Where Were These Idiots Five Years Ago?

As election 2010 is just days away it is unbelievable how the country continues to be polarized. It amazes me how right the right wing has become. If there was a "wing tip," that is where some of these geniuses would be standing.

I had the good fortune to run into one of these wing nuts last night. He started by saying that one of the politicians running was a loser and would always be a loser. In my neighborhood he probably thought I would just join the chorus. He seemed surprised when I took issue with his characterization. "We should run the government like a business."

Then he just started spewing the conservative line. "Taxes are unconstitutional." I just shook my head and asked him if he liked roads?

"Roads are OK I guess."

What about infrastructure? He thought about that for a second and was not convinced that this was mandated in the Constitution. Neither were schools.

I asked him about the poor. "F**k the poor" was his answer. And schools are not mentioned in the Constitution either. The poor are living right at the level that they want to be."

Everything Republican was good and everything Democrat was bad. He hated everything Obama has done in the past two years but would not acknowledge what a poor job his predecessor had done. I asked him to name one achievement between 2001 and 2008. Nothing. Then came the line that I hear from most of my Republican friends these days. "I did not like Bush either." No accountability. When was the last time a Republican president balanced the budget? Richard Nixon.

But what is worse is how these new Constitutionalists think that all of a sudden that we can turn the clock back to 1776 and that if it is not written in the Constitution then we should not be concerned with it. Someone should have told that to George W. Bush when he invaded Iraq in 2002 without reason or provocation. Maybe these same idiots would have you believe that no laws should be made or created other than those that exist in the Ten Commandments.

We live in a modern society. It is 2010. No one has ever seriously questioned that public education should not exist. It has been the greatest single common denominator in America's rise to economic prominence in the past 100 years. This is the difference between what exists in the third world and what exists here. I have never met anyone who said that they love to pay taxes. But I have also never met anyone who complains about modern plumbing and their poop disappearing when they flush the toilet. Taxes pay for that. We take that for granted. But in other countries modern plumbing is a luxury. Is that the lowered bar we are aspiring to because we are that adamantly opposed to giving up a little so that we can live in a sophisticated society? That is not socialism, that just common sense and the way our country has been set up.

If we were done once the Constitution was written, why was there a Bill of Rights? Why are there amendments to those Bill of Rights? Why was a Legislative branch established in the Constitution if it were not to make new laws as the times warranted. Why was a Judicial branch established to interpret those laws if there were not a reason to warrant interpretation. The reason we are even asking these questions and have to address them is that people in prominent positions and many who run for public office these days do not seem to have a basic understanding, high school level, of our governmental process.

75% of our national budget is taken up with two items: Social Security and the military. So if you think that you are paying too much in taxes, you should probably start there. Privatize Social Security? Be happy that this did not happen in 2005 as G.W. Bush wished (and recently said was his biggest regret). The military. Well, maybe we could start by not invading countries that we have no real issue with. Or maybe if we are to be the rest of the world's protector ask those that need protecting to foot at least part of the bill. That would be a nice start for those who think that the country should run more like a business. Remember G.W. said that Iraq would be paid for with oil money? What ever happened to that? The remaining 25% is not much to speak of. It is running our government and keeping our infrastructure from crumbling.

No one likes to pay taxes, but come on...get real.