The One About Why I Have A Big Fat Problem With The Republicants.

Every time I read a Republican responding to the various aspects of President Obama's stimulus plan, or his over all agenda I tend to start to get fighting mad. Now I'm not a reactionary person by and large and I like to know why I feel and think the way I do. Well today I finally put my finger on it. Every time I hear the Republicans carrying on I'm transported right back to my high school days.

Back when I was in high school I was involved in a fair number of extra curricular activities. Now as anyone familiar with American high school culture knows most of the after school time is taken up with sports. So a lot of non sports groups tend to meet during the school day. At the school I went to it had been standard that groups could meet once a week during a class time, provided that the faculty supervisor had a free period and the teacher you had during that period didn't have a problem with it. Most did, and most didn't. But at one point the administration decided that they were no longer going to allow any meetings to take place except for before school, during lunch and after school. Okay. Well before school wasn't terribly popular so it tended to be after school or during lunch. Most teachers were nice enough to excuse students with meetings a few minutes early to get their lunch and get to the appropriate classroom, and if you were a few minutes late to your next class most were understanding about that too.

Well a few months down the road and it was decided that except for sports and certain groups both morning and after school meetings were out. So lunch it was. Still doable. Then it was announced that teachers were not allowed to excuse students early to go to lunch under any circumstances. So then it became try to get out the door as fast as possible, get your lunch, and get to the room where the meeting was. Then a few more months go by and we move into a new building. Well then it got decreed that students were not allowed to eat any where but in the cafeteria. So now it was run to lunch, stuff food down your gullet and run to the meeting room for a meeting that usually had about five maybe ten minutes left before the next class, which you could not be late to because it was a mandatory un-excused tardy.

Every time we (and by we I'm meaning faculty as well as students) would ask the administration as to what we could and/or should do, they would sort of mumble and shuffle and tell us we'd figure something out.

Well that's pretty much what I feel the Republicans are doing. A lot of what Obama wants to try is pretty bold. Some of it has not been tried before. Do the Republicans have a list of clear counter suggestions? Nope not really. Most of their rhetoric seems to be about saying what they think shouldn't be done and very little of what they think should be done. Except for tax cuts of course. Especially for corporations. Can't forget those tax cuts. Some recent examples of the Republicans Can't Do spirit which has led me to label them Republicants include...

Debunking the Stimulus Myth: Only 3% Allotted for Road, Bridge Spending from the website Newsbusters. Wherein they carry on about Obama using the term infrastructure to mean more than just roads and bridges.

Conservatives ask if bailout is unconstitutional which is pretty much what the headline makes it sound like. Republicans and other conservatives questioning the constitutionality of the bailout now that one of their own is out of office and a member of the hated opposition is in the Whitehouse.

Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers Radio Address in which the Congresswoman makes a lot of nice sounding noises about standing with the American Taxpayer and wanting to work with our new President, but doesn't seem to have anything substantial to offer as a counter to Obama's plans.

What if it doesn't work? While this story does offer some pretty dire predictions, in the second page they also echo my sentiments about Obama doing something being better than doing nothing.

Bottom line this is why Obama got elected. Because people are sick and tired of the Republicants and their "stay the course" mentality. It would be different if the course were not leading over a precipice but it is. And I think that at this point people would rather see something bold attempted even if it's not perfect or even fails than the same nothing done which will most definitely lead to exactly the kind of ruin that some people are predicting from Obama's presidency.