JOE VOTER HAS SPOKEN!

November 3, 2010: Joe Voter repudiated the mandate he rendered in 2006 when he gave the Republican majorities in the House and Senate the boot, and again in 2008 when he sent Barack Obama to the White House in a repudiation of George W. Bush’s agenda of regime changes, nation building, and mass-destruction of the job base in America which was supported wholeheartedly by Bush’s would-be successor, John McCain. What Joe Voter was vaguely aware of the previous two election cycles but didn’t fully understand was that a significant redistribution of wealth from the poor and middle class to the rich by means of the trickle-up economic policies of Bush and the Republicans had been accelerating and was reaching a critical mass.



Beginning in late 2007 and accelerating throughout 2008 Joe saw an economic upheaval for the ages where there was mass destruction of jobs, retirement savings, housing values, record gas prices, and enormous suffering by millions of Americans, Europeans, and citizens of the Third World. So in a brief moment of lucidity, Joe Voter took umbrage and gave the Bush/McCain political philosophy a raucous thumbs-down at the polls.


But let’s be honest here. Joe Voter is hardly an intellectual giant. Barack Obama was sworn in on January 20th of 2009, but by the next day the economy hadn’t perceptibly improved as Joe had expected. A stimulus package, called “the American Recovery and Re-investment Act of 2009 (The ARRA)” was enacted in February (with virtually no Republican support) that succeeded in halting the economic freefall over the course of the summer and fall but did little to initiate a robust recovery because the damage to the economy was so severe. Further, the effect of the ARRA was stunted because the Fed had already cut interest rates to near zero, and concessions demanded by the Republicans, which included the removal or reduction of tax credits for low-income workers and reduced aid for state and local governments did little to help job creation. The legislation did include increased tax credits to high-income earners which did more to fatten portfolios than payrolls. From Joe Voter’s perspective, the effect of the Stimulus on the economic recovery was negligible because unemployment remained persistently high, and the steady drumbeat of jeremiads and anti-Obama rhetoric by House and Senate Republican leaders had the desired impact on Joe Voter’s stunted thinking processes.


The political agenda of House and Senate Republicans was obvious to the limited portion of the electorate whose mind was functioning at a level significantly higher than that of a bumblebee. It was all about obstruction, destruction, and obfuscation. Any and all policy initiatives introduced by the President and/or Democratic Congressional leaders that would have enhanced the opportunity for job creation were blocked shamelessly by Obama’s political enemies in Congress – time after time after time. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell made no secret of his rationale for gummiing everything up - here’s a direct quote: “…the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president”. Kinda says it all, doesn’t it? McConnell’s aim is to prolong the suffering of American families so he can facilitate the election of a Republican president in 2012 (Sarah Palin, anyone?). And with a lot of help from Joe Voter in 2010, McConnell appears to be halfway there. With a beefed-up Republican presence in the Senate and a Republican majority in the House and a sworn take-no-prisoners approach, the destruction of Barack Obama’s presidency is all but assured.


In his own mind, Joe Voter is a patriotic American who plans on doing his part to rid America of the evil socialist state President Obama is trying to build between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Of course, Joe doesn’t even know what a real socialist state looks like. He couldn’t find Venezuela or Bolivia or Nicaragua if you pointed those places out to him on a map. And on the matter of balancing the budget, well, specifics don’t matter in the least. All Joe knows is that the government's gotta cut all that wasteful spending (whatever that is). Not defense, though, no, not that! Can't let our guard down against them damn terrorists! But we've gotta cut or eliminate entitlements, just so long as it’s not his entitlements they’re doing away with (yours and mine, sure, but not his!). And tax cuts? - yeah, baby! Cut taxes and make more loopholes for the rich ‘cause then they’ll create jobs and get the economy going again. That’s what McConnell and John Boehner are saying, and we know they wouldn’t lie, would they?


It’s funny, though, how all those billions in aid going to places like Pakistan and Yemen and Kyrgyzstan and to people like Karzai and al-Maliki never gets mentioned, at least by anyone Joe Voter listens to. Wasteful spending, that? – NOT!


So, on 2 November 2010 Joe Voter spoke Loud and Clear. Joe and his Tea Party brethren and sistren made their voices heard, their hatred felt, their stupidity seen. And what about the quiet, thoughtful voices of reason? Well, those voices got swamped by the cacophony of discordant blather being puked out of the mouths of right-wing extremist politicians and talk-show pundits with outsized megaphones. And Joe Voter believed it all without question. Astonishing!