Republicans Attempt Party Suicide

It looks like the Republicans aren't happy with just being trounced in the last election. It's not bad enough that in New England, the birthplace of the Republican Party, they don't have a single representative left in the U.S. House of Representatives. They're not content with traditionally Republican states voting Democratic in the last election. It seems that they're determined to do even worse in the 2010 elections, and perhaps destroy the viability of their party altogether.

That's what I have to think after watching their actions in Congress this past week. When the economy is good and most voters are doing well, people can be fooled into voting against their own interests with such fringe issues as flag burning, the "gay agenda", prayer in school, creationism, "reverse" discrimination, women-bashing and union-blaming. But this is not a good economy, and most voters are hurting too much to worry about anything except the economy.

Our economy is tanking badly, and about two million jobs have disappeared in the last year or so due to Republican policies started in the Reagan era and carried forward by the two Bush presidencies. Last week, in an attempt to do some "union-busting", the congressional Republicans voted to block a bailout to the auto industry.

Many of the same Republicans who voted to give $700 billion to their buddies in the financial sector, couldn't see their way to finding even $15 billion for the auto industry. It doesn't seem to matter to them that an auto industry failure could negatively effect our economy in a massive way, and probably push a bad recession into a horrible depression.

"If there were just a 50 percent contraction in the auto industry, nearly 2.5 million jobs would be lost in the first year, resulting in $125 billion less in personal income before a partial rebound in later years, according to the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich. State and federal coffers would lose $50 billion from lost tax dollars, the center said." And we're not just talking about the auto industry here.

If General Motors and Chrysler (and possibly even Ford) were to go out of business, the economic shock waves would reverberate througout the country. Many other companies and small businesses would go out of business and millions of jobs would be lost. And it would be years longer before the economy could recover.

Do they think the voters will forget that it was the Republicans that did it? They are already viwed by the American people as not as economically capable as Democrats. Will destroying another 2-3 million jobs change the voters' minds? I seriously doubt it, and if any voters do forget, I'm sure the Democrats will be happy to remind them.

Frankly, I have to wonder about the sanity of that vote to kill the auto companies. It seemed like an effort to commit party suicide. But it looks like the same president who helped to destroy the economy, and who Republicans spent the campaign running away from, will probably now act to prevent the suicide attempt by Republicans. George Bush is now saying he'll find the money to keep the auto companies afloat until a new Congress can be seated.

The 2010 election will be little more than a referendum on economic policy. If the Republican Party survives it, they can thank George Bush. How ironic!