Tunnel Vision

A friend shared a message being forwarded to others on Facebook, saying that the Supreme Court ruled that President Barack Obama broke Constitutional law by making appointments during three-day Congressional breaks, instead of waiting ten days.  Now, if the friend and the other Republicans sharing this message had watched the CBS Evening News the night of the ruling, they would know that President George W. Bush and President William J. Clinton broke the same law -- and that all three did it multiple times.  The exact number of times was shown in a visual.


Or would they?  A passing comment on air the other day indicated that if a president we like does something wrong, we tend to forgive them.  But if the president is from the other party, it is received with anger.


Whatever happened to our ability to think?  It's almost like we check our brains at the door with our coats when we join one or the other parties.  We turn over our common sense to politicians, a faction of the universe that has a history of being notorious liars.


Another comment recently made by a Republican was that the Republican Party has become a red necked party in the last few years.  Has it?  Well, I do know a number of red necks that say they are Republicans.  So how come the rich, white collar, business level Republicans are still running the party then?  The Republican Party of today is certainly not the party that holds the well being of the common man at heart.


How do I know this?


The Republican House of Representatives does not want to tax the rich very much.  At least they say they don't.


The Republican House of Representatives does not want to support Head Start and public schools as much as previously.


The Republican House of Representatives does not want the EPA at all, apparently, much less do they want them to control the air emissions of big industries.


The Republican House of Representatives wants to cut Social Security (chained CPI) and Medicare.  Why?  The rich can get along without it, and they don't care about the rest of us.


The Republican House of Representatives wants to eliminate the Affordable Care Act so health insurance companies can go back to gouging the public.


The Republican House of Representatives does not want to help the poor.   That would mean less assistance with medical expenses, heating fuels, and food.


The Republican House of Representatives likes the idea of collecting money to help rich farmers. 


The Republican House of Representatives doesn't want to pay America's bills, thus risking a bad credit rating.  Remember that they did not want to raise the debt ceiling to pay them?


But see, such is my point.  We affiliate ourselves with a party and don't always evaluate what they are doing.


For a red necked blue collar worker to be a Republican takes a lot of tunnel vision.


We need to know how our parties vote and make our decisions based on their votes, not what they say they will do.


Yes, I sometimes have a problem viewing my party without rose-colored glasses, too.  But I'm getting better at it.  In fact, I'm getting so good at it that a friend asked recently if I were sure I am a Democrat.  You see I differ with them on gun control, what causes global warming and a few other issues -- and I don't mind saying so.


We need to make our evaluations and place our votes on issues, not on Party Affiliation.  To do otherwise is a form of tunnel vision.