Pick one: Rotten or Rottener?

The 2012 Election is going to be very difficult.

We don't mean for the candidates.. couldn't give a damn about any of them including the incumbent who has been simply Dreadful.

No, its going to be difficult for voters.  And we don't simply mean simply deciding which candidate or party is the lesser of two evils..

There are two parties-- one, the Democrats, who used to care about the worker, the poor, the disenfranchised.. used to be pro Union and would never cut taxes for the wealthy, especially during a time of great recession.

That was your father's (or grandfather's) Democrat Party.

Then there's the Republicans who never pretended to care about anyone but the wealthy, the super wealthy and the upper-upper middle class, who never met a tax cut they didn't like and if they could have it their way, the full financial burden of paying taxes would fall upon the working classes through "flat taxes" and Federal sales taxes on all consumables.

The following kinda explains how deeply F'd we are as a nation...

From Washington Post:

House GOP unveil election-year budget blueprint cutting $5.3T beyond Obama plan -- "(A) GOP plan released by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan would, if enacted into law, wrestle the deficit to a manageable size in short order, but only by cutting Medicaid, food stamps, Pell Grants and a host of other programs that Obama has promised to protect..."

Then there's this..  From Reuters:

"(GOP budget plan) also seeks to cap discretionary federal spending on education, transportation and other government programs at $1.029 trillion, roughly $18 billion less than Democrats want...

"The Ryan plan contains another element popular with Republicans across the board: tax reform. It proposes to cut top rates for individuals, paring back the number of tax brackets to two - 25 percent and 10 percent - from six now.  The current top rate is 35 percent, but it is set to rise to 39.6 percent at the beginning of next year if the tax cuts enacted during President George W. Bush's presidency are allowed to expire.

"It also would push through a corporate tax reform plan that would lower nominal tax rates to 25 percent from about 35 percent and largely eliminate taxes on U.S. companies' overseas profits."

So let's re-cap:  The very wealthiest Americans would only have to pay at most 25% taxes meaning for every $10 million dollars a wealthy person makes, he could keep another million dollars in his pocket.  Meanwhile every social program benefiting anyone not in that top 1% would get the 'slash & burn' treatment and US companies, who are beneficiaries of the Fed devaluing our currency to make foreign currencies appear stronger and corporate profits larger, would pretty much pay NO taxes on profits acquired from aboard.

Hmm..  gotcha.

We've stated often we are not fond of Obama's economic policies or really his Presidency altogether.  In many respects-- from allowing the bank and financial bailouts to continue, to proposing a reduction of corporate taxes to extending the Bush tax cuts twice as well as the insipid 'payroll tax' that hurts workers more in future for the couple dollars they keep today--  Obama has shown himself to be no different than Bush.

And in a way, Obama's worse because his loyal, impassioned supporters did not sign on for this when voting for him in 2008 and really do not support him economically in the now.

Its just when you have another group of people on the other side of the 'aisle' determined to shore up the nod for "Heartless Bastard Political Party of the Year" once again, it makes it very difficult for millions of people to decide where to turn.

~ And what a nice trophy they receive each year...

Obama's approval in some polls is below 50% and many seek a change.  But people are nervous.  Do they really want a Republican President who is going to basically stomp the economic life out of them with figurative boot to throat?  And no true independent or third-party option seems to be available as of this writing.

Really a terrible situation.    Wish we had some solutions.

As the election gets closer, A&G will compose a 'scorecard' where you, the reader can compare the two political parties track record the last 4 years  Hopefully that can help be some guide to deciding the best 'lesser of two evils' to support.   Look for that in the autumn.

When people ask to best describe the main difference between the Democrat and Republican Party, this is what I say:

A Democrat will stand in front of you, slap you hard on the cheek and then mutter something like "Sorry, I was trying to get a mosquito away from your face"...

A Republican will stand in front of you, slap you hard on the cheek, smile and not say a word.