A Tea Party...Democrat!?

The big scary election is two weeks away. Newspapers are prophesying fire and brimstone for the Democratic majorities, and the Tea Party is proving left and right that they do not know jack about the United States. Like a double rainbow, many are wondering what it all means. As for that, I think there is more hype than fact to predictions about Democratic loses; in all actuality the Tea Party will prove about as useful as a knife at a gun fight to the Republicans. Times may be tough, in fact I am fairly sure they are, but the Tea Party is still just a loud minority that has yet to put up a single electable candidate since its inception with Sarah Palin.

Where the loses might come, as may be true here in New York's 13th Congressional District, is from the Democrats themselves. I for one take issue with "Democrat" and incumbent Michael McMahon. He voted against healthcare, he wants to keep all the Bush tax cuts and he opposes future stimulus. What exactly does he hope to accomplish by watering down his platform?

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What is certainly true about Staten Island is that it is the most conservative Borough of  NYC. No doubt the most reliable Tea Party stronghold in the metro area is the island. I can see where McMahon is coming from by trying to hedge his bet against the paleo-conservative movement but I cannot account for the huge blind spot he is leaving for his supporters.

I am a left leaning individual. I favor well funded transportation, schools, medical care and environmental protections. Staten Island (home to the Fresh Kills Landfill) was once NYC's biggest environmental disaster and I will not dock McMahon's record on his fight to protect the island from pollution. However with the landfill closed and most climate regulation taking place, or rather not taking place, at the local level it is a bit moot expect much from a Federal candidate this year. What does matter is that there are bills to pay and people to take care of. I'm still outraged about the joke of healthcare legislation that passed into law. Not because of all the other whack-job worries about death panels and 3,000 pages and midnight votes; I have some better understanding of the system than to be afraid of those asinine fears. No I pine for the public option, the only thing that could have set this country in the right direction on finally reigning in BigMed. 

Well I still have one thing hope right? The economy still needs saving and Democrats have just the tools to do it! No more tax give aways, no more tax breaks, no more tax dodges for the country's hugest corporations. Make 'em pay their fair share, let's turn the budget around and start to see an improvement in American companies and most importantly American currency. But no, like a a true Tea Partier, McMahon wants to pay the bills without using money or something.

Has anyone else noticed that? Tea Partiers want to cut the deficit by reducing spending and taxes. That would be like me trying to pay my bills by using less utilities but also working less; so I will be cold and broke. No it just won't work. Sad but true, spending needs to be cut in some places. However, we are in debt which means we owe money, not just that we don't have enough. We are going to have to make more than we spend to get out of debt, that's just how it works. So McMahon and the Tea Party want to somehow save the American economic system and spare tax increases, oh wait, that's right, letting tax cuts expire is not a tax increase, it is returning to the fiscal policy our country had the last time we actually had a surplus and were paying off our debts.

The moral of the story is, while I am left leaning, and yes, I admit, a card carrying Democrat, I will not be voting for a Democrat for my Congressional District. It makes me sick to think that I may be part of my party losing one of the most useful majorities it has ever had, but at the same time, I cannot bring myself to vote for someone that I disagree with on every issue but the color of his yard signs.

Maybe The Rent is Too Damn High Party has a congressperson running on Staten Island.