Today In Ohio, People Are Learning To Hate The Teabaggers

[ChoppinBroccoli]

As many already know, yesterday in Ohio, we had some primary elections along with some Issue and levy votes. I regret to inform you that Jennifer Brunner did not defeat Lee Fisher in the election to see who will beat the Toolbox Rob Portman in November, but she did make it closer than any of the polls suggested, and Lee Fisher will make a much better Senator than Portman or Voinovich (the guy whose seat he will be taking) ever hoped to be. Lee will make a nice team with our other Senator from Ohio, and my personal favorite Senator, Sherrod Brown.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. The real reason I'm writing this post is because, as ALWAYS happens around here, pretty much all the school levies, mental health levies, and police and fire levies went down to defeat last night. And now people are getting a real taste of what it's like to live in Teabagger Heaven. And they don't like it. When I went on Facebook this morning, the front page was littered with post upon post of people who are wondering how their children are going to get satisfactory educations when all their extracurricular programs are being cut, and how they're ever going to sleep soundly in their beds knowing that the police force and fire protection agencies will be laying off employees.

I've been taking the opportunity to commiserate with all of them, all the while pointing out that this is nothing more than a victory against SOCIALISM!!! Government-run schools, government-run law enforcement, government-run fire protection, government-run mental health facilities are all SOCIALISM, and therefore evil. I've been liberally using the phrase, "We've gone from a country that says, 'we're all in this together,' to one that says, 'what's in it for me?' Thank the Teabaggers," in pretty much all my posts. And the funny thing is, even these bed-wetting right-wingers are starting to come around to the fact that their little low taxes and small government mantras are actually coming back around to HURT themselves and their families.

I've said it many times, but it's always nice to see the theory in action: sometimes, you just have to let the child burn his hand before he'll ever believe that the stove is hot. There are a lot of right-wingers and teabaggers out there with burnt hands right now, and I'm just sitting back and saying, "Wow, that burn looks REALLY painful. I bet it hurts a lot, doesn't it?"

[JNelson6563]

1. It's really sad

how incredibly short sighted and ignorant so many of our fellow Americans are.

Julie

[raccoon]

5. I wonder if it's just that they don't think very hard? You'd think a person would know

if you cut taxes, you have to (1) make up the money some other way, or (2) cut services. But I wonder if many of them just don't think that hard. Like this:

<thought>"Cut my taxes!"</thought>

<thought>"No more taxes!"</thought>

[petronius]

19. They've all been fooled into believing that option #2 will only involve cutting

(imaginary) waste & fraud and/or services that they themselves don't currently use...

[dickthegrouch]

2. What a wonderful strategy

How can we take it National in October?

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

3. Interesting, I lived in Columbus for about 13-14 yrs. When is the mayoral election? nt

[raccoon]

4. Great post. nt

[jfkraus]

6. "What's the matter with Kansas"

A great book by Thomas Frank who decribes how the con-servatives convinced working class people to vote against their own interests. And how it's a self defeating tactic as the Teabaggers are finding.

[depakid]

7. So Brunner lost and that's theory in action?

:shrug:

[femrap]

15. She had no money....

therefore, no ads on TV which Fisher had a ton of. I don't particularly like him, but he's better than Portman.

Brunner is a true Progressive. The final was 55 to 45%.

Fisher had all that money from those little parties in DC...Reid had one for him.

I'm feeling that 'I don't have a Party' feeling again.

I wonder what she'll do next...I so wanted her to win. Very low turn out...as usual.

[quiet.american]

8. K&R nt

[kctim]

9. Sorry

But there is no way ANYBODY gets a "real taste" of anything overnight. The people you are talking to are all people who are upset about their stance on the issue being rejected and they are projecting their fears of what MAY happen because of that.
Nice try though.

[Cell Whitman]

10. "wherein to lodge their Pinocchio-sized noses until this adult task of raising taxes is finished"

from David Stockman the father of Reaganomics

http://www.csulb.edu/~astevens/posc210/files/stockman2.htm

"The Myth of Federal 'Overspending'"
By David Stockman
THE PHOENIX GAZETTE
March 10, 1993

President Bill Clinton's economic plan deserves heavy-duty criticism--particularly the $190 billion worth of new boondoggles through fiscal year 1998 that are euphemistically labeled "stimulus" and "investment" programs. But on one thing he has told the unvarnished truth. There is no way out of the elephantine budget deficits which have plagued the nation since 1981 without major tax increases.

In this regard, the full-throated, anti-tax cries emanating from the Republican Party (GOP) amount to no more than deceptive gibberish. Indeed, if Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and his playmates had the parental supervision they deserve, they would be sent to the nearest corner wherein to lodge their Pinocchio-sized noses until this adult task of raising taxes is finished. <...>

The root problem goes back to the July, 1981, frenzy of excessive and imprudent tax-cutting that shattered the nation's fiscal stability. A noisy faction of Republicans have willfully denied this giant mistake of fiscal governance, and their own culpability in it, ever since. Instead, they have incessantly poisoned the political debate with a mindless stream of anti-tax venom, while pretending that economic growth and spending cuts alone could cure the deficit.

It ought to be obvious enough by now that we can't grow our way out. To be sure, aversion to higher taxes is usually a necessary, healthy impulse in a political democracy. But when the alternative becomes as self-evidently threadbare and groundless as has the "growth" argument, we are no longer dealing with legitimate skepticism, but with what amounts to a demagogic fetish. Unfortunately, as a matter of hard-core political realism, the ritualized spending cut mantra of the GOP anti-taxers is equally vapid.
more...

[Enthusiast]

12. Because the Republicans never

actually cut spending-they only talk about it. And they only talk it to death when they are out of power.

[Enthusiast]

11. Good!

I'm happy to hear that some voters are getting the message. We can only hope this trend continues.

I was saddened to find that Jennifer Brunner did not win. I voted for her and sent what donations I could afford.

[babsbunny]

13. I'm here too ChoppinBroccoli

I voted for Brunner. She fought for every vote to be counted while Secretary of State, What a great American!!!

[dumpdabaggers]

14. The baggers are clearly fringers. Same folks who showed up at Palin rallies in 08.

NT

[dana_b]

16. I like that

"we're all in this together" v.s. "what's in it for me". That's how it feels. A lot of people are so seperated from each other and many really don't give a crap about what happens to their neighbor(s). Until they need help - then where will the people be who they dismissed??

[MadMaddie]

17. Thanks for reporting this

I think that this is going to happen all over the country before they get it....

When roads and highways are falling apart then maybe....

When bridges come tumbling down then maybe.....

When it takes police an hour to get to a call.....people will remember the poor neighborhoods complained of the same response time......no one listened because it didn't impact them.....

Reality is a bitch......

[Kablooie]

18. I wonder if they may be inspired by the people of Greece?

[pinboy3niner]

20. It's a shame that burning your hand is what it takes

to get good public policy. Too bad about Brunner, but that was expected.

I had a great time in OH in '04 as a kerrytraveler (from CA). I spent 2 months in Columbus, and the people there could not have been more friendly and welcoming. They even got me into the championship Buckeye game after the election, and converted me into a fan.

Thanks for your report, and for all the work you are doing.