Saturday, November 6, 2010

Mindless Blogging

When I saw a letter to the editor entitled "Republicans Offer Mindless Opposition", I knew I had to spring into action.  Everyone knows that Republicans offer mindless support; get with it.  Anyway, time to bring back my favorite type of post: the unilateral debate*.  Here's how this works.  I will post the original text from the letter in a different font, then go point-counterpoint with the letter writer, gradually propping up or shooting down all of his/her arguments.  The beauty of this is that the person cannot defend themselves, and consequently all of my points are made eloquently and convincingly, allowing me to persuade everyone as to the accuracy of my insights.

(*"unilateral debate" is the worst name ever, and I literally stopped writing this post for a minute to try and come up with a better name.  But then my coffee became ready, and I stopped caring.  If you have a better name for this I'll be happy to include it.)

In deciding how to vote. I hope that your undecided readers will carefully weigh what the Democrats and Republicans have done for the American people the past four years.

How people decide who they are voting for always fascinates me.  The mysterious "undecided voter" is ever the subject of political rhetoric.  And rhetoric, as defined by my high school government teacher is "the philosophy of talk....bullshit....I don't know".  The more I learn about political rhetoric, the more correct I realize Mr. Kirby was.

Here's an homage to undecided voters.


Let's continue.  Charles from Gambrills is about to drop a Democrat talking point bomb on us.  Let's diffuse them one at a time.


The record is clear. In the face of mindless Republican opposition, the Democrats have pulled us back from the brink of depression,

A recession is defined as 2 consecutive quarters of contracting GDP.  A depression is a little more abstract, assumed to be 2 years of recession in a row or downturns that have such a level of severity that they cannot be explained by business cycles.  So, are we in a depression? No.  But did the Democrats save us from it?  No.  However, the bigger problem is that government economic policy is most likely to affect short term results at the expense of long term growth.


made sure that millions will soon have access to medical care,

which is going to reduce employment, increase premiums, increase taxes, and reduce long term economic prosperity.


made education affordable for millions of students and put us on the road to recovery.

I think the education thing is meant to distract us so I'm just going to ignore it.


If the Republicans win, they intend to sweep away these reforms for the American people and go back to the failed Bush/Cheney policies that ran us into the ditch. We have seen the Republicans in action the party of no has done everything in their power to obstruct the progress our country so desperately needs. The Republicans even oppose President Obama's long term plan to balance the budget while providing a short term stimulus to repair our dangerously deteriorated bridges, dams and airports.

Republicans intend to sweep away Obama/Pelosi/Reid reforms: true.
Failed Busch/Cheney policies ran us into the ditch: false*.
My car is in the shop because I ran it into the Busch/Cheney ditch: false (a runaway tire hit it on the beltway).
Republicans are the party of no: false.
Obama has a long term plan to balance the budget: comical.  Also, it's easy to balance the budget if you raise taxes--that's the whole problem.

*The recession was caused mostly by loose credit and a housing price bubble, particularly as a result of Fannie and Freddie.  R's and D's I'm sure share the blame for lack of oversight, but it was Democrat Barney Frank who had the most power to affect the policies that led to the recession, but denied the existence of a problem even as the recession had started:



The Republicans have no credible plan to recover from recession. The Democrats are better able to balance the budget, witness President Clinton's large surplus and President George Bush's massive deficit at the end of their terms.

I don't know if Clinton had a surplus at the end of his term, and I'm not going to find out because I've already looked up a lot of shit for this post.  So, if he did have a surplus, it's because of a positive business cycle, capital gains and income taxes from an asset bubble, and lack of a major war.  Plus, using the deficits at the end of 2 particular Presidents' terms to prove that Democrats better balance the budget is the worst way to prove something since O.J. Simpson's glove.

Also, the credible way to recover from recession is to let producers keep more more of their own money so they can hire more people and invest in future production.


If the Republicans win the next election, they intend to go back to the disastrous policies of President Hoover that led to the great depression. Having run the economy into the ditch, they now want to run it off the cliff.

It takes a real cynic to believe that politicians purposefully want to ruin the economy.


For the country's sake and your own. Please vote Democrat.
CHARLES G. MCINTOSH
Gambrills

For my sake and everyone else's, I'm glad people voted Republican.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I really respect your well researched and thought out ideas about politics. We need more people like you out there! However, I'd love for you to visit virtueofknowledge.com for a different perspective. You are welcome to challenge anything written there. This is how we grow and learn. Thank you and keep it up!