Mid-term election madness (Grrrrrrr!)

Remember this date: November 2, 2004. 

Ten years ago. A major turning point in American history occurred that day. It was the day George W. Bush got re-elected legitimately by the American people. On that day, the handwriting on the wall was written: what America wants is God, guns, and greed. Despite that election being close, a majority of Americans, including those who stood to benefit most from affordable healthcare, gun control, fewer tax loopholes for the rich and more regulations on Wall Street, seemed instead to favor ignorance (translate: Creationism and God), the NRA, market driven healthcare, oppression of women’s reproductive rights, military bravado without follow-through, and unfettered abuses by Wall Street.

The historical impact of that election was this: Americans will never be interested in making policy changes to provide an inclusive societal approach to human well being. Instead, the every-man-for-himself approach, answering only to a higher power, and an ever-increasing gap in income inequality, will likely continue. This will lead to a gradual decline in the financial and international stature of the United States. Sound familiar? Rome anyone?

We’ve already seen the evidence.

Despite numerous mass shootings in the last decade, Americans cannot manage to put the lid on ownership of major weaponry. Local candidates choose to please the NRA above their constituents, though most constituents would probably agree with the NRA. Congress, of course, opposes gun laws because Obama is in favor of them.

State laws, pushed through by bible-thumping Republicans, have eroded women’s reproductive freedoms.  Dressed up as  protection of life, defended in the name of God, it is really male-driven misogyny and oppression. The fact that many women vote for this legislation is an astounding example of misguided ignorance and belief.

Job-creators don’t care about creating real jobs for Americans. They care about creating profits for themselves. And they seem only do this if they are allowed to out-source to the cheapest, run-down labor force they can find in the developing world. They fight tooth and nail any tax code changes that might impede that behavior and reduce their profits.

Every person in finance likes to blame the ’08 recession on Bill Clinton’s freeing up of mortgage money to the middle class, way back last century. They accept no culpability for banks figuring out how to game the system, how to make oodles of money and dump all the risk back downstream to unsuspecting homebuyers who shouldn’t have been given mortgages in the first place. "Clinton made me do it", the banks say. Well, it came back to bite some of them, except, of course, the smartest and richest, who figured how to game the new system. Those same gamers still talk of deregulation, fewer taxes and ‘job-creators’ as the solution to all our national and international problems. In a word, GREED.

So America is nearing a midterm election. Obama has lost respect from some of his supporters. Yes, he could have done better. He might have taken advantage of Democratic majorities in both houses during his first two years to change the tax code and start to rein in obscene wealth while funding an infrastructure of well being. Then he could have banished health insurers who are beholden only to investors. He could have brought in the public option, which would have been (and could still be) immensely popular and successful.

Solutions? There will be oases of hope, such as eight years of President Obama; such as Governor Brown’s handling of California recently that brought the state into the black through tax code changes and selective spending cuts. But that can change on a dime. Clinton created a surplus during his presidency the same way. How long did that last after W took over?

If President Obama loses control of both houses in 2014, Republicans will celebrate, having effectively ‘thrown the bum out’. Without knowing it, what they will be celebrating is the unstoppable decline of the United States of America that began November 2nd, 2004, when George W. Bush was given a second term.