Isn't America Worth It?

If you actually watched the President’s State of the Union speech last night and disagreed with it, congratulations, you’re an extremist. These days, unfortunately, that also means you’re a mainstream Republican. As many of you know, on the political spectrum, I definitely lean left, but when I listened to what our President said last night, I agreed with almost everything he said, and there is only way one way to characterize that speech: reasonable, rationale, and centrist.
Sure, he suggested we spend more money on programs like education and transportation. But he also suggested we offset that spending by closing tax loopholes for oil companies, streamlining the tax code in general, and putting a freeze on domestic spending increases. Additionally, he pledged to veto any bill with pork in it. Is there anyone that disagrees with properly funding education—especially when that money comes with a requirement to make it more effective and efficient? Really? And is there anyone who thinks that having high speed trains and more, or better, roads is a bad idea—especially when that money is meant to stimulate the construction industry, which has been one of the hardest hit in this economy? Really? If the answer is yes in either case: why? I’d really like an explanation.
The President also challenged Republicans and Democrats alike to make changes to the health care bill if they thought it could be improved—he said he’d be a willing partner in helping to make it more effective, better functioning, and more streamlined. The Republicans refused to applaud. Why? And when he said that he was proud of the fact that insurance companies could no longer take advantage of consumers, that people with pre-existing conditions could no longer be denied coverage, and that employers were able to spend up to $5,000 less per month to cover their employees, Republicans refused to applaud. Why? The only logical explanation is that they have no desire to have any kind of health care legislation, especially not when it protects consumers, allows people with pre-existing conditions coverage, or helps to lower the cost of health insurance for small businesses. I’ll ask the question again: why? Such a position to me seems completely baffling.
From what I heard in the President’s speech last night, his primary goal is for America to advance and succeed, to come back from the brink of an economic abyss and forge ahead to renew our role as a world leader in innovation, human rights, and democracy. Do I believe that everything our President spoke of will get done? No. Does a speech fix all of our nation’s problems? Of course not. But it’s a blueprint for how things get better—a way in which Americans can forget their differences and work together to rebuild this country. Isn’t that a good thing?
The bottom line is that for Republicans it’s not. They don’t want the U.S. to recover. They don’t care about the American dream. They could give a damn about education, health care, infrastructure, or taking care of their constituents. For them it is simple: cast Obama and the Democrats as bad guys so that we stay in office and make more money for our political donors. That’s it. A Republican’s only function in politics is to figure out ways to carve out tax loopholes, pesky regulations, and pork for their donors, or to block the passage of legislation that reigns in abuse by their clients against consumers. Worse, the party has taken to horrifying, un-American stances or telling outright lies to try to convince their constituents that they are still worth voting for: all government regulations are bad, taxes kill jobs, Obama is a socialist, Democrats are going to take away your guns, blah, blah, blah.
Quite frankly, it’s awful. Time to take a look in the mirror Republicans: if you support your party’s agenda right now, you’re an extremist. You don’t support public education, any kind of legislation meant to protect consumers, any kind of taxes, or even having a government—other than to provide a military—which you think should be bombing everyone that doesn’t agree with us back to the Stone Age. You hate gays, glory in owning weapons, are a borderline racist, and want to stick your head into every decision a private individual makes, unless that individual is you. That is the plain, honest truth.
So, Republican, is this what you really believe? Is this who you really are? Somehow, I doubt it. I just hope you aren’t too proud to see that your party has lost their way, and “gulp,” that may mean you’ll actually have to vote for a Democrat. It may be hard, but isn’t America worth it?