Some political thoughts

I have never claimed to be a deep political thinker. I have some friends who are really smart and have spent their lives thinking about politics, nation-building and economics, among other things-and that's not me. But I'm still baffled and horrified by what's happened to the Republican Party. I've been a Democrat all my life and I always knew where I stood with the Republicans-I spent a lot of time during the Reagan years arguing with Republicans. They wanted smaller government and for everyone to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. I always believed that people less fortunate than myself could use some help and it should come from the government because it was clear the private sector just wanted to make money, not pay taxes on it and certainly not help the poor. They didn't care what you did and with whom-especially if you were rich-that gave you a pass to do whatever you wanted (that's still true today-and it always will be). They didn't care about other countries (unless they were Communists, in which case they needed to be destroyed). So I don't know who is more horrified over what's happened to the Republican Party-the old guard Republicans or me. These people in office, as Stephen Colbert said "Don't want to tell you how to live your lives, except who you can marry and who you can have sex with". The religious right has taken over the party and it's frightening. On the other hand, the Democrats have just rolled over and shown their collective bellies to the Republicans and I can't figure out if it's because they don't have a strong leader (which they don't, although Hillary Clinton could do it-and I hope she stays in Congress and does not run for President-as a friend said "She's got the makings of a great Parliamentarian" and we both hope she stays in Congress) or they just don't know what they're doing. They don't want to take a stand against the war, they don't want to take a stand against the President, they don't want to take a stand on anything and in the meantime have compromised all the things for which I thought Democrats stood. It's very disenheartening, except that Lamont beat Lieberman last night-I hope that sends a message out to the party about what (at least some of us) Democrats want from their elected representatives.

The next post will be about what I like to watch on TV.