Are you able to run with the big dogs? Really?

Ok, you're a Republican.  You're proud, too, because traditionally they are the party of the big dogs; you see yourself as a big dog.  You live in a nice house in a nice neighborhood; you have 2 or 3 cars; your spouse is attractive; your children are above average; you go to church every Sunday, play golf and coach soccer for your child's team. 

When you and your spouse enter a nice restaurant on a Saturday evening with your friends of the same economic class, your shoulders are back and there's a smile on your face.  Life has been good to you.  Of course, you've earned it.

Furthermore, your company pays a big portion of the health insurance cost for you and your family.  If you or yours need a prescription for an ailment, you typically pay $5 or $10; your company and your insurance company pick up the rest.  Your company also pays for life insurance, big policy for you, smaller policy for your spouse, perhaps something for the children as well.  This is what America is all about.  You work hard for your money, and you deserve these benefits.

You have a 401(k) or something similar; you're contributing to it, taking care of yourself for the future.  Additionally, you have a tuition benefit for your children at certain good schools, so there's no worry about them getting their education when the time comes.

There's discretionary income left at the end of the month, and a portion of it goes to pay for a vacation home on a lovely body of water somewhere with a boat, jet skis and other toys to entertain you and your family/friends when there's time to get away and take a well-earned vacation.  Yes, this is the life, and it could only happen here because you didn't come from wealth.  You worked your way to it, without trust funds or a daddy mogul to open doors for you.  You are living the traditional American dream. 

But that was yesterday.

The people driving the Republican Party today are nothing like you.  They are people with wealth so staggering only Bill Gates' accountants could visualize it.  Take the infamous Koch brothers, Charles and David, for example:  worth a combined $35 Billion, owners of the 2nd largest private company in the U.S. with annual revenues of $100 Billion (Jane Mayer, New Yorker Magazine, 08-30-2010).  Here's what they intend to buy with their money: much lower taxes for people like themselves, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry—especially environmental regulation. This is possibly because they are major air polluters.

According to Lee Fang in a "Think Progress" Report on Wednesday 2 March 2011, "Much of the entire Koch political machine is geared towards ensuring that Koch Industries never has to compensate the people and ecosystems damaged by Koch Industries pollution. Koch front groups — from Tea Party groups to think tanks — have diligently promoted Koch Industries’ bottom line by denying global warming, fighting regulations on Koch’s cancer-causing chemicals, and snuffing out investigations into Koch’s environmental crimes."

Mr. Republican, does this still sound like your party?  Hopefully not, but just in case it still does, let's look at another example.

When the conservative wing of the Supreme Court voted to anoint big corporations with the right to inject obscene amounts of money into political campaigns, Karl Rove and his Crossroads GPS group (nonprofit) which does not have to disclose its donors, and his American Crossroads group which does, stood ready and drooling.  They'd just been given free reign to spend what THEY say will be in the neighborhood of $120 Million on the 2012 elections.

But wait, you say, this is MY party trying to take our country back from a president who wants to use my hard-earned tax dollars on housing, health care and food for the worthless people of this country who refuse to work for it. He wants to take jobs away from people who work in the coal industry, the oil industry, the insurance and the pharmaceutical business, for god's sake!  He wants Wall Street and banks to be punished for what has been their normal practice for decades.  He even likes the French president and his damned French fries!

It's true.  But I ask you again, are you able to run with the big dogs?  Really?  Let's just say that your party gets into the White House next year and even wins the Senate.  The puppet strings (money guys) that will control these politicos want a couple things in return for their investment:

They want less government.  Social Security benefits and Medicare payments might be the first programs they drown.  Do you have enough discretionary income to put away for your old age - to support yourself and your spouse for an additional 10-20 years?  Remember, you're on your own now.

They want NO oversight on their money-making industries, i.e. Koch Industries (major polluter).  Will you be able to afford those incredibly expensive cancer treatments and drugs for your child who breathed their dirty air or swam in their chemical-polluted lakes?  You realize your insurance company will cancel your policy, don't you? Remember, you were all for the insurance companies being left to do what they wished.

And let's say, just for the sake of scaring the bejeebies out of you, that your company decided a person in New Delhi, cheaper, younger and mathematically brilliant, is getting your job - starting next Monday.  You're 52 years old, and it's a bad economy because the big dogs didn't ever plan to create jobs for folks like you or me.  They planned to keep and grow the money they had. 



Well, my dear Republican.  You'd better have at least $50 Million on hand to run with the big dogs, and that would really just get you a place at the very back of the line.  I know this because I just described my life - not the Republican or the church part - but the rest was me. 

Now retired, I'm collecting my Social Security, receiving Medicare benefits, holding on to my 401(k) for dear life, and enjoying vacations.  I'm a Democrat who believes in a system where we take care of our citizens. I want a government who watches out for enemies of the people not jumps in bed with them.

I know I'm about $49,899,000.99 short of running with aforementioned bow wows because I don't suffer from delusions of grandeur. A piece of advice:  Neither should you!