Reply #78: This is a symptom of what's wrong with America today [View All]

[jmowreader]

No, not the fervent need to carry a gun wherever you go. And we can sit here and debate angels dancing on pinheads all day long--guns on campus will increase safety, they'll increase violence, whatever.

The problem is, the Republican Party campaigned in 2010 on the classic "put us in office and we'll fix the economy" platform. Now they're in office and they're screwing around with worthless bills like guns on campus, banning abortion at 20 weeks (the Idaho repukes did this one), union busting, fucking up the schools...and then there's the best one, which I'll go into in just a second.

They haven't created one job. The schemes they've advanced to fix the economy, all of which revolve around austerity budgeting and tax cuts, can only make things worse. When it comes to the schools, they act like they're Ben Tre, the Vietnamese provincial capital about which was said, "It became necessary to destroy the town to save it."

I have come to the conclusion that the quickest way to save the United States is to order every elected Republican to commit seppuku in front of his or her office building at noon on April 15.

Now as for the very best bill the Republicans, in ANY state or even in the US Congress, have advanced in this political season: In Idaho we have open primaries: you show up, take one party's ballot and vote your preference. The polling place has Democratic Party ballots and GOP ones, and a LOT of Democrats here vote on the GOP ballot because in a lot of places, there's no one on the Democrat's ballot. The GOP hates this because of the off chance someone who's not quite as far to the right as the GOP would like will get on the ballot for the general election. So...they sued the state to get permission to close their primary and won. That's not the bill in question...the GOP then decided the defendant in the case--the State of Idaho--was going to pay $100,000 to their legal team. The legislature whipped up a bill mandating the payment, both houses approved it and they sent it to Butch Otter for his almost certain signature. So...the state is too broke to afford education, too broke to afford poor people's medical bills, too poor to afford to fill in the potholes on US 95 up around Sandpoint, but they can afford to pay the Republicans a hundred large to close their primary. If the national Democratic Party can't figure out how to catalyze rage against the GOP with this bill, let me know and I'll send them written instructions on how to pour piss out of a boot.