How Can Anyone Vote for the GOP?

I guess in these days of instant information and instant connection, I shouldn’t be surprised by the Instant Gratification Generation that we all seem to be a part of, despite our age.  We are connected seemingly all the time to the internet and friends and lay bare our souls on Face Book or other social networks sites for all to see.  The problem with our need for instant gratification is that solutions to complex problems do not usually happen in an instant.  I think that cancer patients might be able to tell you that even though they are receiving therapy for their illness, results are not instantaneous.  That they don’t walk out of the infusion clinic or radiology feeling better all at once.  The process takes time.

Just recently, there was a poll asking people who they thought would do a better job with the economy, the Dems or the GOP?   Now I know that you can get any results you want from a survey, just by asking the questions in a way to influence the result and by targeting specific demographics to poll. For instance, if you ask who do you trust to cut taxes and save the economy, your results are going to favor the GOP. But if you asked it another way, such as who do you trust to manage the economy and make decisions that will benefit the majority of the people, not just the rich and corporate interests, your results would probably favor the Dems.

Survey design aside, the question is also about short and long term memory.  Short term memory concerns for the people who were polled and whether they remember that this current economic downturn began with the GOP in power, both in Congress and the White House.  Short term, do they not know that even though there has not been instant recovery, that we are in a much stronger economic position than we were before the current Congress and Administration took office?  My guess is that the need for instant gratification has made that memory exercise impossible.  

What amazes me is that people seem to not understand that by going back to a GOP lead Congress they are going back to the policies and practices that caused the collapse of the Economy and the BP Gulf oil mess.  That deregulation is BS, pure and simple.  That not watching and regulating industry is asking for the unethical to act unethically!  Remember the motto of some of the generation who came to age under Reagan…. It’s not cheating if you don’t get caught!  This is what deregulation is about.  Their goal is to maximize their profits without having to be responsible for being safe or for considering the impact of their actions on the rest of us.  So you get short cuts and cheating and oil in the Gulf and Banks that make bad loans and have to be bailed out and Eggs with Salmonella.  It’s the foxes running the henhouse!  But if your short term and longer term memory is working, you are aware of that.  Are you willing to go back to that crap!  I sure hope not.