The re-asking of a good political question

During a debate in 1982, Ronald Reagan, when he debated President Jimmy Carter, asked the public the question: "Are you better off today then you were four years ago?" Circumstances as they were, when asked personally, gave a resounding and destructive answer against the then president Carter and the direction that the country was currently heading.

But more importantly, the way that the question was phrased was ultimately more important. What Reagan said was Are "YOU better off", not are "WE better off", not is "OUR union better off", but are "YOU better off". This question marked the official moment of the complete transformation from Hippies to Yuppies. Sure, it took a few years for the economy and people to realize that they now believed more in compound interest then in free love, want a BMW instead of LSD, and believed in fiscal responsibility above the common good, but it still happened at that moment. It was a national change from "ask what you can do for your country" to "what's in it for me?".

This fall, what I would like to see, is someone asking the question: "Do you believe that our country is better off today then it was six years ago?" Because the answer to that also gives a resounding and destructive answer against the completely Republican controlled government of the last five years.

Noticed that I said, "Republicans". I will no longer say Conservatives because the Republicans as a controlling block are anything but Conservative. No NeoCons either, moderates and extremes all voted the same. Splitting them into separate groups, even though they all voted the same, relieves certain individuals of the responsibility for the failings and misdirection of the recent events. Therefore, Republicans are the ones who must shoulder the blame.

And what blame is that? Well, the Republicans have spent money like a drunken Ted Kennedy in Vegas with a fist full of government bonds. Theyve increased the size of the federal budget like a New Deal on Barry Bond levels of steroids while decreasing individual responsibility and freedoms faster then your parents after they caught you smoking pot in the bathroom at your grandmothers 80th birthday party. And lets not forget that we as a country started a war under what turned out to be false pretenses. What have we got in return? More enemies, thousands of dead troops, decreased Middle-East stability, international snickering and a national debt that, if dollars equaled miles, would be a round trip to Pluto and back almost 1000 times.

So this fall, you America, have one job: vote for the direction you want to see the country to head in. If you like the direction of the last couple of years, vote Republican. If you would like to see the country head in any way other then what weve been heading in, vote Democrat. While voting, you must ask yourself: Do you believe that our country is better off today then it was six years ago?