I am a little puzzled here. The main thing I seem to hear from the original poster is a great deal of ultra conservative rhetoric. It is exactly the same rhetoric that we have all heard from generations of ultra conservatives.
Historically Republicans tend to run on anti-taxation platforms. Yet, the two most respected members of that Party namely Ronald Reagan and Georege H.W. Bush were involved and a major part of the largest tax increases in United States History. Ronald Wilson Reagan was also in office and responsible for the largest tax hikes in the history of the State of California after he became Governor of that State. This would kind of tend to indicate that the rule at least under these two revered examples of conservatism was say one thing to get elected and then do something else after the people said "we trust you".
George W. Bush was an insult to every ideal of the Republican Party. Under George W. Bush a program came into being called "No Child Left Behind". He came up with it, he talked about it, it was passed, and many school districts still have never seen funding from that program because it seems that this much touted and talked about program never has really done much of anything.
The ever conservative Republican party under the effervescent leadership of Daryl Issa started a smear and removal campaign to remove Democratic Governor Gray Davis from office in the State of California before he was even elected. The paperwork to remove Gray Davis was filed the same day he took office. He had not even had a chance to screw up the job.
They bankrolled Arnold Swarzenegger into that position. Swarzenegger, a bright man, but not knowing that he had been a "sacrificial lamb" took office and followed the ideals of his party. California DMV offices designed for a staff of 60 people under repeated budget cuts were cut to a staff of less than 20 people. To renew a Drivers License in some California DMV offices can require sitting in a chair for as many as 5-8 hours. School budgets were cut to the point that teachers were buying classroom supplies out of their own pockets. Teachers having gone many years without a pay raise have left California Schools in large numbers simply because they can no longer put food on the table for their own families.
It is true that public schools can no longer in many cases compete with private schooling. The reason for this is that there is simply no money going to these institutions of learning. The teachers working in private schools in fact tend to have lower educational requirements than those in public schools, but, they have greater success because they have the equipment.
Websters Dictionary has some very interesting definitions of the words "Conservative" and "Liberal". The word "liberal" has been completely demonized by the extreme right and extreme conservatives. It's actual definition is far different from what has been done to it by political causes out to feather their own nests.
There was a time that the Republican Party stood for good things with a different viewpoint.
The sad truth is that the Republican Party has been "bought and paid for" by Corporate America and has become a rubber stamp for everything that Corporations and Individuals of vast wealth want. We now for a second time in United States History have the poor and middle class supporting the ultra wealthy in the style of life in which they want to continue to live. We tighten our belts again and again, they could care less, and the lies become more and more blatant.
The saddest fact is that many who support the current Republican ideals do not realize that in so doing they are heavily damaging themselves. Under Republican and past financial guidelines the laws that protected all of us were totally undermined by those who stood to profit from their modification into nothing or their elimination completely.
After the 1929 Crash and resulting economic disaster which spread world wide, laws were enacted to prevent runaway Corporations and "Robber Barons" from doing what they wanted at the expense of the American People. It took over 60 years for the erosion of the laws and another twenty to place us back exactly in the same place again. The difference is that this time good or bad the stinking corporate welfare as bad as it is has slowed or prevented the complete crash that we had 80 years ago.
Right now oil costs per barrel are plummeting to lower and lower costs. Have you noticed the increases in motor fuel costs over the past few weeks? Oil Companies are just one of the industries that needs to come under heavy Government Regulation.
If we cannot trust a Corporation to be honest and police itself we have not alternative but to have Government or some equivalent legal force step in and say. You cannot gouge the American People and get away with it because somebody will speak up and defend the American People against abuses. The same is true for banking and many other industries which have screwed the American Consumer into the ground.
To complicate all of this we now have former 3rd world countries emerging as huge economic powers simply because Americans can no longer afford to purchase the goods we make here. Our industrial giants then take production of our consumer goods away from American workers and place it with less qualified foreign workers. The jobs are lost and the Americans in the short sighted glory of corporate wisdom can no longer afford to buy the goods they make. As the markets dwindle from this thinking we now have Corporations bought out by foreign concerns and this short sighted thinking is happening world wide.
A few examples:
Jaguar of England: Sold to Ford Motor Company of the United States then sold to TATA of India.
Rolls Royce of England: Sold to BMW of Bavaria.
Bentley of England: Sold to Volkswagen of Germany
Ferrari of Italy: Sold to Fiat
Saab of Sweden: GM bit off more than they could chew and folded the company.
Hummer: GM bought and literally hounded AM General to buy the product. They wanted the military contracts. GM then cheapened the military versions, refused to update the powertrains in corporate blunder and only well heeled rich children bought the luxurious H1. They created the H2 based on a 1/2 ton truck chassis and invented one of the worst gas guzzlers in history. GM in a typical GM move ran the company into the ground by building gas guzzling SUV's until the genius H3. Until the H3 they built things people did not want and ran it into the ground and folded it.
It doesn't stop there. How many remember the Zenith Television Set? Zenith was started in Chicago Illinois in the early years of the 20th century. By the 1960's the were the largest selling television in the U.S. They are now owned by LG of Korea and are marketed as LG's cheapie entry level product. RCA is now made in Mexico and is foreign owned.
The American People have been fed a great deal of false information for decades. The ultimate successes of SONY is but one example. Before the advent of plasma, LCD and LED televisions we had CRT based sets. SONY made many good portables, but when they went to consoles they made total crap and then did not support the sets. The 26" SONY CRT based televisions used a 19" chassis and boosted the voltage to the focus coils to make a 19 inch chassis work on a 26" picture tube. It did work until it blew the flyback transformer again and again.
What we need are people in office with balls who will tell Chrysler, GM, and Ford that you can't build trucks in Mexico with Cheap labor because we are going to tax every vehicle you bring in this way.
Welfare and Social programs are an example of the failures not of party but of corporate greed gone unchecked. If people had jobs available with medical coverage and the rest this would all be a mute point.
Given the results of the past forty years of conservative dominance and the results it has brought us, I am sad to say that in all honesty I have to give the other guys a chance and see what they can do.
It was not always this way, but right now what we have is Democrat equals change good or bad and Republican seems to equal Roadblock to anything in any direction unless it is creating more wealth for the top 5% of U.S. incomes.
Americans have historically been the most giving nation worldwide and this is something of which we can be proud. We have historically helped others unable to fight for themselves. However for the most part this has come through the American People NOT through the American Corporation.
Under current Corporate Ideals the ONLY interest in the world is profit and grab the gold while you can get it. When Bob Nardelli was first fired from Home Depot as CEO he was given a huge milti-million dollar severance package just before he was hired to become CEO of the American Portion of Daimler-Chrysler which he also made a mess of. Mr. Nardelli was again given a huge severance package to say goodbye from Chrysler. Nardelli, not a "gear head" after leaving financial disaster at Home Depot then started stripping the good out of Chrysler. Nardelli was the one who really placed Chrysler in heavy red ink. This must be a really philanthropic guy.
As much as the concept of corporations funding social programs sounds interesting the problem is that there is no manner in which it can be done, policed, regulated and watched to prevent worthless CEO's from profiting or trying to turn a profit from a charity.
With regards to a certain software executive I can not imagine how efficient a corporate charity would be if it operated as well as Windows Vista.
