This has been one of the most contentious years in American politics since the Civil War. Back then our country was split into Northerners who believed that no man should be enslaved, and Southerners who saw no problem with slavery and the denial of fundamental human rights, as long as you made a profit. Back then, it was the Democrats who were the racists, and Republicans like Lincoln who believed in abolition. It is ironic that one hundred and fifty years later, we have a Black president, and the parties have reversed. The predominantly Republican South and Mid-West are pitted against the mostly Democratic coastal states and former rust belt, areas most affected by unemployment today.
Today's conflict is more than Democrat versus Republican. It is a conflict between the American worker and Big Business. Big Business wants to make a profit whatever it costs. Big Business will pollute the atmosphere because it’s cheaper for them to do so. Big Business will go where it is cheapest to produce their product, even if it means American jobs lost. We contribute to that. We have been buying German, Japanese and South Korean cars for years. We abandoned our own auto industry for imports and we paid the price. I recently drove a new Ford Fusion and was pleasantly surprised. I have not owned a Ford since the Seventies, but I would consider buying this car. I think all of us should take our own impact on the economy into consideration when we start shopping again.
Back to this election: The campaign here in California has been particularly brutal. We have Republicans and former business titans Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorino, running for Governor and Senator against Democrats Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer. Whitman and Fiorino's commercials blame Boxer and Brown for the unemployment and real estate problems that they helped create. Whitman and Fiorino personally sent over 50,000 US jobs overseas, as CEOs of EBay and Hewlett Packard respectively. They and the entire Republican Party are running a campaign that they will be the saviors of our jobs, while everything they have done or stand for has shown that they have done the opposite.
What really bothers me is that these two businesswomen have personally injected over $150,000,000 of their own money into their campaigns-- money received from corporations who made their profits by laying us off. Since when is it right to buy an election?
Over 5 billion dollars has been spent on the 2010 election so far, with one week of relentless commercials left to go. Count the zeroes, folks. That's $5,000,000,000 that could have actually have gone to improving the lives of millions of Americans, by conforming to US regulations and removing harmful toxins from the air, or paying their fair share of taxes, instead of on a massive media blitz of lies and distortion. Big Business is pouring billions into cutting back on auto and factory emissions, preventing the development of solar and wind energy, and paying taxes. Their minions want power and will agree to anything to get those dollars, instead of standing up to their insatiable corporate greed.
We need to protect the American people and get our country working again. For the last two years, I have watched the party that lost the election prevent the winning party from making many changes. They stood there with their self-righteous expressions and their arms crossed and prevented anything good from happening. The few successes the Democrats were able to push through, like health care, are threatened by the current election. Republicans are campaigning that they will undo the health care act which is currently helping millions of us stay insured.
Do not forget that people with pre-existing medical conditions like cancer or diabetes, would again be bankrupted by a medical system that charges more for indigent patients, than for those on insurance, and where death panels actually exist at the insurance companies to save money.
Do not forget that the economic collapse of the real estate industry was caused by fraud and lack of government control, not by too much government.
Do not forget that the next Supreme Court judge could determine whether or not a woman has control of her own body--How is it "less government" when you try to control my womb?
Do not forget the thousands of lives lost in Iraq & Afghanistan to fight a war over oil, because as soon as the Republicans control the House, it will just be more of the same.
Stop blaming the unions and illegal immigrants for all our problems and recognize how each of us has been voting with our pocketbooks for years.
The system that caused our current crisis, needs to be fixed, and the only way that can be done is when we start being more civil to each other. We must also understand that the needs and wants of the South and Midwest are different than those of the two coasts, but unless we want another Civil War we will have to find a way to work it out together for the good of all Americans, not just ourselves. Let's start talking to each other again with a little more civility, whoever wins this year.
Today's conflict is more than Democrat versus Republican. It is a conflict between the American worker and Big Business. Big Business wants to make a profit whatever it costs. Big Business will pollute the atmosphere because it’s cheaper for them to do so. Big Business will go where it is cheapest to produce their product, even if it means American jobs lost. We contribute to that. We have been buying German, Japanese and South Korean cars for years. We abandoned our own auto industry for imports and we paid the price. I recently drove a new Ford Fusion and was pleasantly surprised. I have not owned a Ford since the Seventies, but I would consider buying this car. I think all of us should take our own impact on the economy into consideration when we start shopping again.
Back to this election: The campaign here in California has been particularly brutal. We have Republicans and former business titans Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorino, running for Governor and Senator against Democrats Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer. Whitman and Fiorino's commercials blame Boxer and Brown for the unemployment and real estate problems that they helped create. Whitman and Fiorino personally sent over 50,000 US jobs overseas, as CEOs of EBay and Hewlett Packard respectively. They and the entire Republican Party are running a campaign that they will be the saviors of our jobs, while everything they have done or stand for has shown that they have done the opposite.
What really bothers me is that these two businesswomen have personally injected over $150,000,000 of their own money into their campaigns-- money received from corporations who made their profits by laying us off. Since when is it right to buy an election?
Over 5 billion dollars has been spent on the 2010 election so far, with one week of relentless commercials left to go. Count the zeroes, folks. That's $5,000,000,000 that could have actually have gone to improving the lives of millions of Americans, by conforming to US regulations and removing harmful toxins from the air, or paying their fair share of taxes, instead of on a massive media blitz of lies and distortion. Big Business is pouring billions into cutting back on auto and factory emissions, preventing the development of solar and wind energy, and paying taxes. Their minions want power and will agree to anything to get those dollars, instead of standing up to their insatiable corporate greed.
We need to protect the American people and get our country working again. For the last two years, I have watched the party that lost the election prevent the winning party from making many changes. They stood there with their self-righteous expressions and their arms crossed and prevented anything good from happening. The few successes the Democrats were able to push through, like health care, are threatened by the current election. Republicans are campaigning that they will undo the health care act which is currently helping millions of us stay insured.
Do not forget that people with pre-existing medical conditions like cancer or diabetes, would again be bankrupted by a medical system that charges more for indigent patients, than for those on insurance, and where death panels actually exist at the insurance companies to save money.
Do not forget that the economic collapse of the real estate industry was caused by fraud and lack of government control, not by too much government.
Do not forget that the next Supreme Court judge could determine whether or not a woman has control of her own body--How is it "less government" when you try to control my womb?
Do not forget the thousands of lives lost in Iraq & Afghanistan to fight a war over oil, because as soon as the Republicans control the House, it will just be more of the same.
Stop blaming the unions and illegal immigrants for all our problems and recognize how each of us has been voting with our pocketbooks for years.
The system that caused our current crisis, needs to be fixed, and the only way that can be done is when we start being more civil to each other. We must also understand that the needs and wants of the South and Midwest are different than those of the two coasts, but unless we want another Civil War we will have to find a way to work it out together for the good of all Americans, not just ourselves. Let's start talking to each other again with a little more civility, whoever wins this year.
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