Along
with the appointed experts on the election last week, I thought I might add my
non-expert observations of last week’s elections. It seems that except in the
case of our wonderful new Governor, voters rejected the Democratic party almost
across the board. That is, we rejected the party responsible for 65 straight
months of economic growth, a record 56 months of consecutive private sector job
growth, unemployment falling from 10.1% to 5.8%, (after losing nearly 800,000
jobs a month when Bush left office, the country is now adding a minimum of
200,000 jobs per month) the budget deficit reduced by two-thirds, and almost
daily records in the stock market. Corporate profits are at record highs and
the U.S. gross national product growth is now among the best in the world.
The
dollar is at its strongest levels in years, gasoline prices are falling,
there’s no inflation, interest rates are the lowest in 30 years, U.S. oil
imports are declining, U.S. oil production is rapidly increasing, and the
wealthy, as opposed to most of the rest of us, are still making astonishing
amounts of money.
So,
in summary, Americans voted for the party that got us into the mess that Obama
just dug us out of. And we, the people, rewarded the party who, last time they
held the White House, gave us an almost total world economic collapse, the
worst terrorist attack in history, the two longest wars in US history, the
worst record of job creation since Herbert Hoover, a complete collapse of the
stock market and a budget SURPLUS that they turned into a trillion dollar
annual deficit.
And
in the absence of any actual reasons that republicans have to explain these
incredible accomplishments by President Obama, the best they can do is hope
that it is a bubble, so somehow, someway, their economic theories of
trickle-down economics that have thus far only had disastrous results, will
finally prove to help us. I also hear some people think Ryan Howard is going to
turn it around next year. Well actually, their economic theories do benefit one
group - the upper 1% who bankroll their favorite republican politicians through
dark money, to the surprise of no one, as the Daily Local exposed last week.
And
if we had any doubt as to the continuing lurch to the extreme right, it was
confirmed by the ouster of a “moderate” (by republican standards anyway) Dom
Pileggi from his Senate leadership. Elections have consequences, indeed. I was
encouraged at least to see in Michael Rellahan’s excellent interview with Ryan
Costello this past week that he pledges to be non-partisan and listen carefully
to his constituents to hear all our concerns regardless of party affiliation. I
hope this is a promise he can keep despite the pressures he will be under from
his far-right party leaders these next two years.
I
wake up every morning grateful that Barack Obama is in the White House so that
the extreme right doesn’t continue to try to eviscerate our environment, ruin
our economy and get us back into multiple wars. And I am also grateful that so
many thousands of moderate Chester County voters have switched to the
Democratic Party and gave a majority of their votes to Tom Wolf, whom Corbett
has left with a $2 billion deficit and our ability to borrow completely maxed
out. This after Corbett, according to the state 2011 fiscal year financial
statement, entered office with a $1 billion surplus, There is still a long way
to go to get more competitive balance in the more local elections, but at a
state level, we are clearly headed in the right direction with Tom Wolf, and for
that, I am most thankful of all.
Jamie
McVickar
West
Vincent Township
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