I wonder.
Don Blankenship, the virulent anti-union Chairman and CEO of Massey Energy, the umbrella owner of Performance Coal's Upper Big Branch mine in Coalmont, spent $3,000,000 to unseat a West Virginia Supreme Court judge who found against the company. Blankenship's candidate tossed out a $50,000,000 jury verdict against the company. (click here )
The mine, by which I mean exclusively the Upper Big Branch, not the entire company, had been cited for "hundreds of safety violations, including more than 50 just last month."
Hmm. I wonder: How many of the family members who are now without one of their family members remain so inclined to vote for less government, smaller government, not quite so intrusive government? This isn't to suggest any really were, but if any were . . . how about it today?
Or, what about those who have suffered the loss of someone dear, as a consequence of an out of control Toyota? Remember . . . floor mats? Yeah . . . way too much government oversight, meddling in the private sector.
Know anyone who just happened to get really sick, as in really expensive sick, only to find his or her health insurance company rescinded coverage, alleging their subscriber had failed some long ago to disclose a health risk. Or not completely rescind; how about just refusing to pay for the care the doctors prescribed? Yeah . . . there too: Government taking away all our freedoms, usurping the Constitution. Bad, bad government.
Maybe you happen to be one of those whose entire net worth was wiped out when the financial industry capsized. Or you know someone who was wiped out. Remember Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Fed was ecstatic over the new financial instruments the industry was debuting; sub-prime and no-docs and interest-only ARMS and credit default swaps and securitized bundling and all that jazz; give consumers "more choices." Also remember how Mr. Greenspan asserted how "No one could see it coming." That way-too-big government wasn't doing much meddling back then. Ya like them apples, do ya?
Want to do away with the FDA? You know, the folks who are charged with keeping e-coli and salmonella food and drugs out of your digestive system. Get rid of them, en route to that less encroaching into the private sector government?
Or how about those government agencies involved in highway safety, and air travel safety, and river levees, and . . ., and . . ., and do ya get the point? Do ya?
Geez. I wonder: Just how damned stupid do you have to be, to be a conservative voter? And today -- Actually today began in earnest with the election of Ronald Wilson Reagan -- we're talking Republican voter, because there's no difference? Just how damned stupid? Put another way, just what will it take until ya finally figure it out, that there is a very legitimate place and role for government? Does someone in the family have to die, in order for ya to figure it out?
Oh, and a PS: Prior to George Bush's Crash of "07, the two deepest and longest recessions since the Great Depression were under Ronald Reagan, and that the unemployment rate under President Reagan began increasing the moment he got his tax-cuts-for-those-who-didn't-need-any through began rising and didn't dip below 10.5 percent until late 1983 -- when he'd been president for more than two and one-half years! And Republicans are throwing bricks at Obama after 15 months?!!!! Geez, yeah . . . just how damned stupid . . .?
-- Ed Tubbs
Palm Springs, CA
