mithriltabby | Hold your nose and vote on Tuesday, November 2, 2010: Elected Offices (Reply)

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Federal Office

I do not endorse parties in general, as both major parties we have in this country have serious problems with corruption— e.g. John Ensign, Charlie Rangel, Bob Ney, William Jefferson, Duke Cunningham, Maxine Waters— and I do not wish to give the impression that the sponsorship of either party should be considered to be a sign of virtue or competence. However, this year I feel it important to dis-endorse the federal level of the Republican Party; I had hoped that losing the Presidency, the House, and the Senate would cause them to rethink their policies that got us into the Great Recession and give the fiscal realists new strength in their party, but the GOP has utterly failed to return to reality. This election is not a reasonable referendum on the efficacy of Democratic policies, because the Republicans have engaged in an unprecedented level of obstructionism to attempt to make Obama’s presidency a failure, no matter the cost to the American people— stalling legislation, blocking record numbers of appointees, and doing their best to prevent the federal government from investing in America to speed the recover, all in hopes of creating dissatisfaction that they could ride back to power, no matter the cost to American citizens. After they drove the economy off a cliff with tax cuts, two wars, and an unfunded Medicare expansion, and then doing their best to sabotage the recovery from their fiscal extravagance, the Republicans should not be rewarded for their choice of tactics. If this tactic works once, it will remain in their playbook (and might enter the Democratic one), and it won’t be good for those of us who are too poor for them to care about.

It’s not like returning them to power is going to improve anything for those of us with net worth less than a million dollars. Their supposedly best policymaker, Paul Ryan, worries even The Economist with his policy ideas. We are much too far down the Laffer Curve for tax cuts to pay for themselves; the common GOP profession of faith that tax cuts do not increase deficits is just a fantasy. We need more reality-based fiscal conservatives in Washington, but I sincerely doubt you’ll find any among the Republicans standing for election to federal office; even if one were to make it past their party apparatus, they would likely hand the Speaker’s gavel to John Boehner, who would just use it to help the rich get richer and the rest of us get poorer. We’re still recovering from a recession (thanks to stimulus measures), and the only policy ideas the Republicans have would send us right back into one; this nation cannot afford to have incompetents like this steering our ship of state. As Barry Ritholtz wrote: “Whereas the Democrats have no economic policy, the Republicans have a very bad one.”

GOP membership is no longer an indicator of what has traditionally been called conservatism; the current leaders would kick out Ronald Reagan for raising taxes, signing the UN Convention Against Torture, and daring to dream of a world free of nuclear weapons. Unless you think a Republican candidate will be willing to buck their own party quite strongly like in Tennessee to act for the good of the nation, I strongly recommend giving the national level of the GOP more time in the wilderness. Candidates for state and local offices should still be given consideration.

There’s a good perspective in this op-ed from the San Francisco Chronicle that hit print under the headline Consumer Reports for Voters.

United States Senator. SmartVoter. Easy Voter. Open Secrets. The San Francisco Chronicle declines to endorse either candidate.
- Marsha Feinland, Peace and Freedom Party. Vote Smart.
- Carly Fiorina, Republican Party. Vote Smart. Offering to bring the experience of her failure at Hewlett-Packard to California; she was #19 on Portfolio Magazine’s list of the worst 20 American CEOs of all time. Back in primary season, she wanted to scrap AB32, which is a flip-flop from 2008. She has enthused about saving money by taking steps that were already implemented in 1995. Her “Hot Air” anti-Boxer ad is rated false, and the one about national security was rated Pants-On-Fire Wrong. I just don’t think she’s competent to do the job.
- Edward C. Noonan, American Independent Party. Vote Smart.
- Duane Roberts, Green Party. Vote Smart.
- Barbara Boxer, Democratic Party. Vote Smart. MAPLight.org. Open Secrets. Open Congress. Endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood Action, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Bay Guardian, update: San Jose Mercury, Calitics. Fact checking: The “hospitals might stop taking Medicare” ad from the Crossroads GPS front group is deceptive. ACLU lifetime score of 82%. League of Conservation Voters score of 88%-96%-92%-93%-89%-100%. Her last three Human Rights Campaign scorecards were 88-100-100. She earned an A from the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America in 2008. The National Education Association gives her an A. Her last NAACP report card is 100%.
- Gail K. Lightfoot, Libertarian Party. Vote Smart.
United States Representative, District 14 SmartVoter. Open Secrets.
- Paul Lazaga, Libertarian Party. Vote Smart.
- Dave Chapman, Republican Party. Vote Smart.
- Anna Eshoo, Democratic Party. Vote Smart. MAPLight.org. Open Secrets. Open Congress. Endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood Action, San Jose Mercury, California Labor Federation. ACLU lifetime score of 88%. League of Conservation Voters score of 97%-100%-100%-97%-94%-100%. Her last three Human Rights Campaign scorecards were all 100. She earned an A from the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America in 2008. The National Education Association gives her an A. Her last NAACP report card is 96%.

Statewide Offices

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