Let's get the "Tea Party" to "Trade Places"

"Poll Finds Tea Party Backers Wealthier and More Educated" the New York Times headline screams across the April 14, 2010 front page of the Politics section.

I find that statement startlingly surprising. Who could have possibly guessed--let alone designed a poll to determine--that people bitching about the current administration would be "Republican, white, male, married and older than 45. They hold more conservative views on a range of issues than Republicans generally. They are also more likely to describe themselves as "very conservative” and President Obama as “very liberal.” "

Do you remember the 1983 movie "Trading Places" with Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy? If not, do some research. We'll come back to this.

These are people whom I view as having the "most entitled" attitude of anyone on the planet. Whether Daddy paid for their education and gave them a job after graduation, or they did it by hard work, they don't want anyone else to be successful. In other words, they don't want anyone climbing up the ladder behind them. In fact, the Times article states that this movement came to light about a year ago to protest the economic stimulus package, oppose Democrats' efforts on the "economy, environment and health care," and to throw out members of the Republican party who are not, well, Republican enough.

The other day I heard a woman from some obscure (because I personally had not heard of it!) organization of right-wing women (presumably the wives of the Tea Party members) claiming on public radio that "it is the entitlement [programs] that will bankrupt this country." She obviously has never taken a look at the actual federal budget(see pie chart above), because when confronted by a caller who asked about the huge defense spending portion of the budget, she simply scoffed. "Scoffing," I have found, is largely a conservative response/sound/noise/attitude. If you want to see how the federal budget is cut up, there are a number of resources; War Resisters League http://www.warresisters.org/pages/piechart.htm and True Majority (their pie chart in this article) http://www.warresisters.org/pages/piechart.htm are my two favorites. (Of course they are liberal resources!)

I'm seriously tired of politics and politicians and entitlement attitudes and out-of-control budgets in a government entity (take Pentagon 101) that could not pass an audit because a) they have never been accountable and their books are fiction, and b) any ethical auditor attempting justice would disappear from the face of the earth.

So I'm proposing this. Anyone who has more than a million dollars in any kind of liquid form (in other words, the money is NOT his employees' pension) will be ordered to Trade Places with a person who is living at or below the poverty level in this country. They will do this for a minimum of one year. At the end of that time, if they have not been enlightened, they're doomed to repeat the year.

Now that you've done your homework, you should know about "Trading Places." Filthy rich and unethical Wall Street tycoons Randolph and Mortimer Duke make a bet. Randolph believes that if they make their brilliant white protege, Louis Winthorpe, III (Aykroyd) trade places with panhandling streetwise Billy Ray Valentine (Murphy), they can also reverse their lots in life, their attitudes and their own "people" will turn on them. "Louis" becomes "Louie" to a hooker; "Billy Ray" becomes "William" as he dons a suit and tie and turns into the Dukes' black protege.

Lots of twists and turns and interesting events and developments as Winthorpe and Valentine re-develop and the plan works out much differently than the Dukes had planned. The bottom line is this: Even though Louis and Billy Ray start from very different backgrounds, they do change, but they eventually realize they've been screwed with, resent it and become allies against the machine. (Oh, quit whining about my ruining the ending! If you've not watched this 27-year-old movie at this point, you deserve to have the plot exposed!) Sounds cliché, but it's a great story with great actors, very funny, and has a great moral.

Walk in the other guy's shoes. Perhaps then the politics will make way for the real work we need to do...together...without the entitlements.

HAS THE FAT LADY SUNG TO THE REPUBLICAN PARTY?

Originally, I was titling this post as "Revisiting the Republican Party," but "revisiting" implies that I "visit" in the first place, and that's not entirely true.   I occasionally look in from outside, share jabs with friends who are Republicans, and read scathing articles and comments by Republicans.  But visit?  No.

I was listening to Wisconsin Public Radio this morning, and the morning show guest was Chris Lato, former Communications Director for the Wisconsin Republican Party.  He was speaking to how the GOP now needs to begin to remake itself, find how to get their message across, and to return to the conservatism the members want.

I found all of it fairly smug and clueless for a number of reasons.  First, there's the assumption that people want this "conservative" attitude to continue.  Second, it's mostly rhetoric, anyway.  Most of the liberals I know are more conservative that any "conservatives" I know.  These are people who want to stay out of the lives of others, to let them make their own decisions and live life as they wish.  That sounds pretty conservative to me.  "Conservatives," on the other hand, wish to decide for us on many levels.  They don't want me to decide whether I should continue through pregnancy, regardless of how I got that way.  They want to preach to me in their own religious doctrines and damn me to hell if I make a decision that isn't in keeping with their doctrines.  Never mind if I have my own doctrines and beliefs.  They fight hard to keep me from marrying who I wish because anything but a man and a woman in marriage is a sin.  Again, that religious doctrine.  Somewhere along the line the Constitution and its separation of church and state has been ignored for their greater good.  And, though I know most people don't want to hear it, we liberals are generally much more conservative fiscally than you "conservatives."  Boy am I going to get blasted for that one.  

Take Ronald Reagan, for example.  Lato also held up Ronald Reagan's presidency as a good example of the Republican Party's conservatism.  I always respond to a sentence in which "Reagan" and "conservatism" are used together with a snicker and a shake of my head.  Reagan is portrayed as this magician who ruled with a conservative iron fist.  He did, actually, campaign on the premise that he would reduce government--"to get government off our backs"--and reduce the amount of government spending. He actually grew government tremendously! Reagan not only increased government spending by an enormous amount, he even outspent Carter's wild spending of 1980.  In fact, it took a 40 percent cut to bring us back to Carter’s 1980 levels. Reagan also substantially increased the percentage of government spending to GNP.  That, my fellow Americans, is not conservatism. What about Reagan's 1981 tax cut?  That's all I hear about when I start to criticize Reagan's policies in front of republican friends.  Yes, what about that tax cut.  It was offset by two tax increases that year, and in 1982 Reaganomics cost American taxpayers $100 billion in the form of the largest single tax increase our history.

This election year made me at the same time cynical and hopeful.  Hopeful that a woman like Hillary Clinton or a man like Barack Obama could in fact get us back into some kind of sanity in this country, our spending, our attitudes about our world supremacy.  But extremely cynical in the underlying belief that it would some how be taken away from the voters as in the last two elections.  

What can Republicans do to remake their party?  Doubting that anyone cares what I think, I'll post my humble ideas anyway.  

• First, stop lying to yourselves and everyone else.  I seethe when I see a "Pro-Life" sign.  It's not true.  You are anti-abortion.  Say that.  Because although I respect your right to your own beliefs and opinions, I know full well that the GOP will not support the "life" of that child or its parents later on when they are struggling and need social programs to survive.
• Second, don't assume that the electorate is stupid and relates to the ignorant, clueless, "folksy" persona that has been personified by Sarah Palin. We may think she's cute and has something in common with us, and that might make her a good friend.  But I cannot imagine that anyone would want her leading this country, no matter how you voted in this election.  
• Third, perhaps it would be best to stop calling the "GOP" the GOP.  Grand Olde Party should perhaps be replaced with something that doesn't imply that it's the good ole' boy network.  There are some powerful and highly respected republican women out there. 
• Finally, stop with the "conservative" rhetoric.  It's come back to bite the party in the, ahem, derriere too many times.  Politicians in general are not conservative with the money they spend because it belongs to someone else.  Besides, loosely,  "Conservative" means closed-minded;  "Liberal" means open-minded.  You don't need to jump to my side of the aisle in order to open up to ideas that aren't your own, and you really aren't helping anyone by clinging to Scarlett O'Hara ideals. 

People I know on all sides of politics seem to want a leader that is well-informed, confident and at the very least, dependable. A lot of Americans seem to think that Barack Obama is just that, yet he was humble in his acceptance speech, and admitted that he would need to win the respect of many people. John McCain is that as well, or at least was before this election during which he seemed to cave to Bush politics. He chose a person as a running mate who was so completely out of her league that the American people were alarmed.  Not just democrats, libertarians, socialists, etc. -- but American People, collectively.  It takes nerve to criticize Barack Obama for a lack of experience when you're promoting Sarah Palin.

By the way, Nancy Reagan voted for Obama.  Perhaps the fat lady has begun her song to the Republican Party as we've known it.

Thanks to http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard60.html for some additional information and rantings!