Republicans, I told you so!

The GOP needs to listen to guys like me who are critical of the leadership. We will fix you up guys, on you own, you don't have the brains to see your problems. You don't see that you are war mongers, you don't see that you are anti-middle America, you don't see that you are anti-equality of women,  you don't' see that you are anti-liberty, you don't see your double talk about liberty, you don't see that you want to force women to obey you, you don't see that you want to intrude in private lives of gays and lesbians, and you have illogical hatred for Muslims. Are you really conservatives? These are not conservative values, these are values of the frightened bulls that attack anything in sight.

We the moderates are here to fix you, its time you listen to us. We have nothing to gain, no one to dupe, but to do good for America with a strong two party system that represents the will of the people. 

I see a ray of hope, and glad that GOP is waking up to the post Mortem report. Maggie Haberman writes at Politico, " The Republican National Committee concedes in a sprawling report Monday that the GOP is seen as the party of “stuffy old men” and needs to change its ways. Among the RNC’s proposed fixes: enacting comprehensive immigration reform, addressing middle-class economic anxieties head on and condensing a presidential primary process that saw Mitt Romney get battered for months ahead of the general election."

The leadership was and perhaps is too dumb to realize that it was the Republican moderates who mercilessly dumped the self-proclaimed extremists, disguised as conservatives like Bachman, Santorum, Gingrich, Cain, Perry and others.

Romney is deficient in morals, two days after the expose on MSNBC about his blatant lying, he had the audacity to tell the CPAC that his remarks were for private audience. So a man like him will say one thing to his privates and one to the public. Do America need these kind of men? Do we need to dump him as an useless guy and move on, or grill him about his morality? I am embarrassed that he got the applause at CPAC, what are the folks at CPAC made of?

Any way Romney played moderate during the first half of the primaries, when others fell, he became the tortoise who would clutch the nomination, so he cheated the conservative by playing conservative, and  got the nomination.  The Chameleon was ready for the next phase to play moderate to wean Obama supporters, and played their game. Of course that ruthless shameless remark of 47% got him nailed.

I thank God every day, that we don't have that idiot as our president. Imagine what he would have done, to please the few, who do not even represent American or the Israeli public, he would have gone to war with Iran to please the bone thrower Netanyahu and eggers like Gingrich, Santorum and their Gang. He  would have screwed America, did it matter to him? No, he was secure with his money stashed away in Bahamas. Did he care about the 47%?. Thank you lord for saving America from another disaster.

We the moderate republicans are the genuine base of Republicans, and not the rabble rousers like Karl Rove, Limbaugh and others who kept lying to the GOP through the end. Either they had no idea or were simply duping the public. GOP does not matter to them, the money it brings to them does. 

Wake up Priebus, learn the truth and listen to the moderates, we have been telling about this.  America needs to stand firmly on the two party system, we cannot afford to lose the house in 2014, if we don't speak out against the daily stupidities coming out of Republicans, we will lose the majority. Mark my words, I am going to tell you,  I told you so. 

Mike Ghouse is a Republican committed to moderation to preserve the plurality of our country, which is overwhelmingly moderate.


...............
RNC: Voters see GOP as ‘scary’ and ‘out of touch' Read more:
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/03/rnc-report-gop-scary-out-of-touch-88974.html#ixzz2NvYIO8yx

Paul calls GOP 'stale and moss covered'

Rand Paul,

I may be not with you on other issues, but I am with you on this. Indeed, I wrote this yesterday.
"As a Republican, it is my duty to speak out against the non-sense in my party, and if we don't guard the fall, then I will be letting us die a slow death. I am worried about 2014. I have a feeling we will lose a lot of these disgusting Republican Senators and Congressional Republicans." 

So happy to read your stuff, this is what we need to do, we have to have the balls to speak up boldly, our fellow Republicans no nothing about people, math or connecting with them, yet they have the gall to believe that the public is with them. Hell no! Speak up Rand.  Shake some sense into these dormant minds.

Mike Ghouse

By Domenico Montanaro, Deputy Political Editor, NBC News

 

OXON HILL, Md. -- Rand Paul had tough words for his own party, describing it as “stale and moss covered” before conservatives at the Conservative Political Action Conference. 

“The Republican Party has to change by going forward to the classical and timeless ideas enshrined in our Constitution,” the Kentucky senator said here. He added, “We need a Republican Party that shows up on the Southside of Chicago and shouts at the top of our lungs 'We are the party of jobs and opportunity. The GOP is the ticket to the middle class.' The GOP of old has grown stale and moss-covered. I don't think we need to name any names here, do we?”

 The critique of the GOP received resounding applause from this crowd, but the reception for Paul, whose tone could be described as solemn, wasn’t full-throated. His speech, in fact, highlighted the difficulty he would face if he were to make an expected 2016 run.

Paul, the heir to his father Ron’s “torch of liberty,” tried here to straddle the line between his staunch libertarianism -- which includes dovish views on foreign policy, privacy rights and even drug use -- with his conservative line on spending that principally makes him a darling of these activists.

Many here praised Paul for his modern-era record 13-hour filibuster. But not all did so on the substance.“I have a message for the President, a message that is loud and clear, a message that doesn't mince words,” Paul began. 

“Don't drone me, bro!” interrupted one young supporter. 

The crowd laughed; Paul leaned back, took it in, and joked that that was not exactly the message.
But Paul only received tepid applause as he made his way through the opening section of his speech about civil liberties and drone use. Paul has raised questions about the administration’s contention that drones could be used against Americans acting as enemy combatants on American soil.

“Good intentions are not enough,” Paul said was his message for President Barack Obama. The were just a smattering of applause.

“If we allow one man to charge Americans as enemy combatants and indefinitely detain or drone them, then what exactly is it our brave young men and women are fighting for?” Paul said, and again just tepid applause.
“Our Bill of Rights is what defines us and makes us exceptional,” Paul said to polite applause.

On reaching out to youth, Paul said, “They want leaders that wont feed them a line of crap or sell them short. They aren't afraid of individual liberty.” Just a light round of claps.

Paul was much better received when criticizing the president for spending, taxes, the sequester, and cutting foreign aid and waste – instead of White House tours.

“The only stimulus ever proven to work is leaving more money in the hands of those who earned it!” Paul said.

“Only in Washington could an increase of $7 trillion in spending over a decade be called a cut,” Paul said of the sequester. And added to raucous applause: “Meanwhile the President found an extra $250 million to send to Egypt. … I say-not a penny more to countries that burn our flag.”

Paul contended that instead of eliminating White House tours, he should cut research for “monkeys on meth,” robotic squirrels, and menus for colonization on Mars that were developed by college students given all-expense paid trips to Hawaii. 

“Mr. President, maybe we could have cut robotic squirrels before White House tours,” Paul said.

Obama is too civilized to give them the finger.

We the Republicans are losing everywhere, not necessarily because Obama is doing the right things, but because we are doing all the dumb and stupid things.

As a Republican, it is my duty to speak out against the non-sense in my party, and if we don't  guard the fall, then I will be letting us die a slow death. I am worried about 2014. I have a feeling we will lose a lot of these disgusting Republican Senators and Congressional Republicans.

Nearly 92% of Americans want background check on gun sales, and what do these idiots do, vote against it. On the top of it, on the equal pay for women 22 of these idiots in Senate and 138 in Congress vote against it. They simply don't get it and will lose big time in 2014. I hate to see that happen, we need to have each house in different party's hands, and with a simple majority and not a bully majority. Americans in general, and Republicans in particular need to dump these creeps. We need our representative to represent our sentiments and our needs and not be sell themselves cheaply to lobbyists.

John McCain, Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham expressed their belligerence in the nomination process of Chuck Hagel and John Brennan. Obama is too civilized to show them his finger. Furthermore Obama does not want to waste time in engaging in unnecessary debates and that makes him a winner against these losers. Dianne Feisenstein had to literally tell Graham to shut up during the hearings. 

Masters in Rudeness

There is not a day that goes by without a stupid comment from a Republican. The only saving grace is Rand Paul and Ted Cruz who fried Eric Holder in giving an answer. If I were Obama, I would tell Eric not to waste public’s money. If a question is asked, damn it give a straight answer and don’t dance around it. Just tell it like it is, we do not kill American Citizens on our land, any conditions, period. 

We the Republicans were disgraceful in not acknowledging the lowering unemployment figures of 7.7%, we are so hateful towards Obama that we don’t’ even want to give him the credit. It is as if we wanted Americans to suffer and not have the job, we are on the path of self destruction. I hope we the moderates can speak out strongly and save our party.

Today some of the Republican nuts send me a link where Michelle Obama selected singer Adele to sing on her 50th birthday. Now they are picking on her. The Americans have voted them in, and simply accept it. She is not doing anything different than Laura, Barbara, Nancy, Rosalyn or Jackie. I think we should rise above pettiness.

When we don't have something substantial, we resort to these. I am the best thing Republicans can ever get; I do not praise them when they display their stupidities, and I speak up and keep waking them up so they don’t lose out big in 2014. 

We cannot afford jerks like Bachman itching non-stop to defund Obama care, it is there, accept it and move on. Don’t waste our time in chasing the losing causes. I really feel sorry for the Minnesotans for electing her.

Mike Ghouse is a moderate Republican, who see through the stupidities of the party and speaks out. He cares about checks and balances and does not want the Republican Party to be slaughtered in 2014. We need to have strong two party systems to have stability in our policies.

Why I Am No Longer A Republican

Carl Rove and their likes are freaking traitors, who bullshit the GOP that everything is alright, but keep making the same mistakes again and again.  Mich McConnell will be done with, he thought he harmed Obama, but he really screwed Americans, all Americans with his votes and stinky attitudes.

We need people who speak out and save the party from falling into the pit with yes men. Our party members are chicken shit conformists. 


My story is similiar, but I am sticking with the party, I owe the loyalty that I committed to some 20 years ago, but I will not let a week go by without making a point.

Mike Ghouse
www.MikeGhouse.net

March 3, 2013 | Filed under: Commentary,Economy,Headlines,Health Care,Personal Stories,Politics,Social Issues,Women's Issues | Posted by: H W

When I began writing this I was overwhelmed with the desire to hit something…or vomit. Over the coming weeks that desire has lessened to a slow simmer of absolute disgust and dismay at what has become of the party that I used to love and support. I was once a Republican living in a red state. Today I’m a registered Democrat living in a blue state. This is my story and why I left the Republican Party.

It all started in 2007. I was a 27 year-old divorced woman with no children. I was a survivor of severe domestic abuse. I was single with no money, no home and no plan other than to try and be something more than what I was. I had a car, my clothes and hope.

After moving to a new state with the help of friends, I found a very cheap apartment in a part of town that I still cringe over. My 2 jobs at minimum wage didn’t bring home enough for luxuries like choosing where to live and what to eat. There were days that I had to decide whether I was going to put gas in my car so I could get to work or eat. I always chose work. At least at one of my jobs I would get breakfast and lunch 2 days a week. I could make a $3.99 pizza with 8 slices last for 7 days. I could eat on a can of beans and a pack of crackers for even longer.

I applied to the local university in my town and went back to school while maintaining my two jobs. I took between 15-18 credit hours each semester while working. All of this was possible because of government loans and scholarships.

I went to counseling 2 times a week to work through my PTSD that was caused by the domestic violence I experienced. The church that the counselor worked out of paid for my appointments because I was too poor to pay for them and my counselor said I wouldn’t improve mentally without them.

The biggest fear during this time was that I might get physically sick and need to go to the doctor. When you’re poor, healthcare is something that you dream about. It’s something that you pray you won’t need. It’s the anxiety of “what if” that keeps you awake at night. I went to work sick. I took finals while running a 104 fever. I ruptured 3 discs in my back and couldn’t walk for a week. I wasn’t able to get it treated for 3 years. I lost one of my jobs. I found another minimum wage job. It didn’t offer health insurance.

Basic healthcare is not a luxury. It is not just for those that “deserve” it. In the country of abundance that we live in, healthcare should be affordable for every citizen. It’s reprehensible that I can buy a DVD player for less than what it would cost me to go to the doctor and get an antibiotic. Here in the United States we have some of the best medical technology and doctors in the world. Why do we think that only a few of our citizens should be entitled access to them? Why didn’t my Republican party see that? I was left with no answers.

The day I went to sign up for food stamps opened my eyes and changed everything. I had grown up in an upper middle class family. We were traditional, conservative and religious.

I need to break here for a moment and ask that as you read the “religious” part; that you would not confuse it with faith. These are 2 vastly different concepts. What some hold as religion is not the God of the Bible.
My family believed one pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps and never asked for help. It was a family that held firm to a Republican ideology that those on food stamps or “government handouts” were poor, uneducated and lazy individuals that just wanted to stay home and watch tv. These types of people were of the lowest kind. They were to be distrusted and almost hated. However, as I sat in the overcrowded room I looked around and saw people from all walks of life. You could see the desperation on their faces and the worry in every word. “I need help now. What do I do? Please help me.” There was something else that was there too…something so tangible it was overwhelming. It was shame. That oppressive shame of having to say, “I can’t do this on my own.”

I left in tears never returning. My Republican roots and their mantra echoing in my ears…”Lazy, poor, ignorant….Shame!” I told myself I would rather starve.

Throughout this time I had been listening to the candidates’ speeches in preparation for the 2008 election. I came from a very politically active family and there hasn’t been a single election that I haven’t known about and had an “opinion” on (even if it was only given to me by my parents) since I was 8 years-old and my father ran for his first public office as a Republican.

This election was different though. Not just because we potentially had our first African-American candidate, but because we had a candidate that spoke to the people about the everyday issues. We for once had a candidate who said not everyone can pull themselves up without a hand reaching out. I heard words of the civil obligation we have to each other, words of encouragement and of hope.

I went back and listened to every speech I could find that Senator Obama had made. I listened with new ears and a new heart. I was no longer the girl that had lived “easy”. I knew what hard was and I wanted a candidate that did too. I reevaluated what my own personal political beliefs were and I knew that I could no longer support the Republican platform.

In 2008 I watched as President Obama was elected. I clapped and shouted with fellow democrats at the headquarters’ watch party. It was my first election that I ever voted Democrat in. Everything had changed.
In 2009 I graduated from college with a degree in Political Science and History. I was able to get a better paying job and move into a slightly nicer part of town.

My feelings toward the Republican Party have not changed. They really are no longer Republicans. There are some moderates left, but the narrow, fear mongering voice of the party that has taken over drowns out all of those that speak truth. They have traded in a Christian belief of loving your neighbor for one that champions big business, the wealthy, and those that have no idea what struggle looks like.

Over the past few months alone we have seen how far gone the Republicans really are. 160 voted against The Violence Against Women’s Act. My party that I once loved deserted me. Not just as a woman, but as a citizen of this country. We even have a Republican, New Hampshire state Rep. Mark Warden saying “Some people like abusive relationships.” My response to him;

“I can answer truthfully that no, I didn’t like having my jaw broken or the bones in my face shattered. I didn’t like being dragged by my hair or strangled. I didn’t like the bruises, busted lips or black eyes. I didn’t like the mental and physical scars it left me with. And that’s why I left with nothing. I didn’t like having to choose between my life and my livelihood, even when your party makes it so hard for women to be on their own. I did. Now, can you please walk in my shoes for a while? My feet are awfully tired.”

When it comes to food stamps I have seen many of my Republican friends say how it’s so great that we have drug tests for food stamps and yet they’ve never given out food to the homeless or the poor. And they don’t care that the testing will cost Florida millions of dollars and thus far has only saved them $60,000. 98% of those tested have passed. It’s still the idea that everyone that needs help must be lazy and on drugs. Another lie that the Republicans would have us believe. I’m sure that there are some that fall into that category, but not all. Just like I know that not all Republicans are right-wing, gun-toting, women hating nut jobs…just some of them are.

There’s another issue that I’ve decided to add in here. I debated long and hard on it, but it needs to be talked about. It’s the issue of guns. On September 4, 1962 my grandmother was shot and killed with a .45 caliber automatic pistol. It was a gun that was obtained legally from our own US government actually. Because of this I have very strong views on gun control. Yes, I had them even as a Republican. I just kept them to myself back then. I don’t care what nationality, race, religion or party affiliation you are. When you believe that your right to own a gun is greater than another human being’s right to live, you have serious problems. I am at a loss for words as to how the very same people who wear the name of Christian are also the loudest opponents of gun control. “Jesus loves you, but please don’t take this deadly weapon from me.”
My grandmother was a model and an artist. She left behind 3 small children. One of them was my mother. How different her life would have been if our country had strong gun control laws.

People love to ask me, “How could you ever be a Democrat?” My response is always the same; “Because I know what it’s like to not be a corporation that has the ear of a well-connected Senator. I know what it feels like to not have a lobbyist organization to speak for me. I know what it’s like to be a second class citizen in a country that claims to protect the weak. I have been the woman in need of food stamps, the woman that the Violence Against Women’s Act protects. Obamacare was written for me and the millions of others just like me. I went to school on government ‘handouts.’ I want to live in a nation that values life above the cost of a bullet.“
My friends, I didn’t leave the Republican Party. They abandoned me years ago.

Paul Ryan is diggin his own grave

Repeal Obama Care and Medicare? After all it is approved?

This is guy is chaotic, loves messing up with people and the society.

I hope to see the Good Republicans speak up or get ready for the slaughter in 2014.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3036697/ns/msnbc_tv-hardball_with_chris_matthews/#51139023

It is disgusting to see these guys.

Mike Ghouse

 

Republicans are losing not because of Obama, but for our own stupidities

We the Republicans are losing everywhere, not necessarily because Obama is doing the right things, but because we are doing all the dumb and stupid things.

John McCain, Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham expressed their belligerence in the nomination process of Chuck Hagel and John Brennan. Obama is too civilized to show them his finger. Furthermore Obama does not want to waste time in engaging in unnecessary debates and that makes him a winner against these losers. Dianne Feisenstein had literally tell Graham to shut up during the hearings.

There is not a day that goes by without a stupid comment from a Republican. The only saving grace is Rand Paul and Ted Cruz who fried Eric Holder in giving an answer. If I were Obama, I would tell Eric not to waste public’s money. If a question is asked, damn it give a straight answer and don’t dance around it. Just tell it like it is, we do not kill American Citizens on our land, any conditions, period.

We were disgraceful in not acknowledging the lowering unemployment figures of 7.7%, we are so hateful towards Obama that we don’t’ event want to give him the credit for that. It is as if we wanted Americans to suffer and not have the job, we are on the path of self destruction. I hope we the moderates can speak out strongly and save our party.

Today some of the Republican nuts send me a link where Michelle Obama selected singer Adele to sing on her 50th birthday. Now they are picking on her. The Americans have voted them in, and simply accept it. She is not doing anything different than Laura, Barbara, Nancy, Rosalyn or Jackie. I think we should rise above pettiness.

When we don't have something substantial, we resort to these. I am the best thing Republicans can ever get; I do not praise them when they display their stupidities, and I speak up and keep waking them up so they don’t lose out big in 2014.

We cannot afford jerks like Bachman itching non-stop to defund Obama care, it is there, accept it and move on. Don’t waste our time in chasing the losing causes. I really feel sorry for the Minnesotans for electing her.

Mike Ghouse is a moderate Republican, who see through the stupidities of the party and speaks out. He cares about checks and balances and does not want the Republican Party to be slaughtered in 2014. We need to have strong two party systems to have stability in our policies. 

_______ Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer on the topics of Pluralism, Coexistence, politics, interfaith, Islam and cohesive societies. He is committed to building a cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.

Sequestration 2013 - a republican political mess

It’s a ransom - if you do that, we will do this. Neither Obama administration nor the Republicans budged from their positions to realign the cuts in expenditures and enhancement of revenues to balance the budget.


We can survive this $85 billion cut, but is this how we deal with the national issues?

Republicans are assuming that we are not going to make it in 2014, so what the heck, let’s do the thing that needs to be done any way and make Obama look bad. Our intention smells foul.

We have to balance the budget; we cannot spend more than we collect. Indeed, we had a balanced budget when President Clinton left. However President Bush, the macho man loaded with revenge seeking testosterone's had to lie to us to go to war and that is where our destruction began. His actions killed over 5000 of our soldiers and nearly a million Afghans and Iraqis – for what? He piled up a reckless debt of $10 Trillion dollars. That was irresponsible, had he done what Obama did, to go get that one guy Bin-Laden; we would not be in this mess today. Cheney and Bush owe an apology to the nation, their karma is messed up, but they have messed us up.

The blame must be placed squarely on the party leadership. The Republican Party programs its members to be sheepish; to shut up and listen to the boss. How many Republican were belligerent towards Bush? We are freaking conformists in a free nation. We have become cowards and don’t have the balls to speak out against our own. It is time to change. I see hope in Chris Christie, John Huntsman, Colin Powell and many more that are speaking up, and add to that list, this little man from Dallas, Texas who will relentlessly pursue the case for sanity in our party.

Had we questioned President Bush and demanded the truth from him, we would have saved the nation, but that is behind, right now, we have to cut spending. Cannot continue with deficit financing of our state.

President Obama needs to be aggressive in cutting spending; there is a lot of wasteful spending that needs to be cut. Let it begin with huge pay cuts for the elected representatives, not the ones who make less than $100,000 but any pay check above that. They can demonstrate to the nation that they mean business.


The Republicans on the other hand need to have some common sense, we cannot go cold turkey on budget cuts, and it has to be a gradual and balanced approach over a period of 6 years without hurting the economy. But cuts, we must make.

The good thing about Moderate Republicans is they care for their country more than their party and they will save the party and not the right wingers among us. We need to have a simple (not the arrogant) majority in the house and Democrats to have the simple majority in the Senate. These guys need to fight and spend time on each bill – there shall be no slam dunk of any bill. Most of the evil decisions were made when all the three branches of government were of the same party. As a moderate Republican I detest a monopoly of the party over our governance.

If we don’t change our stinking attitudes we will be slaughtered in 2014, all these Taliban’s, 22 of the Republican Senators and some 138 Republican Congress persons must go for voting against women’s equal rights act in the senate. What a shame! I expect more of us Republicans to speak out against these primates.
Pluralism in Politics
_______
Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer on the topics of Pluralism, Coexistence, politics, interfaith, Islam and cohesive societies. He is committed to building a cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.

Sequester: The Rise of Republican Anarchists

This is a good informative piece about Sequester

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/bob-burnett/48347/sequester-the-rise-of-republican-anarchists

The March 1 sequester budget cuts are yet another product of crises manufactured by the ultra-conservative wing of the Republican Party. These Tea Party extremists have one objective: crush the federal government. Motivated by a strange brew of Old Testament Christianity and Ayn Rand's "objectivism," they're a lethal force within the GOP -- anarchists.

In August of 2011, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives forced a phony debt-ceiling crisis. In order to raise the ceiling, and to push the matter off the political calendar until after the elections, President Obama signed the Budget Control Act of 2011, which said that if Congress failed to approve a ten-year budget reduction of $1.2 trillion, automatic cuts would kick in. The initial cuts, $85 billion, apply to "discretionary" spending and are divided between reductions to defense ($43 billion), domestic ($30 billion), and mandatory spending ($12 billion) such as cuts to Medicare providers -- Social Security and Medicaid are protected. 

Who's to blame? The White House originated the notion of sequestration. Nonetheless, the president had the proverbial "gun held to his head." There was a dire threat of budget default because House Republicans refused to raise the debt ceiling unless there were humongous budget cuts. (At the time, the GOP-run House voted on Obama's request for a "clean" debt-limit increase and all 236 Republicans voted no.) The president signed the Budget Control Act to avoid having the U.S. to go into default and because he was facing reelection and wanted the economy to be as healthy as possible.

Who will the public blame? This appears to be a big political win for the president. On a recent PBS NewsHour, conservative commentator David Brooks observed,

I personally think the likely loser in this is the Republicans... And they have basically got a problem. I think they need to show the American people that we like some government programs. We don't like others... Unfortunately, when they embrace [the Sequester], they are embracing a piece of legislation that makes no distinction between good government and bad government. It just cuts randomly across the board.

Where will Americans notice the sequester cuts? The New York Times detailed the impacts including furloughs of border agents, air-traffic controllers, food-safety employees, and civilian military employees, among others. In California, the other cuts will impact teachers, teacher aides, and the disadvantaged.

How will it impact the economy? On February 26, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned Congress that the sequester cuts will create a "significant headwind" for the tepid recovery. Some experts feel sequester will cost one million jobs over two years.

Does the public understand what's happening? No. A recent Bloomberg poll indicated public perception of the deficit "crisis" is out of touch with reality. During the Obama presidency, the budget deficit has grown smaller, but only 6 percent of Americans recognize this. Republican aAnarchists have done a good job "brainwashing" Americans about the deficit, preparing them for austerity economics.

What does the public want to cut? A recent Pew poll indicated 72 percent of respondents want Washington to reduce the budget deficit. Nonetheless, there was no consensus on what federal programs to cut: only 24 percent wanted to cut military spending and 11 percent wanted to cut education. Republican anarchist brainwashing has produced a national neurosis: Americans like government programs but don't want to pay for them.

What will be the long-term impact? Sequester will leave everyone unhappy and set the stage for the next crisis, at the end of March, when federal funding for the fiscal year expires.

What should President Obama do? The Republican Party has been taken over by anarchists, Tea Party extremists who do not believe in government. As University of California linguistics professor George Lakoff observed, "They believe that Democracy gives them the liberty to seek their own self-interests by exercising personal responsibility, without having responsibility for anyone else or anyone else having responsibility for them." Republican anarchists reject the founders' morality, the sentiments that produced the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution. These ultra conservatives don't believe in the common good or the notion that Americans have a moral responsibility to care for each other. The Republican anarchist motto is, "I'm for me, first." (Ayn Rand's objectivism and glorified self-interest.)

President Obama must recognized that the anarchists have pushed the United States into a political civil war. The president cannot negotiate with House Republicans so long as they are beholden to the ultra-conservative wing of the party. Obama cannot negotiate with a fiscal gun held to his head.

The president has to hold firm, even if that means shutting down government for a spell. Perhaps then the mainstream Republican Party will expel the radicals and proclaim they are not against government, in general. Perhaps if the government is shut down, and the economy goes into a tailspin, Americans will wake up to threat posed by Republican anarchists.
_______

About author Bob Burnett is a Berkeley writer, activist, and Quaker. Before starting a second career as a journalist, he was a technologist and one of the founding executives at Cisco Systems. Bob can be reached at boburnett@comcast.net.