It’s only a matter of time now. Republican’s have officially turned their back on the last of their thinning constituency, Baby Boomers and retirees. The Paul Ryan call to meddle in Medicare and the ensuing support some of the party bestowed upon him for such a move was nothing less than political suicide. Personally, I think the party line got painfully confused by the 2010 mid terms. Sure, they took back control of the House when the Tea Party movement turned out by the bus load at the polls. I suppose this lead the entire party to believe that the Republican base is comprised of fiscal conservatives on a dangerous mission. The truth is the “fiscal conservative” argument from the Teabag factions was a ploy. It was just political maneuvering to get into power so they could push a failing hyper-conservative ideological agenda. Everyone knows it: Ban gay marriage, end abortion, ID badges declaring which church you attend.
If the Tea Party (note: They are not really a “Party” because there are so many disputing factions) were really interested in relieving the nation debt they would be interested in more than just spending cuts. They would be interested in revenue generation. Yes, evil taxes. People rob banks for the same reason we should remove the tax breaks, shelters and loopholes the wealthiest now enjoy: That’s where the money is. By now we all realize the stale argument for trickle down economics is no less than a failure, at worst a lie. Rich people don’t create jobs. They create wealth by eliminating jobs for American workers under the rightful justification of profits. Let’s end that debate once and for all. I know, a pipe dream when arguing with so many people in politics and business benefiting from the current arrangement. The real problem emerging is that corporations may now be turning to countries and currencies outside of the US and away from American consumers. This, combined with wage and job loss for American workers will decimate the middle class.
Another real and growing problem for the party is a super majority of young Americans are not buying the Republican side of the argument. Not one bit. They are not fooled by the right wing corporate social agenda for continuous wealth aggregation at the peril of the middle class. Government intervention in the form of legislation and subsequent regulations to add value to the American worker and protect America jobs is long overdue. Immigration enforcement and off-shoring should both be on the table.
Now that Mitch Davis said he will not run for President in 2012 the only adult left in the room at the Republican party is exiting stage left. Truth is the Republican party still has a candidate who could beat Obama in 2012. It will never happen because they will not nominate Ron Paul for the ballot. I am not staunch Ron Paul supporter but he does have genuine grass roots support and appeals to young people. The rejection of Paul by Republicans because he does not support their ideological wedge issues and continuous funding for the military industrial complex is more evidence of how out of touch the party has become with main stream Americans.
It is hard to imagine how Republicans in Washington still believe that reducing retirement benefits while supporting never ending military engagements, continuous tax breaks for the wealthy, oil and agricultural subsidies for companies making billions in profit are what middle class Americans desire from their representation. In some other worldly dimension there may be rational to justify their social agenda but not in this reality. It’s an agenda being rejected by main stream Americans young and old leaving the Republican Party on the brink of irrelevance.
All this would be bad enough and then….Trump. Donald, you should not kick a party when it’s down.