The Republicans I know want smaller government, less taxes, and a greater say in how they live their own lives. The religious ones also want to force a woman to stand by her own choice, when she has unprotected sex. If she happens to get pregnant, they want her to be legally forced to have her unwanted baby, should it naturally come to full term. Many of the non-religious Republican voters that I know also want no gun control. Somehow, they think that they are voting for their own self-interests when they cast that vote for the party of the corporate oligarchy. They think that because many of the poor, uneducated, unemployed, and unemployable people are living off the backs of the taxpayer, that this is an unnecessary burden upon the USA taxable wage earners. Yet, our continental and overseas military infrastructure of over 700 military installations, which costs more than the entire rest of the world spends on defense, annually, is an absolute necessity to my Republican friends. We have to protect our overseas corporate interests, afterall. Maybe, if we reduced the size of our military empire, pulled out of the third world, and let them live their lives in peace (and be as backwards towards technical advances as they want to be), then they would not find a need to become terrorists, which is about the only way they can possibly fight against an empire as powerful as the USA.

Maybe, as about 22% (gov't admits to 9.6%) of us are still looking for a decent paying job, that will keep us alive, while paying what we owe in rent, mortgage, transportation costs, food costs, energy costs, health-care, auto, life and property insurances and many, many other expenses besides what could be called entertainment costs, not to mention taxes, some of those Republicans will change their miniscule viewpoints and look at the bigger picture. It is us against them. Not Republicans against Democrats, though. Both parties are equally to blame for the downfall of the American middleclass lifestyle. Clinton did sign NAFTA, did he not? (After Bush I wrote it up.) And wasn't the Glass-Spiegel Act repealed on his watch, too?

The conflict is really the people against the corporate infrastructure. Whose side is the government on? Why are so many of us Americans currently unemployed? Because the corporations sent all our jobs overseas, so they can make a better profit margin. Who allowed the corporations to outsource all our jobs? The government did. Why did the government ignore what is in the best interests of the people? The lobbyists paid them to.

How do we fix it?............................................................Good Freekin' Question

Doug

This is something I have been preaching for over a year. I watched the President try to compromise with the GOP and thought he might have a good idea. I was willing to see if his way was good.

What I saw was disasterous. Everything points to the fact that the Republicans don't respect him, don't like, and want to dump him. It is in his own best political interest to toughen up. But it is also in the best interest of the country for him to go out there and give them h...L. He seems to feel that somehow they will compromise and work with him if he only waits long enough.

Wrong!!!

I felt the tenor of his leadership when Joe Barton made a fool of him at a joint session of Congress. It felt like a nation waiting to see the reaction ( as a class waits to see the teacher's reaction when a student tests the teacher) and what we got was nothing. He is now giving the impression that he is empty suit.

As far as getting the message out...he needs to learn to speak the audience's language and talk the level of 8th graders. Anything more elegant gets past this audience of high school dropouts.

Sink or Swim....but the problem is that we are all in the same boat.