In reading an ABC News online story, “Leeve Breaks Amid West Coast Storms”, and viewing the accompanying photo of cars and homes submerged, I was immediately brought back to the continuing travesty that in New Orleans. Of course, the significant differences here are in the sheer number of affected persons, and sadly, race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status. In New Orleans little was done that could be viewed as proactive or responsive to the unfolding drama of human sacrifice and suffering; in Nevada, helicopters and crews were available to aid homeowners and motorists trying to flee the rising waters.
Despite these instances where our national infrastructure fails us; we continue to poor billions into two wars that have so far failed to yield any valuable fruit. The Taliban are regrouping in Afghanistan, and Osama bin Laden remains out of our reach. We cut services and programs domestically so that we can continue to grow the military, its spending, and the national debt. Time and time again, this is the same Republican playbook, yet Americans never seem to connect the dots.
The continued fragility of our nation’s infrastructure, and the apathy with which the Bush Administration responds to these conditions/situations should be a sufficient case for a disappointing 2008 Presidential election for the Republican Party.
While some (or many) in Congress would have you believe that, as Republicans, their views are different from Bush, the reality is such is just not true. For the first time in a long-time, single-party rule has done little to improve the state of this fine country.
Our government works best when there is the checks-and-balances system in play which was envisioned by our founding fathers nearly 300 years ago. With single-party control of the government, we have a plethora of unfunded mandates, underperforming schools, security breaches, failing leeves, disenfranchised poor communities, and fuel prices skyrocketing to the stratosphere (and well beyond the realm of many average folk). For all of this, we get an unapologetic president, a crippled, ineffectual Congress, a tainted foreign/global image, a weakened – almost useless – dollar, and the largest historic national debt ever.
It is truly time for Bush/Cheney/Card/Rove and their band of Republican two-faced, side-talking cronies to leave Washington. It’s time for a sensible, sound-minded leader to inherit 1600 Pennsylvania Ave so that the healing can begin. To make this happen people need to be sensible when voting, and vote not from their own list of needs and wants, but from a list that considers all that is facing our ailing nation.
VIRGO64 