Well, they are at it again. This morning on Meet The Press the Newt sang the praises of Mitt Romney only a few short months after he profiled him as "the devil incarnate" and unfit to run the country. There is no better time than during a presidential campaign to chant "An honest politician is an oxymoron."
I don't care whether it is on the Democratic or Republican side. They are all willows in the wind when it comes to backing up former claims or accusations if it is detrimental to the party. Meanwhile us folks out here in Regular Citizen Land are bombarded with veerrry expensive ad campaigns, robo calls and lots of plain, unmitigated BS.
Where are the statements like, "I don't have the sole power, but if elected President I will strive to do the following things with Congress. Here is my plan." Then lay out actual steps that make sense. Not empty aspirations or policies that have been put through the wringer so many times they are tattered and the colors have faded. How about some real world stuff? Things that can ACTUALLY be done? Real solutions agreed to by both sides.
And all of that money being spent by not only official campaigns but Super Pacs. The Super Pacs will spend so much with no hard restrictions about vetting information or how skewed or nasty it can become. Sort of like the buying of public office. Millions struggle to survive while billions are spent on hogwash and hurling dirt. Did you ever stop to think that a portion of those billions is taxpayer money? Dollars scraped out to try to elect someone who will have the ability to live up to their broad promises.
I for one am sick of it. I don't know a lot about Bain Capital and probably should do some research. What I do know is what can happen when a conglomerate acquires a company, raids its assets and then throws the employees and independent contractors to the wind. That happened to me several years ago.
I had a great job with a commercial lighting manufacturer. Then it was bought by a conglomerate. Overnight I was transitioned to straight commission/independent contractor status, but that seemed okay. They said they would pay me a guaranteed base against commissions so I could survive and stay on. However, now I was paying my own expenses including travel for business and insurance, etc.
For the next several months it went on that way. I was exceeding my draw so it seemed okay until with no prior notice the letter went out that the 27-year-old, $25 Million a year company was closing due to bankruptcy. They had been drained. The assets and goodwill were sold to a major company and every independent rep and many more were screwed. I lost more than $10,000 in commissions due me plus the charges for expenses on my credit cards. In case you don't know it, independent contractors are at the end of the line when it comes to bankruptcy settlements. They rarely recover anything and I was no exception.
Let's look at reality. We've spent trillions on wars during the years since 911, our infrastructure is crumbling in many places and rebuilding it definitely would result in jobs, many wealthy investors have made big bucks while the unsavvy, small investors have lost their shirts, the internet has streamlined many areas where independent businesses formerly thrived and those businesses have crashed along with their employees, automation has stolen more jobs that will never come back and that's just part of the big picture.
We can't blame one person, one party or one targeted "villain". This is big and it takes recognition of the multilayered situations that have created this toxic environment. If parties work together, there's a good chance we can pull out of it, although it will be slow work. It didn't happen overnight. If the cat fights and finger-pointing continue, well, folks, then it's anyone's ballgame!
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