Grumpy Bulldog vs. Democracy

It's President's Day and so the time has come for Grumpy Bulldog to give his political endorsement.  Sadly I'm not important enough like Donald Trump or Sarah Palin or someone like that to broker my endorsement for favors.  And it's unlikely my endorsement will any way affect the polls or be quoted on campaign commercials.

 A little democracy music!

 Still, Grumpy Bulldog is going to throw his support behind President Obama this election year.  Why?  I'll make it simple:  I've voted Democrat since 1996 when I could first vote in a presidential election.  The one time I strayed from that was in 2000 and look how that turned out.  (I'm just grateful that thanks to the electoral college my vote meant nothing in the scheme of things since Michigan went to Gore.  The rest of my family's votes also meant nothing, as they usually don't mean anything.  Losers.)

Grumpy Bulldog's Pick for POTUS

If you want to break it down more in-depth, here are few reasons why:

• 0 Major Terrorist Attacks on US Soil (so far)
• 1 Dead Major Terrorist Leader
• 2 Wars Ending
• 0 New Wars Started (so far)
• 1 Stupid Military Policy (Don't Ask, Don't Tell) Repealed

Why that stuff matters is if you remember 2004 and 2008, homeland security was what Democrats were supposed to be awful at.  Only gun-loving Republicans could keep us safe from the bad people out there!  But so far we've had a Democrat in office and not only has there not been an attack but bin Laden (the guy the Bush administration promised to deliver with his head on a silver platter) is gone.  On top of that the ill-conceived war in Iraq (the biggest US foreign policy error since Vietnam) is over and soon the war in Afghanistan will be over too, so fewer days coming into work and seeing the flag at half-mast because some poor guy got blown up by an IED.  Hooray!

Also, democracy has been flourishing in the Middle East, taking down old dictators like Qadaffi and Mubarak (I'm probably not spelling those right.) without the US being tied down there for 10 years and hundreds of billions of dollars.

So in terms of foreign policy there's lots to cheer about.  Domestic stuff hasn't been as good.  A lot of that is Congress's fault.  Especially since 2011 when the Republicans gained more power we've seen nothing productive done at all.  Instead of trying to help people get jobs the stupid Republicans keep flogging the dead horse of "trickle-down" economics by giving more tax breaks to millionaires while simultaneously wanting to cut Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment benefits for the poor and disabled.

But even when they didn't have a majority Republicans still did everything they could to thwart any piece of legislation.  The biggest mistake the Democrats made was pretending they gave a shit about what Republicans wanted.  Why'd they waste time trying to negotiate on the health care law when Republicans were just going to say no anyway?  As much as I hate Republicans, at least when they controlled Congress and the White House they knew how to get things done.  Stupid, evil things but they got them done.

Anyway, domestically there's a lot of work Obama needs to do.  First is getting a backbone when dealing with these asshole Republicans.  The problem with that manufactured debt ceiling "crisis" was that the Democrats gave too much ground.  That only emboldened the Republicans, especially those Tea Party morons.  My hope though is that if he's reelected Obama will have more of a backbone because he won't need to worry about reelection again.  As a "lame duck" he won't have to worry so much about his approval rating, like George W didn't worry about his either.  Whether that happens or not remains to be seen.

As for Mitt Romney (who I still presume will get the nomination--you heard it here first back in November or so!) I wouldn't give a crap if people say he's more moderate than a Gingrich or Santorum.  A Republican is a Republican.  Electing Romney (especially if the situation in Congress still favors the GOP) means the Republicans are going to try to push through more shit legislation to cut social programs while giving rich corporations tax breaks and force their religion on all of us by restricting abortion, dialing back gay rights, forcing schools to teach Creationism as "science" and so forth.

Why would I think that?  Because it's already happening on the local and state levels!  In the Midwest, as soon as the old Democrat guard was thrown out in favor of the Republicans, the first thing they did was attack public-service unions for state workers and so forth.  The people who came into power saying they'd create more jobs almost right away began cutting jobs in the public sector or else forcing those employees to take huge concessions.  Meanwhile they did huge favors for their corporate buddies.  I'm sure Pagel can go on and on about Scott Walker's various misdeeds.  (And he does in his political blog.)  Rick Snyder hasn't done as much of that yet in Michigan only because he hasn't been on the job as long.  Though one of his first genius ideas was that any city he decides is failing he'll just send in an "emergency manager" into.  An emergency manager answerable only to him with the power to pretty much do whatever he wants.  Or in other words, a dictator.  (Seriously the term "dictator" comes from ancient Rome where in times of crisis they would hand power over to a guy for six months or so to right the ship.  And as they mention in "The Dark Knight" the last guy they handed power over to was Julius Caesar.  Look how that turned out!)

Anyway, the only thing Romney has going for him is that he's a businessman and he'll run America like a business or some bullshit like that.  At least that's the kind of shitty stuff Snyder ran on.  The problem is that America is not a corporation.  The goal of the government of the United States of America is not to make profit.  The goal of the government of the United States of America is to protect the rights of its citizens to pursue life, liberty, and all that stuff.  The two aren't mutually exclusive but often in conflict with each other.  Because as we've seen with companies like Nike, Apple, etc isn't doesn't really behoove corporations to give a shit about their employees.

Which is why I'd make this simple argument to my siblings:  If you think you can take care of all of Mom's bills and medical expenses on your own, then go vote for Romney and the GOP.  Because with the Tea Party lunatics running the show what's going to happen is Social Security, Medicare, all that is going to be cut back if not eliminated to pay for corporate tax cuts and wars against Iran, Syria, North Korea, or whoever else.

Anyway, there's really nothing that will ever get me to make the mistake of voting Republican again.  I got burned on that before and I ain't getting burned again.

My Mom made me some pot holders for XMas and used the extra for a throw pillow case.  My sisters bought the ornament from Bronner's in Frankenmuth a couple years ago.

(BTW, I think I need my own radio show like Rush Limbaugh.  I'm a big fat guy and I can rant forever making arguments that probably distort the truth quite a bit.)

This is about all I want to say about the election.  In 2008 I got sucked into arguing with these two dopes on a message board for pretty much the entire year and it was just freaking awful.  The irony was that one dope was a former draft dodger in Canada and the other was supposedly in England, so neither had any stake in the election and yet they couldn't shut up about it.  So really I just wanted to get on my soap box this one time.  Which incidentally I think the problem for Obama is that a lot of people who supported him in 2008 (young people) aren't going to turn out in the same numbers this time around because they aren't going to be energized about this campaign as in 2008 when people wanted to be a part of history and to get the shitty taste of George W out of their mouths.  Or just people like me who are still so tired of the bullshit from the last election they don't have the stomach to do it again.

I'm Grumpy Bulldog and I approved this diatribe...