During the Reagan years, Americans became optimistic that we could overcome our recessionary problems by listening to the speeches of Ronald Reagan and became deluded into believing again in the American Dream of everyone has a chance to be rich in America. Reagan’s policy of “Trickle Down Economics” didn’t make sense to most knowledgeable economists, lending institutions weren’t lending and were bloated with delinquent mortgages and foreclosures brought about by the Savings and Loan scandals and the onset of new interstate banking and the deregulation of the banking industry. All hell broke loose in the public banking sector until the average pragmatic American homeowner took matters into his own hands and began to lend buyers the equity in their own homes. Also at the tremendous rate of interest depositors were receiving on their savings accounts, the average middle-class American managed to do well.

It then came to pass in the first year of his Presidency the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. Also Congress established the Resolution Trust Corporation, which was the first major financial industry bailout by the American Taxpayer, whereby all junk property on the books of major banks were unloaded upon the taxpayer under the banner of the Resolution Trust Corporation and auctioned off or refinanced under very favorable terms to buyers at one half or one quarter of their original value or mortgaged amount. Savvy investors took advantage of this Republican sponsored free for all and established large real estate equity firms, many of whom a few years later by 1989 went bankrupt. Many CEOs of these firms, bank presidents and commercial lending officers served jail terms. This massive collapse of a booming real estate market was brought about by the Reagan Tax of 1987, which targeted all equity earnings of the average homeowner and the capital gains earned on real estate and the booming stock market. These new taxes were used to finance the massive government debt created by Reagan and the Congress that inflated military spending by nearly one trillion dollars within the first four years of Reagan and Republican rule. This deflated the ballooning markets and brought about a stock market crash in October 1987, and a subsequent real estate crash in 1988 and 1989. By the end of Reagan’s second term, the United States was brought into another deep recession which lasted until the early 1990s and ended shortly after the election of a Democratic President Bill Clinton in 1992.

In 1988 George H.W.Bush was elected as President and again increased taxes to pay for his new First Gulf War, which was the first defeat for Saddam Hussein and the beginning of two decades of American Middle East involvement in unwinnable wars. The First Gulf War was not a war it was a rumble, where few American lives were lost, yet billions of new taxpayer money were spent on increasing the wealth and influence of American defense contractors. The one reprieve from wars and financial irresponsibility Americans had was during the two terms of Bill Clinton a Democratic President, who managed to keep the country out of major military campaigns, balanced the federal budget and revived the economy; until the Republican held congress impeached him with attacks of his marital infidelity, which forced him to lie in a cover-up and eventually ended his second term in disgrace. His two terms in office created one of the most successful U.S decades of the 20th Century.

In 2000 with the election of G.W.Bush and the onslaught of Fundamental Christian Republicanism we entered the decade of complete and utter failure. The surge of Republicans again created the groundwork of 911 and two failed wars in the Middle East as well as countless military and diplomatic blunders creating devastating effects that have lasted into the present time. The balanced budget left by Bill Clinton was immediately destroyed by G.W Bush and his Republican cohorts as well as the cowardly Democrats, who were bullied by Bush and his Republican majority into giving away trillions of taxpayer dollars to the wealthiest one percent of taxpayers in an unprecedented tax reduction, and billion dollar tax subsidies to oil and energy firms and the repeal of numerous Democratic imposed EPA regulations controlling air and water quality and the production of oil, gas, and coal. The Republicans under G.W Bush destroyed America, and now are trying to finish the task by blocking any major Democratic program that will bring back life to the crippled American economy. Instead, Republicans would force millions of Americans into poverty and deny them unemployment benefits, food stamps, fuel assistance or medical insurance.

This is just a brief summary of the marvels of Republican Rule for the last 3 decades, and now we are faced with the 2012 elections; whereby we are witnessing in disgust the belligerent and soulless nature of Republicans, and their ruthless commitment to their tyrannical and greed driven policies. Of the four remaining Republican presidential candidates now being considered none of them have the compassion, genius or leadership abilities to lead the U.S out of its free fall into oblivion. The Democrats under Obama’s presidency have not led either, and seem committed to continuing with their weak-kneed approach to not fighting the Republican menace and allowing all Democratic gains made in this country since Franklin Roosevelt to be destroyed by the selfishness, greed, and ignorance of the Republicans. Democrats conceded to the Republicans two stolen elections, the stripping of the U.S Constitution, and allowed the United States to default and stagnate and let the American people fall into the abyss of poverty and joblessness without any serious outcry of anger. Democrats have no leadership, no concern for future generations of Americans, and have accepted the Republicans’ callous inconsideration for the dignity of the American people, and the basic human rights of people in other countries that are murdered or tortured at the hands of American soldiers.

Republican elected officials in Washington and throughout the country in state and local governments are not what the United States needs or wants. We cannot afford another four years of incompetent and cruel leadership. The Republican method of government has completely failed, yet millions of Americans believe there is something to be saved from it,and continue to vote for despicable and hapless candidates like Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, or hope that an unemployed billionaire like Mitt Romney on a lifelong pursuit for Presidential office and ultimate power have the ability to lead them as their President. The absurdity of their commitment to these feeble candidates is proof of the irrelevancy of Republican thinking. The weakness and incompetence of the Democrats have proven to the American people that they too are unable to pull the United States out its free fall into destruction. Unless the Democrats immediately gain integrity, courage, and leadership a Republican nightmare candidate will win the Presidency by default.

L.A.Steel