Raging Cynic

In Mr. Ryan’s vocabulary, it seems so. Paul Ryan (Rep - Wi), the Republicans’ guy on the House Budget Committee has found it fitting to label Obama’s budget plan, should it pass, as “the moment America turned European.”[ WSJ - 1 Apr., 2009]. This, as opposed to the GOP plan which, as he puts it, would “preserve our system of protecting our natural rights.” I must be confused, would this be the right to pay through the nose for public education on the colleges that are hiring more part time faculty and raising tuition due to lack of government funding? Or the right to take a tragic credit hit due to some unforeseen medical expense? Maybe the right of our veterans to have to drive farther and farther to visit a VA clinic since the Bush administration cut their funding.

It’s far past the time that we as Americans stopped letting pundits and politicians try to scare us with xenophobia. Germany, with the largest GDP in Europe and fourth largest in the world, offers great health-care benefits to citizens, nearly (and in some regions, completely) free college, a safety net for retirement and unemployment. All of this while taxing corporations LESS than America does (so Mr. Ryan can get off his high-horse and shut up about how the Obama tax plan would strangle the small-business). By using a (shock) progressive tax system, which places more responsibility on those who benefit more from the national well-being.

The Cold Ware is long over. And even when it wasn’t, Communism was never Socialism. The American citizenry needs to realize, at long last, the benefits of socially responsible spending and taxation.  Mr. Ryan can watch from the corner.

    It was over a good coffee yesterday that I came to a sudden sad epiphany. Hillary’s proud and loud core of, what’s the term?, “working white,” supporters who are so vocal about her beating her dead horse into a powder are looking to handicap themselves. It’s a pretty clear demographic split between more educated, higher earning Democrats supporting Obama and the less educated, minimum wage Democrats supporting Hillary. Wooing her core, Hillary routinely promotes short-sighted solutions to pressing issues (look at this “gas tax holiday” plan of hers), and short-sighted attacks on Obama (i.e. the red phone ad where she claims she’s more qualified because of years in Washington which, following that logic, means we should vote for McCain).

Let us assume the Hillary, like most who occupy the office of President will plan on a second term. Naturally, she will look to court the same group of her supporters who elected her the first time to form the foundation of her support base. Establish a strong base, and spread out from there; standard strategy. What initiatives, then, can we expect Hillary to take with regard to the lower-class? Well, if she wants their support in 2012, she’ll want them to stay in the lower-class. Take the axiom that “demographics are destiny;” if Hillary’s supporters become, demographically, more similar to Obama supporters (more educated, higher wages, less rural), they become less-likely to support her because she’s no longer looking out for their interests.

This simply means that she isn’t looking out for their interest now. Hilary has a vested interest in hampering the social mobility of America’s lower strata.

Does this change anything? Probably not. Some of the most destructive and treacherous agents of politics and political change have been supported overwhelmingly by those groups who had nothing to lose but their lives and whatever modicum of freedom they had previously enjoyed. The person who justifies his actions by saying “it can’t get any worse” is often proven wrong; a desperate choice isn’t a thoughtful decision.

The alternative is clear. Where Hillary would want to keep the lower class cemented in place (or better yet for her, grow it), Obama would want to improve earnings and education to grow his supporters. Isn’t that the American Dream? The pinnacle of Social Mobility? To have our highest elected official WANT to help us become wealthier and more educated?
But then, it’s your vote.