A Failed Liberal Agenda?

The Spin

“Failed liberal agenda.” Senator Jim DeMint spoke these words about why Americans will be voting out the Democrats this coming November.

I simply cannot agree with his very partisan and rather misleading statement.

Let’s see, “failed;” this word would seem to imply that we actually tried something. In order to fail, you have to have made an attempt; in the case of governing our nation, you have to have put forth ideas and policies that could stop the spread of the GOP cancer that has grown in our nation since 1980.

While the GOP was governing there was one overriding policy tool (well, two actually): cut tax and less government; and, while they were saying this they were expanding government payrolls like only one other non-wartime president had in the past one hundred years—Ronald Reagan; and, they were cutting taxes leading us ever to massive, massive deficits (part of their agenda). 

When the GOP’s “failed neo-conservative, preachy and highly hubristic agenda” was scrapped in 2008, like good losers—and the tradition of being a good sport is as old as America—should have realized the err of their ways and tried to govern with the newly-elected President. Instead, they chose to vote “no” on everything he put before them; even in cases where they themselves had created the legislation he was asking them to vote “yes” on. Again, this obstructionism is part of their agenda—don’t help lead America to a better, healthier place for fear it will get Obama re-elected. They did this with Clinton and they are doing it now.

America is a massive and complex nation. President Obama has been president for a little over a year and a half—there is no way his policies have led us to where we are today. Some of them are just barely starting to kick in and others, very small ones, have run their course. Still other major ones will only start much later; President Obama is trying to rebuild the foundations of our nation—health care, education, green technologies and financial reform—so that the noxious fallout of 30 years of “failed neo-conservative agenda” can be, once and for all, laid to rest in the landfill of really stupid and really dogmatic ideas.

President Obama, like Clinton before him, has been forced to waste so much time trying to work with the GOP—modify his policies (like the stimulus which had way too many tax cuts), reaching across the aisle in the hope they would give real ideas and not just reruns of the ones that led us to this state of affairs—and the GOP has been successful in slowing him down only to the harm of America; yet, as always to the benefit of their agenda.

President Obama hasn’t had time to “fail.” So, take that word and shove it.

Liberal Agenda

If we ask the average supporter of the GOP, of the Tea Party, of Palin, “what is the liberal agenda?” we will hear something like the following answer: socialism, big government, choking out private investment, big brother, entitlements (SS, Medicare and Medicaid, unemployment, educational grants, etc.), anti-Constitution, anti-gun, anti-free choice, pro-illegal immigrant, pro gay marriage, pro-abortion: all untruths.

Let’s instead take a look at the “failed neo-conservative agenda” that has held America in its grips for the past 30 years: anti-choice (trying to legislate a woman’s right to have an abortion); anti-division of church and state (it seems they want to make us a theocracy like the countries they so hate); anti-education, pro-gun in every pocket, anti-government, militaristic (Palin’s great comment recently was “I want to use our military to fight for the protection of our Constitution.”—scary); anti-Constitution (this document’s beauty and strength is that it is left alone, the GOP would make it look like the Russian Constitution which at last count has over 7000 amendments); anti-immigrant even though we are a nation of immigrants, anti-worker (destruction of unions, shipping labor off shore to squeeze a few more pennies out of that margin, hoarding of cash as seen of late), pro-fear-mongering (newsflash: not all foreigners hate us and it is less dangerous to walk down the street in 99.7% of all cities in the world than it is to spend a Sunday at a Luby’s (25 were killed) or at day at work (recently 8 were killed); and, the “failed neo-con agenda” is a racist one—see government reaction to Katrina, more needs not be said; and, last but certainly not least, anti-intellectual--just look at their leader’s mockery of the teacher in Alaska peacefully protesting. Palin and her dumb daughter (whose great quote was “it’s called the United States” but then she made the shape of a globe with her hands…go figure.) showed in their empty and ugly faces just how the entirety of the GOP feels about teachers and education.

The failed neo-conservative agenda had led us to a place where for the first time in nearly a century America was disliked by the world thanks to our arrogance and foolishness in attacking Iraq. Because of this loss of leadership as a better and more-evolved nation, we had not been able to lead the world on stopping Korea, Iran, on slowing the effects of global warming; Putin of Russia has become a regional sickness again, etc. China does what it wants with little or no regard thanks to our failed neo-conservative agenda which espouses a “better-than-thou” attitude to the entire, educated world.

 As we sit at 13^th place among industrialized nations for number of college graduates per 100,000 and the Pax Americana system of “debt-consumption” has led the world to the brink of financial ruin, many countries are realizing that our way is not the right way. We made it as a nation to 2008 always believing that our scientists were the best and then thanks to 30 years of the “failed neo-conservative agenda” we now mock scientists if they, after looking at the data, say that global warming is real—Bush’s White House even had data showing that global warming was real stricken from all reports by federally-funded scientists. The world is shocked by what we have become and guess what: we need the world.

PS: Agenda, a very negative word suggesting that there are some hidden plans to be sprung once all the pieces have fallen into place. The GOP’s agenda was real: by cutting taxes to nothing you get the best of all of your worlds—less government because there is no money left and almost no entitlement programs for the same reason.

An Agenda

This election season make sure that when speaking about President Obama and the Democrats who control Congress you refer to their policies not as an “a failed liberal agenda” but merely as an “an attempt at refortifying our nation after 30 years of lies, abuse and treachery” for the overall betterment of all Americans regardless of race, creed or color (or who you sleep with, etc.).

God Bless that America!