Republicans: Get Your Head Back in the Game!
Posted: Wednesday, February 25, 2009
by Tex Norman
In last night's Republican response to the Democrats (and Obama's Speech to Congress) he explained in detail, his objection to big government regulations. Here is an exact quote from the Jindal speech:
During Katrina, I visited Sheriff Harry Lee, a Democrat and a good friend of mine. When I walked into his makeshift office, I'd never seen him so angry. He was yelling into the phone: "Well, I'm the Sheriff and if you don't like it you can come and arrest me!" I asked him: "Sheriff, what's got you so mad?" He told me that he had put out a call for volunteers to come with their boats to rescue people who were trapped on their rooftops by the floodwaters. The boats were all lined up ready to go, when some bureaucrat showed up and told them they couldn't go out on the water unless they had proof of insurance and registration. I told him, "Sheriff, that's ridiculous." And before I knew it, he was yelling into the phone: "Congressman Jindal is here, and he says you can come and arrest him too!" Harry just told the boaters to ignore the bureaucrats and go start rescuing people.
Because one spineless government official was unwilling to respond to an emergency properly or logically, this means that all regulation is bad? Surely all regulations are not bad because this one incident occurred. Should we de-regulate traffic laws because those are regulatory? Are we safer; are we better off after we erase the regulations placed on our road ways? Are we safer, and better off if we remove the regulations on who qualifies to practice medicine? Regulations are there to protect the public, to ensure the smooth operation of essential services needed by the public.
Bobby Jindal continues with another hypocritical statement intended to mock the Obama stimulus plan.
. . . Democratic leaders in Congress -- . . . passed the largest government spending bill in history, with a price tag of more than $1 trillion with interest. While some of the projects in the bill make sense, their legislation is larded with wasteful spending. It includes . . . $140 million for something called "volcano monitoring." Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington , D.C.
Here is a guy that screamed for money that has been estimated at costing around $1 billion dollars, to rebuild levees around Louisiana to protect the property and people of his state. I am stunned that a guy could demand government tax money to create jobs, and infrastructure in his state, and then mock volcano monitoring that protects the property and people of American citizens in Alaska and Hawaii .
The problem is not that Republicans have no legitimate point of view; it is that they can't get their conflicting points of view focused in one direction. At least half of the Republican party wants to build a Reaganstine monster sewn together out the flesh of their dead heroes and regenerated into a foe equal to and greater than the currently popular President.
I actually heard ONE idea this morning that came from the Republican Party and it made some sense. I forget who it was, but they were pontificating on MSNBC's Morning Joe show, and they pointed out that 75% of all American jobs come out of small business, but the Obama stimulus package had put only 1% of the stimulus money into small business. IF this is true, and I have no idea, yet, if it is true, such an argument makes sense, and if all of the Republican ideas sounded as sound as that one, the party would not be sounding like a bunch of sore loser lunatics. The truth is that there are hundreds of thousands of Republicans that are not as wacky as Tom Delay or other politicians cut from his whacky-brained cloth.
I hear that Bobby Jendil has not always been such a blind faith follower of ultra Right Republicanism. Since Jendil is considering running for President perhaps he has caught the Right Wing Bird Flue that infected John McCain. McCain had been, at one time, my favorite of all Republicans. When he decided to run, knowing it was his last shot at the office (due to his age) he sold out to the far right, stopped being the mavoric and started being the ideologue parrot of the part and got his butt whipped. Has Jendil caught this same virus?
While I have been radically opposed to the Republican Party since Nixon left the office in disgrace, I also feel we need a strong Republican Party in this country. Decisions need to be debated, and all sides need to be examined all the time, and we need the best analysis possible on all sides of every argument. No party has a monopoly on logic. Every party has the tendency, from time to time, to go off on the deep end, step in the doggie doo-doo and then track it into the White House and on to the Floor of Congress. It is good strong logical advocates on all sides of all issues that will keep this country from making big mistakes, or at least it will keep us from making big mistakes that go on and on for years.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Tex, Great article, and true. I for one was a republican for as long as I can remember, then I started feeling a little uneasy throughout the Nixon campaign what with Watergate being the monkey on his back. This last election, I shocked everybody in my family, and voted strictly democrat, and I'm not sorry that I did. President Obama, changed all of that for me. I, like the rest of us, listened to the issues and proposals, listened to the debates between John McCain, (which by the way, I do live in Arizona), and low and behold, when the elections came around I decided to register on the democratic ticket, and voted for My president Obama. I'm quite a bit disappointed in McCain, as I think he is a sore looser. He is finding everything that President Obama's stimulus package contains as being wrong, and was pretty sore that they didn't have a "Bi-Partisan" opinion on the stimulus package involving the republicans. Well, from what I understood, none wanted to participate except for three republicans, and I have a terrible way of looking at this, and that is, (I will probably get trampled for saying this), but they had their shot...they blew it...we are in a depression/recession, whatever you want to call it, and the republicans help put us there!!!! I am praying that it isn't to late for something short of a miracle to bail us out of this. What a mess. I loved your article, great points to what you are writing about, and I agree. Great job, that is why I am joining your fan club, and I will look forward to reading more of your work.....Your friend in pen.....GaryPEACE BE WITH YOU. I was lucky that there was a lottery for the Viet Nam draft and my number was 293. I was debating with myself. I didn't want to NOT GO because I was afraid. I had testosterone and admitting fear just went against all that hormone therapy.Since all my relatives were Republican, and Nixon was the first president I could vote for I voted for Nixon. I defended him through Watergate until he admitted guilt. That caused me to look at what was going on not with the eyes of my family but with my own eyes. I voted for Carter and he was not so popular but I was making my own mind up. I hope I'm not as crazy for liberalism as many republicans have been crazy for conservatism. The OLE my country right or wrong must not be anyone's view. If my country is not right, then I should work to make it right and so should we all.
You keep writing. I'm so pleased you are here because there are not that many of us who are for answers instead of just blindly following ideologies.
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