How Sex, Politics, Money and Religion are Killing Planet Earth

Thursday, September 23, 2010

GOP Pledges to Move America Back to Bush II and the Stone Age

Today the GOP released its Pledge to America.

The Pledge begins by making lofty references hearkening back to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Our democracy has been overtaken by “an arrogant, out of touch government of self-appointed elites.” And, it is the patriotic duty of all Americans to overthrow said government and reinstate true democracy. Apparently the record numbers of voters who showed up on November 4th, 2008 to elect our first African American President were imposters, and our current dictatorial state appointed itself.

The GOP pledges to “honor families, traditional marriage, life, and the private and faith-based organizations that form the core of our American values.” Translation – the GOP will trample the civil rights of people based on their sexual preferences, legislate governmental control over women’s reproductive rights, and transform a government based on the separation of church and state into a corporate theocracy. Most offensive about the above statement is the GOP claims the above actions would represent “our American values.” At least half of the people in this country do not subscribe to the above values and in fact, view them as un-American.

First and foremost, the GOP returns to its well-worn mantra of tax cuts. Economists almost universally agree that tax cuts for wealthy Americans do almost nothing to stimulate the economy. We also have the recent case study of President Bush’s tax cutting economic policies that plunged our country into the darkest economic disaster since the Great Depression. As President Obama recently noted, giving Warren Buffet more money in his pockets is not going to change his spending patterns.

The GOP further pledges to reduce the deficit. Any sentient being should be able to see the logical flaw with the GOP’s conflicting promises. Reagan was the first Republican President to administer massive tax cuts for the wealthy. During his administration, the federal deficit rose from $1 trillion to over $2.6 trillion. President Clinton managed to reverse the trend, but then President George W. Bush called for more tax cuts and the deficit once again ballooned. Nonpartisan Politifact estimates Bush II added $5 trillion to our national debt (1).

There is absolutely no evidence anywhere in our history to suggest that tax cuts will miraculously decrease the deficit, or that Republicans are really the fiscal conservatives they claim to be. Americans need to wake up and examine the facts. There is a lot of conservative rhetoric flying around about how President Obama is saddling our children with debt, and he is. Obama has been forced to stimulate the economy and rescue the jobs of teachers, firefighters and policemen because President Bush destroyed our economy. On the other hand, Republicans have saddled future generations with enormous debt in the name of lining the pockets of the already rich. Our children and grandchildren will pay for the dramatic increase in wealth of a few lucky Americans. The question is, will Americans fall for the GOP’s distorted version of the truth once again, or will we wise up?

The GOP Pledge is entertaining reading and should be required for analysis in all college Logic classes across America, as it clearly demonstrates almost every kind of logical fallacy imaginable. A starker reality may be realized on November 2nd, 2010, if American voters embrace the lofty, albeit incongruous rhetoric outlined in the GOP Pledge, and the GOP take over the United States Congress based on the impossible financial claims, cloaked bigotry, lies and innuendo displayed in their Pledge. The truth, facts and reality are that the Pledge offers nothing new or different than the policy enacted under President George W. Bush. Nothing. Do we really want to go back there?

References
1-  http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/jan/22/rahm-emanuel/5-trillion-added-national-debt-under-bush/

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