New Haven Independent

This is not the scenario the right wing of the Republican Party had hoped for. John McCain has a long history of thumbing his nose at everyone, both Republican and Democrat. While I find many of his political positions untenable, McCain is considered a “centrist” by many. That McCain is a “centrist” says a lot for how far to the edge of the earth the Republican Party has gone, but that’s another story for another day.

The right wing wanted Mitt Romney. Why I am not sure, as his positions on just about everything “evolved” as his candidacy sank. But Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, et. al saw him as their savior and spent countless hours talking him up as though he truly was the second coming. He may have been, but voters this year are looking for something other than gridlock in Washington, and McCain looks like the kind of Republican who understands compromise.

Compromise is a four-letter word to Hannity, Limbaugh and Beck. To them there is only one way.. .their way. There is no compromise, just winners and losers. They subscribe to the Josef Goebbels school of broadcasting. If you repeat the same lie often enough, sooner or later people begin to believe you.

For example, it is Limbaugh along with most Republicans and other conservatives who want to make the latest series of Bush tax cuts permanent. Anyone who votes or even speaks anything but “the line” will be branded as someone who raised taxes. That is like having a sale and then being told that if you don’t keep the sale prices you’re raising prices. Tell that to the guy who runs your local grocery store. Let me know when he stops rolling on the floor laughing.

The lie? “Lowering taxes raises revenue.” It is the old “Laffer Curve” rule of economic theory which he freely admits he came up with on a napkin over dinner and no idea if it would actually work. The facts are it actually doesn’t, although if you listen to the conservative lie long enough (and disassociate yourself from common sense and reality) you will think it actually does.

A few facts to toss around from the Bureau of Economic Analysis:

Real tax revenue increases:
1972-1980: 24%
1990-2000: 41%
1980-1990: 19%

You might recall that 1980-1990 period was the time when President Regan cut taxes and guess what happened… tax receipts dropped. Lower taxes didn’t mean more revenue, it meant less revenue. Go figure. We report. You decide.

Meanwhile conservatives want McCain (and the rest of the country) to swallow Kool-Aid laced with fiscal irresponsibility and make those cuts permanent. The U.S. currently has a $9 trillion debt. That’s $30,000 for every man, woman and child who lives in the US. Think about that: For a family of four it’s $120 ,000 that has been cumulatively overspent in your name. Thank the dearly departed Ronald Reagan for a lot of that ,but leave lots of space for our current “Bush-league” president.

This year the budget calls for a on- year debt of $450 billion or just under $1300 per person — every person, from the man on his deathbed to the child just being born.

Assuming McCain does become the Republican nominee he could do THE unfathomable: tell ‘em all to go pound sand. He could tell Limbaugh, Hannity and the rest of the ultra-right wing of the Republican Party that he doesn’t live in the same fantasy land they call America. He can tell them he lives in the country that truly believes in the constitution, in the people’s right to know, one that believes in fiscal sanity, and in the Bill of Rights. He can tell them that America Is not the country that tortures prisoners and lies or spies on its own people all in the name of national security. He can tell them that’s what he spent five years in a prison camp and most of his life defending or working for. After eight years of lies and obfuscation America is ready for real honor and leadership.

But is the Republican Party?

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