Consider that the R's inherited a country of relative peace and prosperity (with a budget surplus, no less) in 2000, and promptly turned that into a wild spending orgy. Taxes on the rich were slashed, a Keystone Cops-style invasion of Iraq was undertaken under trumped up pretenses and twisted logic that there was a connection to Sept 11 (nevermind that 13 of 15 hijackers were Saudis), and on the eve of the 2004 election, a gigantic tax-dollar giveaway was tendered to the big pharmaceutical companies, and this was sold to the blue hairs as a positive thing for them.
Gone were those cries for balanced budget amendments and campaign finance reform -- the Republican anthems from 1992-2000.
Instead, we got the terror-'o-meter ("It's orange! ORANGE! Dear God in heaven, SAVE US! ONLY THE REPUBLICANS CAN SAVE US, SO VOTE FOR THEM!" And then after the '04 election we never saw the ******* thing again.
We also got an administration that took the global sympathy that the world felt for America after 9-11 and in a few short years, turned us into the worldwide poster child for human rights abuse. Our president, vice president, and AG all publicly endorsed torture. That may not be important to you, but the rest of the free world was pretty aghast as the self-proclaimed world leaders of freedom and justice immediately abandoned those principals, and did so shamelessly.
Yeah, I know. The hardcore R's -- those 23% who thought W was doing a swell job in 2008 -- they don't care about things like human rights abuses, global allies, or the moral problems created by holding prisoners for a decade on no formal charges. But some of us do.
The consequences of having leaders who behaved like they were randomly picked for their roles from a NASCAR event include a runaway deficit and a war in Iraq that continues to hemorrhage roughly a third of a billion dollars a day... and yes, I fault Obama for not ending it already (I also fault him for not moving us toward closing Guantanamo, and yes, his Nobel Peace Prize was a ******* joke).
My point here is that it's gonna take balls the size of watermelons for the R's to play the "compare yourself to 4 years ago" card. But hey, whatever it takes, right? As long as it's your team's clown car parked at the Capitol and on Pennsylvania Ave.
And all of that doesn't even mention the R's constantly hotter-and-heavier french kiss with the religious lunatics who want to embrace faith over science, and legislate their version of "God's" teaching -- all while failing to see the parallels with the theocracies around the globe whom they denounce.
Seriously, going back to 1980, we've got 32 years of data points that pretty unanimously suggest that the R's aren't fiscally conservative, they aren't in favor of small government (quite the opposite), and they aren't good stewards of the economy. How many more data points do some of you need?
And, FYI, I'm on record on this board numerous times saying Obama is the second-worst president of my lifetime.
Seen enough? Vote 3rd party.
