I'm a life-long Democrat from a family of FDR Democrats; age 65, retired Army officer with 28 years in uniform including service as a grunt in Vietnam.
The Tea Party is starting to look good to me.
One of my earliest memories of my grandfather is his tales about how FDR and the Rural Electrification Administration ran power lines down his road in isolated, rural East Feliciana Parish, LA, making it possible for him to put electric lights in his milking barn and buy an electric milk separator. As a result, he was able to triple the size of his dairy herd, making his small dairy a lot more profitable.
I really believe Granddad prayed to FDR about as often as he prayed to Jesus.
Remember the 1964 presidential election -- Goldwater v. LBJ ? I turned 21 in time to vote for LBJ. Goldwater carried five Southern states. I was a college student in Alabama at the time and I'll bet a month's pay I was the only person in the state with an LBJ bumper sticker on my old '57 VW Bug.
I have worked all my life for Democratic campaigns at local, state, and national levels. I marched in Montgomery and Birmingham with MLK. I danced across my front porch, tears streaming down my face when Obama was elected.
As a resident of Virginia, I voted for Mark Warner and Jim Webb for Senate.
I probably won't vote in 2010 or 2012. And why not?? Well, you see, I'll die and go to Hell before I'll vote for a Republican. And the Democrats have screwed me.
I voted for Warner, Webb, and Obama because I wanted them to do four things:
- Institute a national health insurance program.
- Re-institute Glass-Steagall or a similar measure to put an impenetrable firewall between banks, stock brokerages, insurance companies, and investment banks.
- Get out of Iraq and Afghanistan and return to a positive foreign policy, not a foreign policy of fear and isolation.
- Set the nation on course to develop alternatives to fossil fuels while dealing with global warming.
Not one of the goals for which I sent them to Washington has been accomplished and is not likely to be. President Obama had his chance but he blew it -- of course, he was assisted by Pelosi, Reid, Rahm, and a Treasury Secretary who doesn't pay his taxes.
Frankly, I'm about to agree with my former governor, George Wallace who was fond of saying: "You can take the Democrats and Republicans in Washington, put 'em in a sack, shake 'em up, and when you pull one out, you can't tell the difference between 'em." (Or words to that effect.)
Obama should have let the brokerage houses and AIG fail. They set themselves up, let them live or die. But, no, now they're paying huge bonusses on my tax money while I'm worried about how I'll cover a $435 dental bill.
Sweet Thing and I are on fixed incomes. When we donate $50 or $100 to a candidate, we have to do without something that month. Meanwhile, lobbyists for oil, coal, pharma, and insurance companies pack up the people who are supposed to be representing me, load them on a private jet, and fly them off to Phoenix for a free golf weekend or to Nebraska for pheasant hunting -- all expenses paid, of course. And -- it's both Democrats and Republicans who accept this treatment. Then, when it comes time to listen to their constituents who gave $100 or to the lobbyists who gave tens of thousands . . . well, as my Puerto Rican friend Rick says "Somos jodidos!!" (We are fucked.)
I voted for hope and change and what did I get?
-- Wall Street executives setting national fiscal policy.
-- Insurance companies writing HCR legislation.
-- Loons appointed to the executive branch ("I respect Mao and Mother Theresa." That nutcase -- Jones ? -- who admitted he was a 9-11 truther. And now the guy who was supposed to head FEMA withdraws because he lied to Congress. Obama's appointments picked up where Bush left off.).
-- "Blue dog Democrats" and Joe Lieberman being allowed to roam free without a single penalty from the White House. (How about closing a few Post Offices in Blue Dog districts just to get their attention?)
-- An undending commitment of soldiers to Afghanistan and God-only-knows what other misadventures.
So maybe someone can tell me:
- What the fuck is the difference between Democrats and Republicans?
- Why should I vote for either of them?
Frankly, the Tea Party gang is making more and more sense every day.