Mad Dog Liberal

This compilation of clips from the recent GOP Presidential debates asks an appropriate question…Why is it that none of the candidates admonished the audience members who cheered for executions, booed an active-duty U.S. soldier and called out for letting the uninsured die.

The question that I personally have is, aren’t all of these people (candidates and audience members alike) professed Christians? Doesn’t being a Christian mean that you emulate Christ? So, when did Christ become such an a**hole?

What I see when I look at a lot of Conservatives, especially Tea Party Conservatives, is a group of people who are stingy, greedy, spiteful, judgmental, selfish and cold. They don’t have any compassion for the unemployed or unfortunate; they harshly judge those who are not of the same religious or political ilk, they want to hold on to all the money and all the possessions that they can and resent the suggestion that they share; they attack viciously anyone they perceive as having slighted them in any way. At the same time, they’re quick to profess themselves as people of faith. They want to make sure that we not only know what their religious views are but that we all adhere to them by force of law; they criticize Democrats and Liberals and accuse us of being Godless, non-Christians who hate Jesus Christ; they proclaim loudly that they have been directed by God to pursue the office to which they aspire and they cast doubt and aspersions on all who are different.

That’s not how I expected Christ to act. I’ve always believed that the characteristics of Christ were benevolence, love, charity, forgiveness, compassion, tenderness and humanity. After all, Jesus healed the sick and admonished those who were self-righteous not to judge others, lest they be judged. Jesus befriended those who were friendless and redeemed criminals and sinners. Jesus told his disciples to love those whom they would despise and to feed the hungry and cloth the naked. To me, the teachings of Christ have always meant that we should take pity of the wretched and down-trodden; shelter and feed those who have nothing; and keep our judgements to ourselves because, after all, we don’t know the mysteries of God and can’t know where another’s redemption may lie. But if it is, in fact, true that the Republicans are the party of the Christians, meaning that they are standing as an example of Christ in their words and their actions, then Christ must have undergone one hell of a paradigm shift somewhere along the way to turn Him into such an a**hole.

A long-term political staffer for the Republican party, Michael Lofgren, recently wrote an article for Truth-Out stating unequivocally that his moral outrage has caused him to leave his 30-year career as a Congressional staffer. He offers amazing insider knowledge of the party’s inner workings and its theology but it remains to be seen if even this startling close-up is enough to cause voters to examine the real goals of Boehner, McConnell and their Tea Party pals or if Conservatives faith in the malleable ignorance of the low-information voter is really so well-founded.

Among other things, Lofgren points out that during the Great Depression, even the most under-educated farmer or laborer standing in the breadlines understood clearly the economic and political interests that were working against them. They weren’t enamored of the Rockefellers or the Mellons, the robber-barons that they knew would gladly keep them oppressed. This isn’t the case in today’s economic climate. The American electorate is not outraged against the unbridled greed and wanton selfishness of the Wall Street traders and speculators who caused our recent collapse. No, our voter-at-large is furious over perceived “tax and spend” Democrats and the social safety net “entitlement” programs like Social Security, TANF and Medicaid.

One of the great things that Lofgren does in the piece is detail the GOP’s main policy objectives and let’s it be known that anything other than these three things that any of them may profess is just political window-dressing. What he sums up as the party’s beliefs:
1. They care solely and exclusively about the wealthy — their contributors — and protecting their corporate interests.
2. They are committed enthusiastically to militarization and the invasion of other countries — waging war.
3. They believe in pandering to the religious fundamentals and the Religious Right.

If there has ever been any question about the goals of this party or the direction in which it is heading, Lofgren removes all doubt. If he can persuade even one avowed Republican voter to wake up and smell the coffee, he’s done an enormous public service and I bless his efforts.

U.S. income inequality is the worst it’s been since the 1920s but still the GOP and their corporate masters, blather on about how raising marginal tax rates on the wealthiest among us will spell disaster for the country and be a “job killer.” They argue that those generous Bush-era tax cuts prompt the rich to reinvest in America and create jobs. Sounds good but it’s just another of those Republican lies that get repeated and repeated in the hope that the public accepts it as truth.

For real truth, check out Pat Garofalo’s excellent piece for Think Progress. As Garofalo cites, a report by the Center for American Progress found that over six decades, job growth was greatest when the top marginal tax rate was highest. For every year since 1950, the years with marginal top tax rates of 70% or higher showed the greatest growth in payroll employment rates. The worst years for overall job growth were when the top marginal rate was 35% or below.

In budget negotiations over the past week or ten days, Congressional negotiators and Vice President Joe Biden found about $1 trillion in cuts that they could agree on and were allegedly trying to pin down another $1.4 trillion when Republicans walked away from the bargaining table over the suggestion that $400 billion could come from closing tax loopholes and ending certain subsidies and credits.

One such loophole; the “Last In/First Out” (LIFO) provision. This is an accounting method that allows companies to assume, for tax purposes only, that all of their inventory was purchased at the last (most expensive) price. When they sell that inventory, they falsely reduce their taxable income. International accounting standards refuse to recognize the use of LIFO accounting but the greatest beneficiaries of its use are the oil and gas industries so Republican lawmakers refuse to consider its repeal.