When is a "conservative" not a Conservative?
Who can we trust with our money?
Seems to me that the Obama campaign could make some progress with older 65 and over voters with a clear and simple line of attack.
WE SIMPLY CANNOT AFFORD ANOTHER REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATION
They cannot be trusted with your money.
Since 1980 the National debt has increased by 10 Trillion Dollars
1.5 Trillion during the Democratic administration of Clinton/Gore vs 8.5 Trillion during the Republican Administrations of Reagan Bush and Bush
Clinton/Gore slowed the growth of debt to zero during their second term and had Al Gore taken the office to which he was elected it is reasonable to assume that he could have lowered the debt by refusing to give massive tax breaks to the corporations and the very wealthy. DO THE MATH and elect fiscally responsible Democrats who understand that a strong dollar and balanced budget puts the interests of the country above the personal financial gain of the very wealthy.
After several weeks of futility I have finally found an effective way to appeal to my parents and their friends and I have secured their votes for Barack Obama. This was amazingly simple and effective.
Democrats are known as the "Tax and Spend" liberals. You know those irresponsible big spenders who never saw an expensive big government program they did not like. Aren't the Republicans the Conservatives who cut taxes and pinch those pennies by reducing federal spending and the size of government? Isn't that what we've been told all our lives?
Then what is wrong with this picture?
THE INCREDIBLE ESCALATION OF OUR RECORD SETTING NATIONAL DEBT
If you're a Democrat trying to convince an older voter to support Democrats this fall there is nothing wrong with this picture. It has a profound effect on older voters who grew up knowing the effects of the great depression learning to make ends meet while never going into debt.
Do you know where the cost of carrying this obscene dept ranks in the Federal Budget?
It costs more to service the debt than the combined cost of every department and agency except Defense and Health and Human Services.
It's not that people are unaware that we have a rapidly increasing national debt - that is known on some level by most folks. It's just that the relative scope and size of that debt hasn't been imprinted on the consciousness of the electorate - neither has the relative culpability of the parties or the cost of debt service.
When older voters see these graphics they experience an epiphany. The graphic evidence is mind blowing because so many have been brainwashed or programmed to think that the Democrats are the big spenders and the Republicans are the fiscal conservatives. Most older voters hate and fear debt and the Republicans are the epitome of debt inducing big spenders.
If your older friends, parents, relatives, or church going acquaintances are anything like mine they will be shocked and amazed to see these graphs. My 90 year old father was so shocked he took a printed version to his Sertoma and Shriner's meetings this past week and really shook up a crowd of Republicans with this evidence.
Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush ran up more debt in 12 years than all of the previous Presidents combined. Bill Clinton and Al Gore flattened out that line in their second term and ended the growth in debt with the opportunity to reduce the debt and slash the cost until George W. "big spender" Bush out did both Reagan and his father by more than double in just over 7 years.
*WARNING - Make certain that older voters are sitting down before they view these graphs. Visual representation of the debt incurred by George W. Bush can cause dizziness and heart palpitations in some older fiscal conservatives.
Clinton and Gore actually shrunk the size of the federal government during their term but George W. Bush has created the third largest Department in the Federal Government with the massive, corrupt, and totally ineffective Gestapo of Homeland Security. DHS runs a second prison system at maximum inefficiency out spending the Department of InJustice that adds 1000 prisoners a month to the 2.3 million incarcerated Americans at a cost of $25,000 a year per prisoner. Homeland Security spend 1.5 million a year on personnel and maintenance plus 2.5 million on transportation, per diem and security to house 265 bin Laden drivers at Guantanamo for approx $40,000 each per year. I shudder to think what the cost of RENDITION and private midnight flights to torture chambers across the globe add to the bottom line.
Add to these outrageous costs the "savings" generated by Cheney's privatization of the quartermaster functions of the armed services with the fraud of Halliburtion/KBR and the cost of Blackwater and it's easy to see how W could actually run up a debt like this while electrocuting some of our brave fighting men and maiming thousands in under-armored HumVee's.
A Trillion here and a Trillion there and pretty soon it adds up to real money to turn American into a police state where nobody is safe from dog shooting laptop seizing storm troopers and SWAT teams. Reagan and Bush 1 took us from less than a trillion to 4.3 Trillion in 12 years. Clinton/Gore cut the rate of increase to only 1.4 Trillion in their 8 years and had flattened the curve from 1995 through 1998. W however is amazing. He has added over 5 trillion to the debt in less than 7 years with a Republican Congress while trashing the economy at the same time. It takes real talent to run up that kind of debt without inducing economic growth. Dick Cheney is a huge asset to W in his quest to break the national bank. He wrote the bill that privatized the quartermaster function of the armed services and then went on to preside over Halliburton proving that a private company could actually cost far more than a government run agency. Of course the government couldn't move their offices off shore to tax havens in the Caymans or run their operations from Dubai to avoid paying taxes on the profits from their no bid contracts. The devious genius of this rape and robbery of the national treasury while in office is astounding. No wonder he spends his life in an undisclosed location - deep underground in a fortified bunker filled with $68.00 cases of canned soda and $100 a bag laundry with electrified shower stalls.
SCOTUS, K. Harris, Jeb and W really stuck it to us when they combined to deny Al Gore the office to which he was duly elected. Many folks have no true idea what that means in the historical fiscal sense. But now it seems I've stumbled upon a way to reach my parents and their older friends and I'm passing it along to you interested to know if you will find it useful as I did.
Bill Clinton and Al Gore did a very good job of informing the nation about the high cost of debt and the benefit to all of reducing that debt and strengthening the dollar. A stronger dollar would lower the cost of imported oil for instance. But that case is not being made effectively at this time and it could be key to swinging older more conservative voters who are staunch supporters of fiscal responsibility. The Obama camp should not cede the high ground on balancing the budget given the record of recent history.
I don't know how the Obama campaign can make use of this graphic data with the older voters who seem to be leaning toward McCain. The programming of the Rightwing meme-machine has them thinking that "Tax and Spend" is the Democrat disease. Older fiscal conservatives think spending without the income to pay for it is irresponsible. They understand the cost of carrying debt and most refused to do that in their personal finances. They reject the idea of it in public financing as well. It's an old fashioned idea that resonates with older voters.
All I can say is that I'm amazed how well it worked with my elder parents and their circle of conservative friends here in East Tennessee. I have the feeling that most older voters are only vaguely aware of the recent history of the national debt and the impact it has on the budget. When they saw this graphic information it had a surprisingly strong impact. McCain=Bush=Hoover and an impending fiscal disaster of epic "great depression" proportions. These older voters started life with depression fresh in their minds. They don't want anything to do with it a second time and the possibility is all too real. See if this will work for you as well as it did for me.
It is quite simple and clear for responsible senior citizens. Debts must be paid and the cost of carrying debt is unacceptable. That makes the Republicans unacceptable. Debt is not an abstract thing to survivors of the great depression.
BREAKING NEWS:
Chinese Commu-capitalists took over control of the USA without firing a single shot. W and his neocon friends made it possible by allowing them to beat us at our own game. No need to bomb us when all they had to do was own us. How strange it is to realize that we may end up nationalizing everything the Chinese own on our soil. W took us from being the strongest most powerful nation on earth to our current status as greatest debtors in the world in 8 short years. It seems that proud older voters of the greatest generation may be vulnerable to the fiscal responsibility line of approach from the Democrats.
