Independents will decide

To the Editor

Independents Arise!

The presidential election in November will be decided, not by the Republican or Democrat “bases”, but by the vast independent electorate. They outnumber both parties.

The Independents are not likely to present a third party candidate so the decision will be between the Democrats and the Republicans. Fortunately the Independents are “independent” because they think for themselves and do not take marching orders from either parties “leaders”.

That is not to say independent voters are immune to right or left tendencies but that they can see beyond the party ideologies to the rational arguments presented.

It is unquestionable that the great financial debacle is the result of eight years of Republican deregulation, that allowed crony capitalism and corporate greed to run unchecked. Then throw in two mismanaged, off budget, wars, initiated as a knee-jerk response to 9/11, together with a massive tax cut, plus a ruinous pharmaceutical plan, endangering a solid Medicare program. At the same time attempting to privatize Social Security. The latter, just in time to be devastated by the stock market collapse if it had been enacted.

In the miasma of frustration over the housing crisis brought on by joblessness and the corruption of the mortgage market there was the sudden emergence of the ultraconservative Tea Party, like the seven year plague of locusts. To them, the only issue was their belated awareness that the national debt had become dangerously large.

The beguiled electorate, in an angry mood, turned on the struggling Administration and elected the arriviste. Their obsession with the debt precluded any program to ameliorate the joblessness problem. All they could consider was cuts to programs. This of course exacerbates joblessness.

The huge debt is definitely a problem to be dealt with. What is of greater priority however is restarting the economy by increasing jobs. Jobs put money in circulation that increase demand for goods and services. Small and large businesses require that demand. Not meaningless tax cuts.

Blaming Obama for failed policies is ludicrous. The Republican leadership, i.e. Boehner and McConnell. .have flatly stated that their goal has been to make Obama fail. They have worked diligently the past 3 ½ years for that at the great peril for our country’s well-being.

Independent voters can see all of this clearly and they will certainly not be persuaded to return the reins of government back to the party with such a self-serving and abysmal record.