The GOP is broken...and the Democrats are missing out.

Leadership. Its a word that's bandied about in various walks of life. Its something that is completely and utterly lacking in too many facets of life. Our current president has lacked it, as have the leadership in the House and Senate both under Republican and Democratic leadership.

The GOP however, are broken. The Democrats are a joke to a large degree, but the Republican party which is completely beholden to Grover Norquist's "we can't raise taxes at any cost" mantra are broken.

Did you read about the GOP's suggestion on how to raise revenue? It can't be taxes, we'll sell some gov't land. What? Seriously? This is the same joke that states with "balanced budget amendments" (like Illinois) have been doing for years.

We don't want to raise taxes, so we'll sell something that is finite. Brilliant.

People can disagree on how to cut the deficit. Its fine to compromise, but the GOP refusal to allow taxes to be raised, at least to pre-Bush tax cut level is moronic. (Oh, and to the point of lack of leadership Obama's caving on extending the Bush tax cuts is but one of many examples.)

You cannot cut spending out of this. Let me put it this way, you would have to cut EVERYTHING THAT IS NOT MEDICARE, SOCIAL SECURITY AND DEBT PAYMENTS out of the budget to balance it. EVERYTHING.

I'm not saying cuts don't need to be made, they do. I'm not saying tough decisions don't have to be made, they of course do. I'm not saying I'll be happy with where some of the cuts come from, I won't. But tax increases (which are actually closer to a normalization to the pre-Bush era) have to be part of this. And serious tax law changes must happen so that hedge fund managers cannot pay less % in taxes than a doctor or engineer.

If the GOP wants to seriously contend for the presidency and have any sort of legitimacy not built on fear and hatred then moderate party members must stand up and speak out. Currently we have a GOP that is controlled by the moderately far right and the really far right (just stopping short of the extreme far right). This hatred of all things "tax" related while they were happily spending away during the Bush years MUST END. Oh, and yeah, it'd be nice if the President had stood up on that issue when the Bush tax cuts came up for extension last year. See, I'm not just one sided on this.

The GOP desperately needs some members who can still stand for traditional Republican values without being borderline crazy. I'd prefer to have an option to vote for besides Democrat or no one.

Democracy

I had a blog all written on the "myth of democracy." A scathing look at the joke much of our political system is. I didn't post it. Is it that I don't believe our system is terribly flawed? No, I think it is. It's just that, while so many things about our country frustrate me to no end, I look around the world and am thankful I live here.

Our election process is laughable. We elect people, but nothing much changes, not usually. (Thanks for NOTHING Democratic congress.) However, we're not Kenya, where people are getting killed over the possibly rigged election. (You though 2000 was bad here, we weren't killing each other!) We're not Pakistan where homegrown terror groups just killed off a main politician in Benazir Bhutto.

We're not Fiji, where the army took over and tourism and sugar production have dropped severely since. We're not Sudan, where the government tacitly supports genocide by not doing anything to stop it. Or Somalia, where there is no government.

What I'm saying is that I'm thankful to be an American. I'm not a great patriot. I'm frequently sickened and embaressed by my nation. But I love my country and want good things for it and ALL who live here. I can only pray that as this ugly campaign season takes off I won't let it cloud my eyes. I criticize because I love. I vote because I can't complain if I don't. And I can pray for true change.