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OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 9/8/09

The Best Defense Is Offense

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Message Stephen Pizzo
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The best defense is a good offense. It's always been so (except for Democrats, apparently.)

I only mention this because I've been watching Republicans since Obama was sworn in and, by golly, they're good. They're REALLY good.

After all, here's a party that got the nation involved in two wars, one they gave up on halfway through, and the other, which was completely unnecessary, cost us a trillion bucks, 4000 US lives and counting.

They also aided and abetted Wall Street sharks feast on ordinary American's 401ks. They allowed banks and other lenders to rape and pillage their way through America's housing market until they all but killed the golden goose of middle class wealth.

By the time Republicans were finally wrenched away from the levers of power, they'd just about screwed up everything they had touched.
So, what were they to do now that they were out and Democrats were back in power?

Go on the offensive, of course:

* Obama bails out Wall Street and the banks: Help him do it, then accuse him of trying to over-regulate the financial system into paralysis.

* Obama bails out American automakers: Help him do it, then criticize him for firing the head of GM and accuse him of socializing American industry.

* Obama wants to fix America's dysfunctional healthcare system: Accuse him of trying to save money on healthcare by snuffing the elderly.

* Claim that the real goal of Democrats is to introduce "government-run healthcare, and that the government can't run a healthcare system effectively. (What they don't acknowledge is that 60% of Americans already get government-run healthcare through Medicare, the VA and other government healthcare systems.)

* Then bundle up all those lies and half-truths together as "proof that Barack Obama and his fellow traveler-Democrats are "socialists, to the core and want to turn America into Sweden.

And, it's worked, by-golly. It's worked. Just the way lying about WMD worked. Because when Republicans go on the offensive, they GO ON THE OFFENSIVE. No mealymouthed half lies. When Republicans lie it's pedal to the metal. It's all lies, all the time.

And it works -- all the time.

Of course it wouldn't work all the time if all Americans simply paid attention. I mean anyone with a memory that goes back at least -- oh say, a year -- would be forced to ask Republicans a simple and straightforward question:

Would you remind me -- was it socialism or unfettered capitalism that exploded the deficit and allowed the Wall Street-auto industry-banking-housing-meltdown on its watch?

ALL the available evidence shows that, when all that happened, the freest of free-marketeers were in charge. To my knowledge there wasn't a single socialist in sight during the GW Bush years -- just holier-than-thou born-agains and government-hands-off-free-marketeers -- as far as the eye could see. It was eight straight years during which the bottom line was the bottom line.

By the time Republicans left town, the rich had become gluttonously rich, and working class Americans were scrambling around under the table for their scraps.

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Stephen Pizzo has been published everywhere from The New York Times to Mother Jones magazine. His book, Inside Job: The Looting of America's Savings and Loans, was nominated for a Pulitzer.

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