Replies to post #99839 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[wbmw]

Lars, I've seen the discussions from Republicans running for office in my state of Oregon, and although they are more moderate than your average Republican, the message is still the same.

These are some of the statements I've heard from the guy running for governor. They are all great sound bites, but I'm sure I know what he really means.

1. "We need to bring more responsibility to government"

Translation: we need to cut more of the services that people rely on to balance the budget.

2. "We need to control wasteful spending"

Translation: we need to cut things we don't understand, such as prisoner rehabilitation programs, or education programs for gifted children.

3. "We need to bring more of the private industry into Oregon"

Translation: we need to give big tax breaks to large corporations to woo them into our state

4. "We don't need tax hikes, we need tax breaks"

Translation: we'd like to give huge tax breaks to the wealthiest people in the state, and balance that by cutting more critical programs for the people who need them.

Now, Oregon is a pretty liberal state, but my fear is that people are frustrated enough with the current economy that they will vote Republican just to get something different. It's a grim reality that the Republicans have left the Democrats with a big enough mess that it can't all be cleaned up in time for mid-term elections. And therefore, the Republicans get credit for their mess, because the Democrats can't get it cleaned up fast enough.

How crazy is that? Yet, it's something that the Democrats will have to deal with, and I plan to do my part on the ground to register voters and make sure they can get to the polls, to hopefully keep Oregon a blue state. But it's just 1 out of 50, and I hope others will do their parts elsewhere....