some post mortem comments on the Republican blame game

Always seem to be thinking of stuff way away from a computer, maybe should get one of those tablets, much easier writing on one of those instead of the smart phone when I am not home.

Anyway, I really hadn't thought I was going to write on the Republican self back lash or blame game or whatever you may want to call it and most people are already moving on, but I have heard a few things, seen a few things, etc that made me want to say something. Really, between Jon Stewart's segment on the topic that I thought was really good, to something I heard in church, to another presentation by a historian in the church, and some other things made me think maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I threw in at least a penny's worth of it all.

First I do need to say I rail pretty hard on the Republican party, jumping on what I have been calling the elitists and the extremists. And it is these two segments of the party that is dragging it down and making it ineffective politically, however, the main body, the middle and upper middle class that makes up the large segment of the Party has some blame for letting these two groups hijack the party. And I don't think me saying this is unique. Part of the conversations lately (conversations beyond Fox News) are touching on this I think.

And still even before I get down to my few points, I do want to make a point about the elitist segment and some warnings to people. To begin I have a thought and I haven't taken many economic classes, but I feel that Wall Street, as an institution, should be a trailing economic indicator. This might be a bit strange, but give me a sentence or two on this one.

Wall Street, as what most people think of traditionally, is suppose to reflect how business is doing. Another words the market would go up or down depending on the overall health of the economy and how companies are doing. And it still puts on those appearances, but the current reality is Wall Street now exists for its own profit. Yes occasionally a company's performance does have a direct bearing on its stock price, but rarely for the long run. Two things are going on, first companies seem and it is commented often to be pandering to Wall Street and make business decisions that do not benefit the long term health of the company. Second and more scary is Wall Street as most know can make money and lots of it especially nowadays with all the sophisticated traders with very small movement in the overall market. Wall Street doesn't need companies to be successful for it to be successful. It has lost what technically was its primary purpose to exist which is the ability of investors to share in the capital growth of our economy. I don't think this is radical news to most, but it has to be taken into consideration when I refer to the elitist wing of the Republican party, which is primarily made up of people profiting off Wall Street as its own identity. I mention this because I want the mainstream Republicans to realize that economic policy dominated by this group under the guise of being part of a conservative economic policy is a sham. So if you look at how Wall Street is suppose to be viewed traditionally then it should stick to being an investment vehicle to help people grow their wealth. And if you read my posts regularly you know I am firm believer that for democracy to be healthy, wealth needs to be spread out and not concentrated. And I mean real wealth, many strong companies and small businesses doing well, which we seem to be missing nowadays. This is hurting democracy. Wall Street should be a trailing indicator because it would reflect in market movement what has already happened to the overall business climate and people would invest on future potential. The fact that the market can be manipulated by events and market movement without any basis on how the actual company is doing is dangerous. And I do mean by events not like wars or disasters where a company has no control, but man made events to manipulate the market and this is what I fear, the elitists are now able to create events and manipulate the media to influence the average investor to go one way and Wall Street takes advantage and makes outsize profits on just the movement itself. Again I don't think this is new news, but a rather long paragraph to make a simple point.

Back to the original topic. So what happened, first take into consideration historic perspective, this country always seems to overcome all the changes that have happened over the last 200 plus years and we have kept on growing. Even a few depressions and more recessions, a few wars, etc, even when we have new groups becoming part of the country and a nod to Mr Stewart's point about the immigration that occurred in the 19th century. We became stronger, much to the chagrin of the elitist groups of that time. The immigrants were blamed for all sorts of troubles that could come about. And again the country got stronger. I have heard some other points similar, but the one by Mr Stewart is something you can go verify as a back up to my point that not only do the Republicans have only themselves to blame, the groups they are deriding that helped Obama win are the groups they should be trying to win over. And seriously telling people they are bad because they didn't help you win isn't going to help your cause in the long run. The extremists and elitist through Fox have been shooting the future of a true conservative agenda in the head. They are killing it. It is becoming more and more difficult to present a rational conservative argument in a conversation with people with the idiocy these people are spouting. And for them to denigrate different voters as the future downfall of the country, well thanks a &^%#)%&#) bunch.

They are going nuts over this, and some of these groups would be the conservative movements best allies. For example, many middle class Latino groups have a history of hard work, working themselves up to get where they are, and have strong family value backgrounds. The basis of any generic conservative ideology in this country, yet the elitists and extremists look at this group as a detriment of the future of the Republican party. They talk about how America is changing, well it always has and always will, but to take away any future of a true conservative agenda by belittling other groups is plain idiocy. They act that because there are less white males to vote for them, the country is going to hell. Plain stupid. The country can continue to be great, but you have to educate why your values are good for the country and with their attitude it will take some doing going forward.

I have always said a good education helps democracy along with my earlier thoughts on wealth. Now with many new immigrant groups etc, plus the rise of women in our business and political landscape it is not the end of this country as the Fox News pundits are acting like, but rather an opportunity to expand the basis of why conservatism still has a better outlook for the long term health of this country. Well a true conservative agenda, that relies on strong economic growth of business not wall street, family values that incorporate better education for our children, faith based values in our society, concepts of civics and citizenship shared among all the people, a government that isn't over bearing and oppressive in size, more balanced budget that is realistically managed. People believe in these values, Most people in this country are moderately conservative, and to what seems to be utter amazement of white fox pundits this includes everyone in the country.

So to the Republicans in general, time to either take back your party or look elsewhere or everything you believe in will be gone, not because Obama won and took the election by using all these different groups, but because the conservative leadership failed to engage them at a crucial time in our country.

Anyway a little more rambling that I wanted to be, but I tend to do that, cut through the rhetoric and I hope the general point is made.

And just in case I don't get back to this blog before Thursday, have a great Thanksgiving. Even if you have to find something to be thankful for, find it, acknowledge it, and go from there.