Showing posts with label Marco Rubio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marco Rubio. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 01, 2016

Trump: Ironic outcome of establishment Republican obstruction

Donald J. Drumpf
Throughout the Obama Presidency, establishment Republicans in Congress did their very best to obstruct the normal functioning of the Federal Government.  They were convinced that obstruction was a winning strategy to ensure that the GOP would become victorious in the 2012 Presidential election.  Although they were somewhat victorious in the mid-term elections, the GOP lost the  2012 Presidency to a second Obama term.  They continued their obstruction of government with even more intensity in preparing for the 2016 Presidential election, all the while ignoring the impact of their obstruction on the American people and especially on the voting base of their own party.

Republican leaders ignored the data that their own post Romney party "autopsy" showed them.  That they were losing their constituents to old age.  That they were not appealing to the diverse ethnicity of America.  That they were on the wrong side of women's issues.  That they were being seen as a party of the rich and not a party of the ordinary person.  Yet they did nothing positive to improve their image.

Instead they took to underhanded and un-American actions to cheat American Democracy such as voter suppression actions, reducing voting precincts and changing voting privileges for students so they could not vote at their own campuses.  All attempts to reduce the number of Democrats who might vote.

They used their power in government committees to create artificial controversies around the Obama administration and the future most-likely to be nominee for President, Hillary Clinton.  They openly disrespected the Office of the President, calling President Obama names and falsely accusing him of not being a leader.  According to many of them in office, Russian President Putin is a better leader than our American President.  Their intentions were to make Democrats seem ineffective as leaders or untrustworthy by using insults, insinuation and disrespect.  To them, it was just another tactic to win votes in future elections.  This tactic worked on their own constituents.  It also served as a lesson to Donald Trump.  Appealing to Republican's worst nature wins their support.  If we were paying attention, we would see how closely Trump would follow this tactic in the Republican Primaries.

In this 2016 Presidential nomination process we are now seeing the decaying fruits of those actions for the GOP as a party.  Republican voters now see vitriolic rhetoric like their party's leaders used on the Obama Administration as a characteristic of a good leader.  Republican leaders led them down this path.  Voters are voting by overwhelming margins in primary elections for a narcissistic sociopathic con-man.

Donald Drumpf is riding the tides of victory in primary elections, not because he is the best person for the job.  Not because his policies ring clearly as the correct approach to governing.  Not because he will make America great again.  He is not the best person to be President and nothing good would come of his winning the Presidency.  He is simply winning because of the anger that Republican voters have.  He is now the Republican nominee for President.

Republicans are angry because they see themselves as ordinary citizens who have not benefitted from the improvement in the economy.  They believe current government policies will make them fall further.  They know things are better for some people, but not for them.  They do not understand why and need to blame someone for their situation. The confusing explanations they get from their Republican leaders are intentionally meant to mislead them.  They know Republicans in Congress are not getting anything accomplished to benefit society and are beginning to doubt them.

There is now a state of utter confusion in GOP politics.  Establishment Republicans agree that Donald Trump is not a true Republican.  But that is not the worst of his characteristics.  Secretly they believe he is not a stable individual either.  Not someone you would want in control of the nuclear codes.  How should they react to Trump's overwhelming win margins?  The GOP base obviously wants him as their new President.  Did the establishment create a monster?  If they get behind this monster, will GOP policies be advocated?

At this point, Donald is the Presidential nominee.  Republicans now must decide whether they will support him or not.  They do have some things to gain if he becomes President, such as Supreme Court appointments.  He will carry out his threats to eliminate "Obama-care," which Republican leadership has stated is the worst thing since Obama himself.

The dilemma they are faced with is whether they will give up more than they gain.  We will see in the upcoming months whether Republicans will stand behind Trump and save their party or do the right thing and save the country instead.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Rubio's response promotes Romney's policies as a winning approach even though America rejected it once already

Marco Rubio
Cloaked by a different look and different approach, Mitt Romney's policies don't sound any better when Marco Rubio espouses them.

In presenting the Republican response to the President's 2013 State of the Union address, Mr. Rubio had a difficult assignment.  In a nutshell, he had to convince the American people that the Republican approach to economic freedom, as framed by Mitt Romney, is better than the President's plan.

As with most Republicans, Rubio continues to believe that Republican policies are correct and fails to realize that the majority of Americans rejected those policies when they re-elected Barack Obama.   But you can't blame him for trying.  Or can you?

Rubio focused on big government not being the answer.  He claimed that increasing taxes and government spending are not the correct path.  He implied that the growth of government was President Obama's plan.  

Apparently, Rubio is not familiar with the fact that the size of government and the deficit has been reduced during the President's term.  He obviously is sticking by Republican claims that revenue is off the table during deficit talks, despite serious belief by economists that revenue increases must be had for the deficit to be brought under control.  He isn't listening to the President's talk about a balanced approach to deficit reduction.  He has not heard or does not believe that the President has already offered $2.7 trillion of the $4 trillion in cuts that economists believe necessary.

He claims that the opportunity to join the middle class comes from investing your own money to open a business.  By his definition, if you don't have the money, resources or ability to operate a business, then you don't belong in the middle class.  So I guess you are on your own because Rubio claims government help is not the way to the middle class.  He says this even though he received government loans to attend college, he has a government job that pays him $174,000 a year, he has government health care and a government retirement plan, his parents received social security and medicare helped his father die with dignity.  While he was alive, his father had opportunities to create and maintain his restaurant with the help of the government's small business administration.  This is so common of middle class Republicans who privately take from government programs while denigrating these government actions in public.  It must be impossible for a Republican to admit that the government might help anyone.

Rubio attempted to sway America away from the negative image that Democrats have painted of the Republican Party's allegiance to rich people by proclaiming that he (Rubio) still lives in a middle class neighborhood.  Could he have thought of anything else for a little more convincing argument?  No.

How many times did we hear Romney say he would cut Obama Care on his first day in office?  That wasn't enough for Rubio, because he essentially reiterated it by casting fear into the hearts of naive Americans who might believe him.  Let me paraphrase the Republican stand on the affordable health care law:  "Obama Care bad."  We've heard it all before and we rejected the idea when we rejected Romney.

It seemed apparent to me that Reince Pribus was still in control of the Republican party.  Mr Pribus was the architect of the Romney loss and is the newly re-elected Republican National Chairperson.  As Rubio mouthed policies that were exactly the same as those America rejected during the Romney campaign, I kept thinking "there you go again."  

Putting Rubio in front of the camera to represent Republicans is nothing more than a Republican tactic to improve public perception of the party.  We are seeing the repackaging of the Republican party where a softer, gentler party is presented, however Republican policies have not changed at all.