Political Ramblings

I haven't written much lately. I guess life sometimes gets so busy you forget to stop and think.

One thing has been bothering me a lot. I haven't talked much about politics here lately. But there is so much going on in this world that has me upset, it's never too far from my mind. Specifically, I am becoming very disturbed by Republicans (especially the far right) for things that are happening since Obama took office.

If you've been on another planet or locked inside a closet for a couple of months, there was an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that continues to spew thousands and thousands of gallons into the ocean every day. Now...most democrats have been against drilling in the ocean forever. Last year, the ban was lifted by President Obama and drilling has started back up on in some areas off the U.S. coast. In the meantime, Sarah Palin and other Republicans have been shouting "Drill Baby, Drill!" in an effort to allow for more drilling in the ocean and around the U.S. Most Democrats have continued to believe that we should spend more money and energy looking at alternative clean fuels. Then came the disaster in the Gulf. Now Obama is being blamed for the disaster by Republicans who for years have been fighting to start the drilling while Obama and other Democrats have resisted. How dare they! Much of the finger pointing is not necessarily coming from Republican leaders, but from the Republican citizens of the U.S. The other day, I even had a trucker tell me that it's all liberal media hype and that there is no more oil in the Gulf now then there ever was...that there is always that much oil washing up on shore in the Gulf and that the Democrats and the liberal media are using it as a way of stopping the drilling. (Which, by the way, Obama did immediately after the disaster, and which the oil companies are fighting.)

When Obama took office, he was challenged to overcome eight years of disastrous economic and foreign policy by the previous administration. Even with that tremendous challenge, he pledged to try to reach out to the other side of the aisle in an effort to change the politics of the past. He was even awarded the Nobel Peace Prize specifically for what he HOPED to achieve to bring America and the world together! Unlike what the Republicans would have you believe, President Obama's entire career has been spent trying to compromise and reach out to others in order to reach common goals. His record speaks for itself. He's not a left-wing president. In fact, he's much more centrist than many of our great Democratic presidents of the past, including FDR and JFK. But, in an effort to damage Obama's credibility and record, the Republicans have adopted a strategy of ZERO COMPROMISE; which is to say that they refuse to vote with the Democrats on anything the Obama Administration tries to pass through Congress, even if what they are doing may very well be in the best interest of the American people. Any Republican congressman who votes with the Democrats is ostracized and jeopardizes his political future. The Republicans in Congress will stop at nothing to gain back a majority in Congress and get another Republican president in office, even if it means going back to the failed policies of the past eight years that brought our country to the brink of disaster, both economically and though the wars being fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Republicans talk about changing politics in Washington, but they continue to show us by their actions what is so terribly wrong with politics in Washington! Can you say "Hypocrites"?