Fired up ready to go

Just when you think it can’t get any worse.

That pretty much summed up Tuesday’s election disaster, and, in fact, disaster may by be a better description; at least for the country and Michigan. I guess lies and big money from foreign companies and governments does trump the facts, truth and hard work. It proves that you don’t have to talk to the press, you don’t have to talk to the voters and you don’t have to defend your positions in a debate to win an election.

It appears that expensive 30-second TV ads are the way to campaign, and only the super-rich can expect to get elected. My current hometown newspaper ran a story that says people are fed up with negative campaign ads.

What pure BS. Then how do you explain a career politician like Bill Schuette winning as Michigan Attorney General on a platform of being tough on crime when he has never, ever prosecuted a criminal case? He attacked the man who actually successfully prosecuted a criminal case as being soft on crime with the most disgusting and false ads I have ever seen.

I have no logical explanation for the Democrats loss, both at the state and national level. The only bright spot is that the people still have control of the U.S. Senate. It’s frustrating that after cleaning up the Bush mess that they give control back to the very people who created the mess and didn’t lift a finger to help clean it up, but like my boss told me, politics is like a pendulum. It will swing back in 2012.

The other good news, actually more satisfying to me, is the victory of U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, over teabagger Republican Rob Steele by double digits. It’s nice to see that an arrogant, dishonest and out of touch guy like Steele is the one retired, at least from politics. Tell me again, Mr. Steele, who is going to retire Congressman Dingell?

One solace is that I know that if this country can survive eight years of Bush it can survive two years of Republican control of the U.S. and Michigan House. I just hope there is a middle class left because that’s what this election is about.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce pumped millions and millions of dollars of unregulated and untraceable cash into Republican coffers that most likely came from foreign companies and governments. The chamber refused to tell the American people where it came from; telling us to just truest them. I’m sure lots of the money came from companies and governments where American jobs are being outsourced and going to Republicans who support outsourcing.

President Obama has lifted the country of the longest and deepest recession since the Great Depression, and I just hope we can keep up the momentum. Jobs usually lag a recovery, and Michigan always lags behind that; that is until the current Governor finally made some progress on diversifying the economy.

The hiring should begin for the corporations that are sitting on record profits. They spent a lot of money getting the election results they wanted. The only problem is that most of the hiring may go on outside of the U.S. where wages are low, and the hiring here will most likely be low wage jobs. But most of the hiring will go on where the wages are the lowest and there are no bothersome safety regulations with the support of Republicans.

I hope I am wrong, and that we will see the kind of economy we had under President Clinton. The biggest hurdle to that is that the Republican strategy of trying to block all progress and blocking everything Democrats tried to do worked, and I see more of the same; at least on a national level.

In Washington, we will get what Republicans promised; going after Obama at any cost; just like in the 1990s against Clinton. That witch-hunt cost millions of taxpayer dollars. We will also see countless, useless and expensive politically motivated investigations on things like the President’s birth certificate instead of the safety of our food supply. How do we know these things; because that’s what Republicans said they will do.

Here in Lansing I’m anxious to see how they plan on balancing the budget on the backs of state workers after they again cut taxes for business.

I wasted a lot of shoe leather on this election, but I would do it all again and more. I’m fired up and ready to go in 20012. In the meantime, I will keep a close eye on the Republicans.

I spent most of my adult life defending this country, and I’m not going to stop now when it’s in the most peril it has been in for sometime. I’m just not wearing a uniform to defend it. The fight starts today.