Jul 10 2009
July 2009: America’s Political “Independents” Month
What has America gained from years of GOP pork spending and infighting, followed by Obama’s incredible ramp up of deficit spending and failed economic liberal experiments? I believe we have attained our political independence from the two parties, as this appears to be the year of the “independents”.
While the Dems crash and burn on the economy, a broader realization is hitting home on Main Street, which was incredibly well described in this piece in the Examiner:
There has for years been intolerance between parties, but today it has expanded to special interest groups that have no-tolerance for opposing opinion.
Much of this intolerance is because of political arrogance. During the auto bailout hearings a majority of voters called, e-mailed, wrote, and expressed concern about this auto bailout, and then were ignored by the Congress that gave out bailout money anyway. The same thing happened during the stimulus/recovery/spending package that was passed. A majority of American’s voiced concern, but Congress passed this bill with over 8000 pork attachments. During the debate on these issues we were told that GM and Chrysler were to big to let them go bankrupt, we gave them “billions†and they went bankrupt anyway. We were told that a stimulus/recovery/spending package had to be passed immediately to control unemployment and stimulate the economy, it hasn’t happened.
After these bailouts and spending packages were shoved down our throat, we are now told, “the Obama White House underestimated the severity of the economyâ€. With unemployment reaching over 10% in many cities across America, and the national average at 9.5%, we now know that the Spending package as passed did not work. We now know that the auto bailout billions could not save GM and Chrysler from a predicted bankruptcy. Now some in Congress are contemplating a second stimulus bill.
Congress is passing bills they don’t read, Congress is passing bills that will take over the financial market, the auto industry, the healthcare industry, and they are doing all of this along party lines only. To pay for these takeovers, Congress is paying for them by raising taxes.
It’s a great measure of the attitude outside the beltway. The GOP has little room to argue since they played the same games when they ran Congress. The only saving grace for them is the fact their policies are solidly better than the liberals.
Independents are the fastest growing political movement. Those who can tap into their ‘stay out of the fringes and find some damn solutions’ attitude will reap the political rewards. As long as they honor the commitment to the approach.
BTW, this is NOT how to impress the independent, disappointed class of voters:
Democrats are organizing efforts to make any Republicans who claim the stimulus has been a failure “pay a political price” in the lawmaker’s own back yard.
…
For their part, Republicans have hit back against the Democratic offensive. After having been targeted by the DNC, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor’s (R-Ca.) office targeted DNC Chairman and Va. Gov. Tim Kaine’s economic stewardship.
“Based on this curious statement from Governor Kaine’s DNC, the question must be asked: Does Governor Kaine believe 8.1% unemployment in the Richmond area is a stimulus success?” Cantor’s office asked.
Insulting our intelligence is not the answer. Mea Culpas, contrition and a promise to listen and do what is best for the country (not party) is what we want to be hearing about now.
Palin needs to go on tour stumping for Republicans running for the House. She always draws a huge crowd.
“Independents are the fastest growing political movement.”
Except that there is no such thing as an independant party, and there are no campaign contributions lining up to go to any independant candidates. No bundlers are working for independants – no phone banks will be working for independants – no one is out recruiting any candidates to run as independants.
And without that, it’s still just the same old 2 choices.
Without organization, a movement fails.
“Except that there is no such thing as an independant party, and there are no campaign contributions lining up to go to any independant candidates”
You completely miss the point, I think. First of all, an “independent party” would be an oxymoron. People wouldn’t be “independent” if they belonged to a party.
Secondly, the campaign contributions of independents can go either way … to Democrats or Republicans. Whoever gets the most independent voters wins. Neither party has enough “kool-aid drinkers” to win an election. In every single case, the party that wins the independent vote wins the general election.
It is the independent vote that keeps the parties from going far afield to either the right or the left. The Democrats are going to learn that lesson in the mid-terms. You might win the independent vote in an election but that does not give a party a mandate to go all extreme. They discover that if they do go extreme, the independents abandon them and they are kicked out of office. Your “base” does not win you elections because the 10% or so of voters that either party might claim as their “base” are swamped by the 30-some% of voters who are “independent”.
Independents outnumber both Republicans and Democrats at the moment. Independents decide the election. Lose them and you lose … every time.
Why bother to elect a republican or a democrat. Special interests run the government. Reading bills is even beyond congresses pay grade. Did you know in the new government run health bill that $1.8 billion dollars is in it for community parks, lights for streets, organic markets, why? keeping people exercised helps keep the cost of medical care down. These people are beyond belief. I just scratch my head and think who elected these morons.
Swing voters always win elections, I believe Pres. Obama won this election because of the idealistic youngsters who are not loyal to either party and have now awoken to reality.
I have stated on many occasions that 30 years ago this nation was a 45r-45d with only a 10% swing voters but even then the swing voters decided national elections. Today most of us are probably the same age group and realized the mistake of the Carter years as the youngsters of today have realized the mistake they have made, but these kids in my estimation are smarter at their age then we were and will not be fooled, mislead or lied to again by either party.
I do understand your point, Crosspatch. But I think you miss the political trap we’re falling into by having the largest bloc being uncommitted free agents who switch back and forth, and the source of this is that once there’s an election, the winners can do whatever they want for at least 2 years.
The current situation creates incentives for each party to take a *very* short term view, and to plan on simply grabbing as much loot as they can while they’re in the drivers seat. Also, it now pays to screw things up so bad that the next guys will be in a hopeless position once they take over. The game plan after winning an election is now: enrich all of your supporters and supporting groups as much as possible in the first few months, then try to stack the legislation in your favor the next 6 months, then use the next year to pack the judiciary and the bureacracy with your people. If you lose the election, wage a guerilla war from the inside then Rinse and Repeat when the wheel turns and you win again.
I would make the case that as far as the major parties go, that’s where we’ve been for several years now, and the situation is only getting worse. Politics becomes nothing but a game of paying off enough special interest groups to make it through the next election, country be damned.
And a huge voting group with no permanent home and no permanent allegiances makes sure that this process will continue on indefinitely.
What I would like to see is an increasing base of true conservatives with strong adherence to the US Constitution.
The Republican Party needs drastic change but the problem is that the majority of the Americans lack the US Constitutional education along with the studying of Montesquieu, Locke, Ricardo, Adam Smith, Tocqueville, etc., to really know what is right for them and our country.
WWS:
“Politics becomes nothing but a game of paying off enough special interest groups to make it through the next election, country be damned.”
Lot of truth in that. I consider myself independent BUT see the Republicans as a much better alternative than the Democrats. I believe government is fundamentally bad. Not that government it its own right is bad, but people in government become drunk with power and go too far. That is why I hear people in government saying that forced sterilizations aren’t such a bad idea is so scary in the context of government controlled medical care.
But if the people are of weak enough character to allow themselves to be bought each election cycle, then I suppose we get the government we deserve. A government of weak character voted by an electorate of weak character.
We have a situation now where everyone seems to want to absolve themselves of any responsibility for their own destiny and place the responsibility on government and then vote in the one who promises the best life even if it is impossible to actually deliver on those promises.
So then we have situations where politicians are promising “free” medical care for life and the “rich” are going to be “targeted” to pay for it. There are ALWAYS more poor than rich. It is very easy to demonize the rich, play on people’s jealousies, make promises and vow to hurt those who have more.
In our system the character of our government reflects the character of the electorate. A population without integrity has a government without integrity.
In the context of government being our health care provider, this is scary as hell. Literally.
Unfortunately it has been too easy for some to pass everything off to the “government”, that faceless but benevolent dictator. If people realized that each of us is the government and each of us is responsible for footing its bills or better yet look at their children and grandkids and see them as the face of government, they may not be as quick to pass off the tab. The aging, deteriorating mentally ill we have running the government don’t even possess the morality to see this. They operate on the “we won so we are gonna do what we what” mentality which hopefully will earn them all the guillotine. What we need to do is begin reducing the size and scope of the federal government and force more decisions onto the locals who want them; as far as I’m concerned the answer to California’s problems lies just offshore. Not many years ago, no one in this country had health insurance yet we managed to develop the best health care system in the world, and we are about to destroy it because a minority of people don’t have insurance—-but they have access to health care.
The link to the letter from former P&G VP Lou Pritchett says it all for me. Should be required reading for all the sheep.
http://www.sailnet.com/forums/off-topic/55065-you-scare-me-mr-president.html
Ladies and gentlemen, this is wonderful news
Hmm, this is pretty outragious. There is a site called “addicting games” http://www.addictinggames.com and I notice on their main page today is a game called “Find The Naughty Governor” with Sarah Palin’s picture on it.
THAT is the kind of cultural intimidation we are dealing with. There are people at games sites teaching our kids that Palin is “naughty” now how old do you think many of those kids will be in ’12 or ’16? They are indoctrinating young voters.
CP,
Yeah, saw that. Was going to post on it – having connections issues on the road.
AJStrata
Independents can be special interest groups too. Not all Independents are just high minded and principled. Some of them are just incapable of picking a party and sticking to it.
I think both parties have their extremes, but since Obama became President the Republican party by and large has opposed his plans. There have been a few strays here and there, but I have been surprised at how unified they have been.
The only way to derail Obama and his insane economic plans is to take the Congress away from the Democrats. If Independents really are souring on Obama, then that is what they should do.
BTW, I doubt very much if Palin will find very many Democrats who want her support or who share her views on government, energy independence and taxes.
crosspatch:
There was also a game called Hot Dog Bush or something with a weird picture of Bush. I don’t know if it is still around or not.
I told them I would make an issue over it until I see a “Where’s the Thieving President” game with Obama’s big ears on the picture.
These people are out to destroy our form of government. They have about a year left to do it.
Amazing that Gore was bold enough to let his real agenda slip out into the open like that. I really like another quote from the very end of that article:
“Former Colorado Senator Tim Wirth reportedly said, “We’ve got to ride the global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing — in terms of economic policy and environmental policy.”
WWS:
That is a problem I have with a lot of people who go to great pains to scientifically prove that Global Warming isn’t happening … it doesn’t matter if it is real or not to the politicians as long as the PR machine keeps rolling. As long as the average person on the street believes that “greenhouse gasses” are a threat, they will continue getting their legislation goal of control of industrial production and energy usage through.
It is now being learned, for example, that increased CO2 in the atmosphere might displace water vapor … a much more powerful greenhouse gas. So when you increase CO2 on Earth, it is quite possible that you DECREASE the overall “greenhouse affect” because of the reduction in absolute humidity. The result is a decrease in temperature with increasing CO2.
So sites like Climate Audit are probably just wasting their time in their bending over backwards to only speak in scientific terms. It isn’t about the science. These politicians don’t CARE about the science. What is important is what the TV commercials say.
Reported increases in 20th century temperatures track the “adjustments” to raw data that are applied by various people. If you look at the raw data from rural stations, there has been no warming overall since about the time the first Model T’s started rolling off the assembly lines.
AJ:
Please – stop. You cannot be a rabid Sarah Palin supporter and still call yourself an “independent” or a “moderate”. You are just trying to delude yourself. And honestly – it’s getting pathetic.
Prove me wrong: find me one statement from Palin in the last 9 months that is supportive of any political position that is less than rabid GOP base.
You are a partisan GOP hack, who happens to hate the fact that your political party is weak right now, and who happens to not be a rampant racist (somewhat rare in the GOP circles). So – congrats on that last point – but please don’t think that somehow lifts you out fo the far-right base, because of ONE single issue.
You are a global-warming denying, tax cut loving, Sarah Palin fan who still supports and defends George W. Bush and the Iraq War. You are so far from a “moderate” that I actually feel insulted when you use that term.
(And please – stop using your “rocket scientist” credentials when you talk about climate change. You are not a climate scientist, you never have been, and your lack of knowledge on this subject just causes the rest of us to point and laugh at you. The fact that you refuse to recognize the outlier year of 1998 shows that you care more about scoring partisan points than about facts.)