Thursday, August 23, 2012

Economic Forecast

Mitt Romney and the Republicans thought that if they campaigned on the weak economy and the high unemployment rate, they would win the election. And the odds favor them on that score; it’s been a long time since a president got re-elected when the rate was over 7%.

They also thought that by putting Paul Ryan, the hunky guru of the Republican budget, on the ticket they could make the case for their vision of lower taxes for the rich — who deserve it because they do so much for the rest of us — and force the middle class to really get to work and earn all those entitlements: no free lunch for you people.

But it was not to be. All the liberal media wants to talk about are the slutty women and their lies about rape or the queers and their ideas of marriage equality so they can do icky things and get a tax deduction for their sweaty perversions. They’re the ones who are making the GOP talk about turning a one-celled organism into a person; they’re the ones who are making them write the party platform that makes a condom an assault weapon; they’re the ones who are turning all of the attention away from how terrible things are in swing states like Florida, and even they are conspiring against them by doing better.

The Republicans have no one to blame but themselves (by which they mean Barack Obama). In 2010 they ran on a platform of jobs-jobs-jobs, and a lot of people voted for them because they thought, “Hey, they got us into this mess; maybe now they’re serious about getting us out of it.” But when they won, we found out that what they really wanted was to repeal healthcare, ban abortions, marginalize the gays, deport the immigrants (only the brown ones), and restrict voting to those who only deserved it. And who can blame them? What’s more fun: listening to economists drone on about interest rates and sequestration, or going after civil rights of people? Hey, come on, that’s a trick question. Talking about the economy is the stuff of C-SPAN at 2 a.m. Civil rights brings back images of demonstrations in the street, cops using fire hoses, and speeches on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

This is America, the sex-obsessed land of Jersey Shore and the Kardashians; where you can turn even the most boring topic — healthcare reform — into something for TMZ if you can get to the sex angle: contraception for single women Georgetown law school students, and gay marriage brings forth visions of cute guys prancing around in their Speedos.

No wonder the economy line isn’t selling.