who you were genetically programmed to love, but you’d be wrong.

The Republicans might not want to work to see that you have clean air and drinking water, a viable Social Security program, or bank services that aren’t rife with hidden fees and charges, but they can prevent those two guys down the street from getting married! Boo-ya!

• One party is acting to ensure that everyone can utilize their Constitutional right to vote. The other party is busy erecting barriers to that very right, under the guise of fighting “voter fraud.”

The thing is, there is no voter fraud. The last I read, there may have been 200 votes in the last national election, that could have been prevented by the laws Republicans have passed that require photo ID and other residency requirements. That number is what’s known as “statistically negligible.” Contrast that with the tens of thousands affected by the new voter ID laws, or the election-rigging via understaffing urban voting centers. The only reason for these laws is to prevent those prone to voting Democratic from doing so. That’s it. That’s also against the very American values to which the Republicans claim to adhere.

So, to summarize, the Democrats try to ensure the financial industry doesn’t tank the country again, the Republicans are against that because regulations limit profits.

The Democrats want an independent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to serve as a watchdog for we the people. The Republicans are against that because is might hurt corporate profits if they had to disclose what they were doing.

The Democrats are trying to enforce environment regulations to keep industry from poisoning the planet around us. The Republicans that there’s a problem because cleaning toxic industrial output costs money.

The Democrats put two justices on the bench in the last 3 years, who had long histories of service to the average American. The previous Republican added two shills for big business who have found for the powerful over the powerless at every turn.

The Democrats are in favor of birth control being widely available and of a woman’s right to choose whether she should bear children. The Republicans are against that, substituting the judgment of others over yours.

The Democrats are in favor of gay marriage. The Republicans are not because it’s icky and the Bible says so.

The Democrats are in favor of quick voter registration and easy exercise of the right to vote for all Americans. The Republicans are not because they know that there are more likely-Democrats than likely-Republicans, so the fewer that vote, the better for themselves.

Regardless of what I may think of the President’s effectiveness, or that of the other Democratic congressmen and women, the choices in 2012 are stark. Now is not the time to sit on the sidelines or be apathetic. We have to vote for what we believe.

If you are a big business executive, a high-income earner, were born into money, or if you are an Evangelical Christian that wants the government to adhere to your church’s rules, then you should vote Republican. They will represent your interests well.

I am none of those things, so I am voting Democratic. So should you.

***
Note: Bonus points for anyone that caught the reference to “Star Trek IV: The One With the Whales.” Republicans want those whales dead.

—Bluz