I've made an important decision that I'd like to share with you all. No longer will I refer to the morally bankrupt hypocritical obstructionists on the right as the GOP, the Republican party, the religious right, or the Teabaggers (OK, I'll still use THAT one).
I've given the whole lot of them a new name -- The Boat Anchor Party.
You may wonder why I chose to tarnish the image of a poor, defenseless boat anchor, something that reliably does its job, by associating it with the morons on the right. Well, let me give you some insight. I liken the regressive right to a boat anchor tied to the ankles of the country, keeping it from doing anything but barely keeping its head above water, if that. Urban Dictionary offers up an amusing definition of the term "boat anchor" that fits:
One who exhibits or demonstrates a complete absence of intelligence or usefulness, and who would probably be best utilized by being dropped to the bottom of some body of water to hold a boat in place.
Example: That guy that works in Marketing is a complete boat anchor, or in this case:
That Teabagger in Congress is a complete boat anchor.
For those of you into performance cars, the term "Boat Anchor" is used to denote a worthless (read: terrible performance) motor. e.g. the Cadillac 472, Dodge 318 or Chevy 305.
A boat anchor could be considered a big hunk of worthless metal to some but the members of the boat anchor party are a big hunk of worthless crap to us all. The evidence is clear.
The war on women is meant to take us back to the days of yore where women couldn't vote and were treated as second class citizens. Women are still victims of sexism in many ways and the notion that we've moved beyond sexism is almost as nonsensical as the notion that we've moved beyond racism.
The attempts to shame women who choose to have an abortion, a procedure I feel the need to remind them is legal under the law, is akin to taking us back to the days of Puritans and Quakers. I fully expect to see legislation introduced soon to require women who have abortions to be branded like cattle, courtesy of a red hot brand, with a scarlet letter on their foreheads. It's ALL about the Bible, ALL the time.
On the Federal level and as a voting bloc, religious wackjob extremists like Rick Santorum are in the minority, thankfully! At the state legislative level, it's an entirely different story. Since they've had some trouble taking over the ENTIRE Congress and the White House, they've shifted their focus to the state level. In a sweeping, effective and coordinated attack, they've managed to take over quite a few state legislatures and governor's seats. The American Legislative Exchange Council (also known as ALEC, a Koch Brothers funded right wing legislation-writing machine) is force-feeding new legislation to state legislatures along with campaign donations and a request for signatures. Their primary goal is to inject the religious and/or ideological beliefs of the boat anchor party into our government and, by extension, our lives. They're desperately trying to roll the clock back a few decades on women's health care and reproductive rights, among other things. In the words of Dana's Carvey's Church Lady character on SNL, "isn't that special?"
Only 34% of the country would like to see President Obama's Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) repealed, not anywhere CLOSE to a majority. When did majorities become irrelevant? When petulant boat anchor brats don't get their way, that's when! Of course, leave it to twenty five boat anchored states to file a lawsuit against the health care insurance mandate. Only when they're making the rules, such as in the case of abortion, is it permissible to enact mandates. Oh, the hypocrisy of it all! Now, it's possible that the radical right wing Supreme Court will overturn the President's health care law, a decision that will go down as one of the most radical and politically motivated decisions in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court. They'll rue the day, I'm talking eminent rueage.
There will be at least two Supreme Court justice appointments in the next four years and hopefully they'll be appointed by President Obama. If so, that conservative majority will disappear, leaving us with the Supreme Court we've needed for the last twelve years or more. You know, one that would NOT have appointed dumbass George W. Bush as President or ruled in favor of democracy-destroying Citizens United.
The same boat anchor smear machine (read: conservative media) spreading misinformation about the state of gas prices in this country are vehemently opposed to rolling back multi-billion dollar subsidies to Big Oil. Their vision for America is one in which fossil fuels and their polluting emissions are protected and clean energy is deemed too costly and thusly ridiculed, preserving the status quo. This is possibly the best example of the boat anchor party holding us back in the most harmful of ways.
Replacing our currently inefficient electrical grid with a smart grid is one way to create tons of jobs and reduce emissions drastically. Considering we currently average about 35% efficiency from our antiquated electrical grid, there is A LOT of room for improvement - 65% to be exact. Manufacturing and installing alternative energy sources like solar, wind, geothermal and bio-fuel facilities would instantly employ many thousands of people but we need to INVEST in it. How about allocating some of the bloated defense budget, oil subsidies or other unnecessary corporate subsidies to this cause? If we did we could become a real "player" in global alternative energy markets. I use the term "player" because other countries (China, Germany, Denmark and Brazil to name a few) have plunged headlong into an alternative energy future, making them the LEADERS. China, for example will increase their solar output by 500% and wind energy production by 300% over the next five years. No wonder 47% of the solar panels installed domestically are "Made In China". Germany invested $263 billion recently in renewable energy. 98% of Brazil's vehicles run on sugar cane ethanol, a 90% emissions free product. Denmark has announced they will be 100% renewable energy powered by 2050. The only political party in the WORLD that doesn't believe in man-made global warming is the boat anchor party.
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