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October 30-November 5, 2008 editorial@boulderweekly.com
• See Jim Hightower
• See Devil's Dispatch
Giving up on Danish
(Re: “Two guys named Joe,” Danish Plan, Oct. 23.) I friggin’ give up on trying to dialogue with Mr. Danish. His reasoning on the necessity of American imperial militarism is as obtuse as that of George W. Bush, as cavalier and condescending as that of Donald Rumsfeld, and as smug and arrogant as that of Dick Cheney. One has to wonder if, like John McCain, he thinks we could (and should) have “won” in Vietnam. I believe we spend roughly 25 percent of our GNP and more than the rest of the world combined on a “defense” postured, since the end of the Cold War, primarily to protect the flow of oil into America.
With oil companies being handed subsidies, tax loopholes and tax breaks, even while setting record-breaking profits, the burden of supporting this policy falls heavily on the average, hard-working, taxpaying “Joe, the Plumber” who has to pony up twice the percentage of his income to the government than that paid by the wealthy and idle investor classes. Our invasion of Iraq sent oil prices up. Reducing our consumption sent them down. And don’t get me started on the conservative policies on the economy.
Robert Porath/Boulder
Trickle-down doesn’t work
I know of your fine publication from living in Boulder for seven years. I now live in Ohio again.
I write today because I have grave concerns about the direction our nation seems to be taking. It looks as though there may be some possibility that another Republican will be elected (or selected) to the presidency of our troubled country. And the very people hurt most by the policies espoused by the Republicans will be the ones who elect him.
I could never understand why anyone making less than $100,000 a year would vote Republican. Historically, the Republican Party has an abominable record of representing the middle class and the poor, especially since the Reagan-Bush era. Yet, in Orrville, Ohio, the small town where I now live, McCain signs outnumber Obama signs about five to one. This troubles me.
I watched the factories begin to close up in Orrville when I was in high school. I’m 50 now, and the situation has not improved (except for a time during the Clinton years when it was actually possible to find a job here). The Westinghouse plant where my father worked for 30 years and I was a summer employee in my college days is now a complex of large, empty industrial buildings. Few of the large companies that once thrived in Orrville are still in business. Yet Orrville’s city limit signs still proclaim, “A City of Diversified Industry.”
The past eight years, however, have been particularly hard on Orrville. Boarded-up storefronts and an ever-shrinking industrial base attest to the fact that trickle-down economics don’t work. Working people don’t necessarily make money just because rich people do — it’s just not set up that way. Try to find a well-paying manufacturing job in Orrville now. Good luck.
When Bush took power, there were fewer than 40 billionaires in America. Now there are around 250. How many of their children are in Iraq and Afghanistan?
My guess is not a single one.
Can you actually fool yourself into thinking the Republicans are on your side, after watching the country go belly-up? There is a portion of our population who are doing just fine, actually making money during this financial disaster. The recent upheavals on Wall Street are about to affect the rest of us in a very devastating way. Do you really think a man who has voted with Bush more than 90 percent of the time can actually bring about real change? Change for the better?
Whoever becomes president, he will inherit the problems, mistakes and indiscretions of the Bush administration. I believe a break with those failed policies is what this country needs. McCain has been with Bush all along on the war in Iraq, when we all know now the United States never should have been there in the first place. Our foreign policy must become less bellicose and unilateral. We must regain our primacy on the world stage. Barack Obama’s running mate, Joseph Biden, is head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Sarah Palin’s foreign policy experience? Zero, zip, nada.
There are a significant number of people who won’t vote for Obama because he’s black. I think that is a very sad commentary on a large segment of the American people in the 21st century. Called by some the “Bubba Vote,” the wishes of the most ignorant and evil among us may decide this race for the Republicans.
And how will the Republicans repay “Bubba”? By continuing to ship jobs overseas, to keep sending our children to fight and die in wars of aggression, to give even more tax breaks to corporations and the rich, to continue to destroy the natural world for profit. And that’s just the beginning.
The Democrats aren’t perfect, but they have a record of helping out working people and the poor. History has shown that Clinton did more for the middle class than any recent president. Obama’s plans would lift this nation out of the malaise into which it has sunk. Read for yourself at BarackObama.com (be careful of look-alike sites that pretend to be for Obama but actually perpetuate the lies that the Republicans have spread).
Thank you for reading this. May all Americans thrive and live prosperous, peaceful, meaningful lives.
Ed Marthey/Orrville, Ohio
Obama is the answer
Barack Obama will do more for the economy than John McCain will do. Obama will lower taxes for every family making less than $250,000 a year. With at least seven homes and reportedly owning at least 14 cars, three of which are foreign, McCain can’t begin to understand the plight of working-class America in these troubling economic times. He sided with Bush supporting privatization of Social Security and investing that money into Wall Street, while Obama opposed it. Retirees would have watched their retirement savings plummet.
Obama opposed the war in Iraq from the beginning and repeatedly said that Afghanistan was where our focus should have been. That has certainly proven true. We are spending billions of dollars per day in Iraq. They have a government surplus, while our economy is struggling. That money could be spent on education, health care, and the creation of new jobs. McCain has no qualms about entering into war with Iran. We cannot afford to support a war in Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran at the same time.
The voters in Colorado need to look deep into their hearts as to who will work best for them. Barack Obama should be your answer.
Cheri Dzubak/Yardville, N.J.
Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
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