WHAT'S HAPPENING IN WASHINGTON

GRAMMAS INTERPRETATON OF THE CURRENT POLITICAL SCENE

Okay, die hard Republicans, you are probably not going to like this. I'm hoping some of you might agree with me, and I would like nothing better than those of you whom I consider "thinking" Republicans will decide it's time to take your party back!  Time to kidk the fringe element back to the fringes, and begin to listen to the wiser heads that exist within the party. 

My interpretation of what has happened to our country, struggling so to get anything done, is this. Once the reality of a Democratic sweep happened, some of the Republican party leaders put their heads together and came up with what they thought would be the quickest way to regain control, simply stymie every action the Democrats attempted to make, either by voting against all proposed bills, or threatening a filibuster, or putting out lies about proposed legislation, (the Death Panels, the compulsory Bail-Outs) or paying for ads promoting these lies. They have gone so far as to fund sound alike organizations, with look alike URL's that are against whatever their targeted organization is trying to help. If this sounds confusing, check out Rachel Maddow's show of April 23, for this amazing story. I'm sure you heard the outspoken remarks of wanting Obama to fail, even though he was dealing with situations whose failure could mean failure for the whole country. We were  on the brink of a financial meltdown, but causing the administration to fail was more important.

This furious attempt to never vote for any proposed legislation, if a Democrat proposed it, continued on unabated throughout the health care debate. The Supreme Court debate was both laughable and tragic, and we are seeing the same thing in the attempt to rethink our financial legislation to try to prevent what just happened. In a true working democracy, we would have the two parties, each with their different approaches, recognize a problem, recognize the role of the national government to deal with it, put their heads together and actively propose their different approaches, duke it out until they get something they both can agree to, and then legislate, which is what they are being paid to do. But to sulk in the corner saying it isn't my party, and I don't want anything they want, even if I did want it before, even if my revered heroes of past administrations wanted it, Now i will try to see no one gets it. This  is not a solution, this is not even a good plan, and I think a number of Republicans are beginning to see the light.

I think, I hope, we have turned a corner. I think we will get  legislation of financial reform, maybe more or less than what a lot of people really want or we really need, but like with health care, we will be taking steps to do something. I think we will not see silly arguments over the next Supreme Court nominee, and I think we will see some rapid action finally, on the immigration issue. The problems seem insurmountable with this issue, but the Arizona legislation is going to force the hands of everyone to co-operate, and to really try to hammer out something that will do its best, to be best for our country, our economy, and the people involved.

I want a democracy that works, that works like a good marriage works. In a marriage we have two different people, often with different needs and different ideas, sometimes even different goals, but the union, is greater, and more important than the individual parts. We can fight for what we want, we can do our darndest to try to make the other person see things from our point of view, but at the end, we have to reach some sort of compromise and move forward, if we want the marriage to work. The same is true of our country. Anybody who mentions secession, is like a person mentioning divorce. We fought that bloody battle once, we don't want it repeated, and we must recognize these people for what they are, philanderers roaming away from the UNITED states of America.

I am hoping at least some of you will approach your favorite Republican legislator, and urge him to forget the effort to make the Democrats fail, and remember, his primary job is to make America succeed. He;s there to legislate, not sit on his behind and threaten filibuster, not to sow discontent and distrust. Quit wasting everyone’s time and get to work!

I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK!

We've heard that a lot lately, but what does it mean? Back from what, or back to what? Back to the depression years I remember as a child, back to the terrors of world War 2, back to having my husband in Korea where I couldn't communicate except with snail mail,  back to the crazy times and suspicions and ruined lives of the McCarthy era, back to the years when economically we grew stronger and stronger while our place on the throne of moral leadership for everyone aspiring to freedom grew weaker and weaker, until now, when instead of being the most admired country and people up through WW2, we are the most distrusted and even hated country in the world. I'd sure like to go back to those times when we were so proud of our country and what we stood for, I'd like to feel that pride again, and feel the admiration of most people everywhere, but we can't go back, you can never go back. Why? There is no such thing as time travel, and, we can't dictate what other people think of us, even if we do everything absolutely right. There are those who won't like what we are doing because we may be threatening their way of life, they may be jealous of our success, or they may not like to see people of another faith, or skin color succeed. Imagine that! Do we think we are the only country with prejudiced groups? We have yet to see that not being an all white, all Christian nation, might become a great advantage!

How about taking us back to a country with a balanced budget, back to a point where our expenditures are no more than  what we raise every in taxes every year? Well, I'm all for that, but we can't just "take" our country back to that position. No, we have to make it happen, not by wishful thinking, not by ''reloading" for God's sake, whatever that means, and not just by cutting social programs, always the first target of the cost cutters. Why do we always look to programs like health care and social security, and schooling, things that are vital to the lives of all, as if they were the "icing" on the cake and not the foundation stones of society. We can cut inefficiencies in any program, we can make everything meaner and leaner, we can stop throwing good money after bad when something has proved to not work. But we can't cut the repayment on the massive amount of money we borrowed in the past administration, and the only way we can get back to square one, no matter how much we cut non essentials from our spending now, the absolute only way we can recover from the over spending and under taxing of the past, is to dig in our pockets, everyone's pockets, and start taxing more. No one dares say it, it is as if tax, a three letter word has become the most unsayable four letter word, but there, I've said it, WE MUST RAISE TAXES.

To think you could take the country into a trillion dollars in debt, then leave it staggering on the brink of a depression with no hope of a quick fix, or immediate regrowth of the economy, and not have to change our life style by cutting back on personal pleasures to make up the shortfall, is hiding our heads in the sand. The people out of work can't pick up the burden, they need our help, but the rest of us can live with a little less of this and that,(and if its less junk food we will save money two ways, not wasting money on non nutritional food and much smaller medical bills), and help buy our way out of the predicament we put ourselves in. We all share in the guilt of doing the wrong thing, those who chose a path that didn't work, and those who didn't protest loud enough, but relaxed into lethargy when the money was flowing in. So quit getting angry now, its too late for anger, stop with the cries of "Take our country back," knuckle down, prepare to sacrifice a little and say, let's "Make our country back!" We danced, oh how we danced, now we have to  pay the piper. 

So much of the money is just to pay the interest on what we borrowed, nothing we will ever see results from, other than our credit rating, which is very important after all. And much of it, I hope much of it, is to move us into the future. You don't see the immediate results of better roads and trains, ports, or a new electric grid,  not while they are being built, except in creating those all important jobs, but no nation moves ahead without these things. We don't immediately see the results of the effort we put into educating our youth, but they are our inventors and innovators and people who keep the machinery working in the future. The future that is going to demand more and more skills at every level, unless we want to be the country who does the sweat shop work for those countries, who right now, are stepping beyond us. Come on everybody, lets MAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK,BACK TO THE FUTURE, the future that will be better for all of us, and, we hope, all the world.