It goes both ways

Submitted by Joe Erwin (United States), Feb 11, 2008 at 18:27

I am a former Republican, now registered as a Democrat, and simply fed up with partisan
politics in both parties. Many of my neighbors feel the same way. I have seen corruption
in both parties--usually in places where one party was overly dominant.

So, now we have had eight years of a Republican administration that seems to have been
capable only of implementing terribly destructive policies. How is it that we could spend as
excessively as we have been on this war, without fiscal conservatives identifying this as an
unsustainable policy? Fiscal discipline has to include restraint on military adventures. But,
in this case, what we have done is transfer borrowed wealth (borrowed from China, etc.)
into the pockets of miltitary suppliers and contractors--giving the illusion of a fairly healthy
economy.

Meanwhile, the oil industry has profits greater than any industry has ever seen.
Nice work by a couple of oil industry guys, one of who has also done a very fine job of steering
no-bid contracts to contractors with which he has worked and in which he holds continuing
interests. Nothing done by anyone outside the Republican party could have done more to
ruin the party that those inside it. I was a Goldwater Republican. In those days, we could
hardly believe anyone would take Ronald Reagan seriously. Somehow, they did. But so
many hangers-on got greedy and corrupt in the process, that everything the party tried to
stand for was undermined by its own office holders.

I am now a Democrat because I would be embarassed to be a Republican. But I'm very
close to being an independent. I'd like to see a Constructive party, dedicated to fairness
and problem-solving not based on idealogical doctrine. Can't we just all get along and
do what is fair and helpful?

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