I'm So Sorry...

About my state. It seems the land of Bob Graham and Lawton Chiles has gone Republican of late, so I hang my head in despair. I didn't get fired up for Alex Sink or Kendrick Meek. I didn't make any phone calls. (I got so sick of GETTING them I couldn't imagine making any.) I didn't knock on any doors or stuff any envelopes. I didn't feel any enthusiasm, that contagious stuff that might have encouraged others to think more carefully about who they were voting for. I didn't blog about the candidates I liked. I didn't have it in me this time, and look what's happening. Marco Rubio. Rick Scott.

At least Debbie Wasserman Schultz was re-elected. (Yeah, Debbie, who happens to be a Girl Scout leader!! The Eldest attended an event for teen girls where she was the key note speaker and I've met her a couple of times. We all think she's great!) DH says John Waltz from Kentucky lost; he called us for support a few times and I never got around to sending him any money. I meant to, I just didn't. Ron Klein lost. Dan Gelber lost. It's a blood bath.

But why, why?? Do people really have such short memories? The Republicans are the ones who got us into the economic mess we're in, and now that gee, TWO YEARS have passed they're all mad at the Democrats for not fixing things in the blink of an eye? What? Are people really so angry that they have health care now when they didn't before? Are people really so angry that they have jobs thanks to the stimulus money that they wouldn't have had without it? (The article about the stimulus jobs was in the local paper today. A lot of jobs in education and road construction.) How did the "big government is bad" thing get started? Well, big government and mindless bureaucracy can have bad parts, but you don't throw the baby out with the bath water. Big government also does things like prevent companies from killing us all in the name of profits. Oh, what, you need examples? OK, how about lead in children's toys? How about food poisonings left and right? How about cars that accelerate all of a sudden? How about oil pouring into the Gulf of Mexico and ruining fishing as an industry for a whole lot of people? Still think we don't need regulations for anything? OH, the market will take care of it! Like how BP is going bankrupt after the oil spill, right? And everyone stopped buying Toyotas the world over, so that company is a thing of the past. And we all stopped eating after the food recalls. Uh huh.

I just don't understand the Tea Party and Libertarian points of view at all. It's so... pie in the sky. It's all about get government out of the way so Big Business can run over all of us. Government is our protection from the bullies of the world, whether the bullies are terrorists or the serial killer roaming the streets or Nazi Germany or King George or BP. I mean, why have we as a species developed governments in the first place? It's to protect our society from things that would harm us so that we can live together in peace and security. Go back to the fundamentals, the very basics even before there was a United States and Founding Fathers and a Constitution. Why do we have government? Why are we not living like gorillas or baboons or dolphins? I mean, think about it. Think about what you want government to do, what you want your government to protect you from and to provide you with.

In addition to protection from bullies we need our government for infrastructure. Governments need to provide infrastructure so that we all can prosper. Infrastructure like safe roads and bridges and an efficient transportation system that we can all use freely. Infrastructure in the form of our electrical grid. Infrastructure like schools to develop the potential in every child so that they can each take a place in a productive society. Infrastructure like a safety net for those who can't work through no fault of their own, like those with chronic illness or disability. (OK, technically a couple of these things aren't infrastructure, but yeah.)

Where's the heart? Where's the care and concern for our fellow man these days? I don't see that in the Republican party, which is why I'm a Democrat. All I see in the Republican party is front men for Big Business, like Clarence Thomas, the Supreme Court Justice who has worked for Monsanto, or Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin, in the pockets of Big Oil. What are Thomas' ties to that company today? Did he recuse himself from the Supreme Court decision that allowed companies free speech just like people?

I want to do some research here and give some links to Supreme Court decisions but The Youngest, aka The Wild Child, needs my attention. See? That's how it goes. I have sh*t to do, to quote Jon Stewart, so I'll rant again another day. Sigh...