Our Politicians

Paul Ryan asked on August 29 - why, without new leadership should the next 4 years be any different from the last 4 years. Roseanne Barr, like many of us, thinks both the Republican and Democratic parties have gotten out of hand and in August said she was running for president with the Peace and Freedom Party. Per the Ballotpedia.org website there are 23 political parties recognized in the US. There hasn’t been much support for other parties (1990s Ross Perot made a dent) and the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision to allow more money to be wasted in contributions to SuperPacs (money coming from foreign entities and those not wanting to pay a fair share in taxes) hasn’t helped us.

On August 20, 2012 it’s reported the FBI’s Lawmakers Gone Wild investigation of 30 Republican delegates who met with Israeli officials found that several delegates jumped into the Sea of Galilee (an Israeli vacation spot and place of Christian significance-Jesus gave a sermon, walked on water and fed thousands) and one swam naked. Although not as bad, on September 3 a California delegate to the Democratic National Convention was dismissed after being belligerent to hotel staff and telling police he was a Congressman and another (neither were Congressmen) was taken to the hospital for intoxication. This shows our process has to change but it needs to start with those we put in Congress.

At the Univision forum Obama on September 20 said “…You can’t change Washington from the inside, you can only change it from the outside.” Romney’s response “The President today threw in the white flag of surrender again…I can change Washington”. I agree with the President. We are the answer to change. We need to hold our representatives, including the Supreme Court, to a higher standard. Example: Republican Hispanic star Marco Rubio started in the Senate January 2011 and from then to September 2012, he missed 29 of 430 recorded or roll call votes, which is 7.0% - the average is 2.5%. There are 33 seats up for grabs this year, 23 are held by Democrats and in order to gain the advantage, Republicans need to flip just 4 seats (3 if Romney wins, his vice president can serve as a tiebreaker). On September 23 Robert Reich, Professor at the University of California at Berkeley, said: This right wing Republicanism is different from your father’s Republican Party. To get our political system working for the 98% earning less than $250,000 a year, I believe the answer is the candidate holding the interests of the average American at heart. Obama needs to be reelected and Republicans (mainly single minded Tea Party who have their own Party scared) need to be voted out of Congress.