Trey Parker and Matt Stone brilliantly summed up the horrible choices (or rather lack of choices) the American public faces when going to the voting booth in their episode Douche vs. Turd. As a Nevada voter forced to choose between Harry Reid and Sharon Angle, I think the political parody is still timely and we must rescue ourselves from this vicious two party cycle if we are to stand even a chance against coming crises.
In the 2004 South Park episode, Douche vs. Turd, the school puts up two candidates for the next school mascot-a giant douche and a turd sandwich. One of the boys voices his disgust with these two options and is hounded out of town for voicing the obvious. After his adventures he sees that "every election is about a choice between a douche and a turd."
In 2010 Senate Campaign in Nevada, the two candidates who stand a chance at winning are Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Tea Party Favorite Sharon Angle. On one hand we have someone who voted for the Bankruptcy Bill in 2005 and has many pieces of legislation passed for a Democratic agenda by the House sit by the wayside because of the lack of a "supermajority" (despite George W. Bush getting everything his greedy corrupt heart wanted to when his party had nowhere near these numbers).
And on the other hand we have Sharon Angle, who seeks to implement "Biblical Law" (Strike 1 if you've ever actually read what's in that book and the trivial offenses for which it mandates death), supports eliminating Social Security and Medicare (Strike 2 if you have paid into these most of your adult life and shiver when Conservatives talk of scaling them down or eliminating them), and says that bringing industry to this state is "not her job" (Strike 3 because that is a direct quote)!
So I have to give the "I can't do anything because I don't have a supermajority" guy 6 more years or put in a woman whom I not only feel is an imbecile but wrong in pretty much every stance she takes. I have to say that I feel like a character in South Park!
And not only that, but both choices lead down a road that repeats history to the detriment of our lives, liberties and property. If history repeats itself and we are looking at a repeat of the 90's (a Democratic president being a rubber stamp for a Republican agenda), then the result will be a sequel to the Bush years when the Republicans regain control of the White House and all the death, tyranny and debt that entails.
I always felt there was an inherent dishonesty when Bill Clinton (and all who came after him) made a case for deficit reduction. Granted we had to cut back domestic programs (a Gingrich favorite) to get where there was a projected budget surplus in 2005. And those programs were cut back. But what happened to fiscal responsibility when Bush came to office? The deficit was run up to even beyond what it was in the Reagan years! Most of the money went to the DOD and it's lackeys. Defense contractors have never had better friends than George W. Bush and Osama Bin Laden!
I'm old enough to remember the 1980 election. I remember Carter being killed in the campaign ads for the $73 billion dollar deficit in 1980. When Reagan got in, reducing the Deficit was so important that he ballooned it to an average of $167 billion per year of Reagan's administration (most of it spent on weapons). Deficits seem to be important only when the Democrats control the White House.
When we are being manipulated by fear into compromising our Constitution, when Defense Contractors are making out like bandits, and when Wall Street is getting handout after handout-deficits are not important. When we need our infrastructure updated and repaired, when businesses need to see activity so that they start hiring, when the whole economy needs to get people back to work with shovel ready projects so that then they would take their paychecks and spend them-deficits are important and must be reduced!
The double standard is not only disgusting but it produces unneeded deaths on a massive scale. Because of this double standard, as of this writing 4,732 US troops have died in an Iraq War fueled more by G.W.Bush's vanity, hunger for oil dominance, revenge for 9-11 and greedy Defense Contractors than any threat to the United States from Iraq. Because of this double standard, as of this writing 1991 US troops who should be alive today aren't because they died in a mismanaged conflict in Afghanistan that should have been over in Tora Bora in Dec 2001! And lest we forget, there are also 97,172-106,047 Iraqi civilians who should be alive but are not because their country became a battle zone for the past 8 years.
My point is that this dishonest double standard regarding the deficit is part of a cycle of death. One side, the ones who manipulate their followers with fear of Big Business and then gives Big Business (with maybe breaking up a monopoly or oligopoly as the exception) whatever they want, has strict limitations on what they can spend money on when in the White House. The other side, the ones who manipulate their followers with fear of Big Government and then grow the deficit and take away liberties, has no limitations on what they can spend as long as it kills.
And don't think we are immune as U.S. Citizens. As Dr. Phil said, "If they'll do it with you, they'll do it to you." Boehner wants to "reexamine the 14th Amendment" to determine if people he doesn't like can be stripped of their citizenship. He may turn into the next Speaker of the House. Cheney tied to override Posse Comitatus (the legal precedent that prevents US troops from being used domestically) so he could send troops to a US city. We are not immune from these people just because we live here!
George Orwell put it best in 1984-
" ...it does matter if the war is not real, or when it is that victory is not possible. The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. The essential act of modern warfare is the destruction of the produce of human labor. A hierarchal society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. In principle, the war is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation."
That declining standard of living that we are all so familiar with will only get worse as this cycle repeats itself. If you are outraged by the Douchebag, a vote for the Turd Sandwich will only bring death and debt to us so fast it will be as if Bush never left office. If you are outraged by the Turd Sandwich, you leave in power a Douchebag who sits in power ignoring the agenda you sent him there to fulfill. If you are like me, you are outraged at having to make such a horrible choice to begin with and watch with despair and disgust as we repeat the dishonest elective hypocritical cycle of Death!
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