Dear GOP,
You've been talking a lot lately about whether or not the voters issued a mandate in the last election. A lot of you deny that we did. Lately, most of you have been acting a lot more like ostriches than leaders. You don't have the luxury of doing your ostrich impression anymore--get your heads out of the sand and pay attention. If you continue pretending that you can't hear what the voters have to say, you're going to find yourselves irrelevant and out of office very soon. We're done playing your games, we're finished with being held hostage while you negotiate on behalf of a select one percent of the American people. This is about us--the real working average Joes of this country. It's not about you getting reelected.
We voters did issue some mandates when we went to the polls this November. We're not going to allow you to buy our leadership. Yes, you got your Citizens United decision. You can bring all the money in the damn world into our election process, however, we're not so easily swayed. You didn't get much for your money did you? Karl Rove and his American Crossroads Super PAC spent $104,710,427 in this election. You all got a 1.29% return on your investment. Karl's other venture, Crossroads GPS, that's the "dark money" 501(c)(4) group, spent $70,710,008 in this election cycle but only 14.4% was spent on candidates who won their seats. The NRA Super PAC, NRA Political Victory Fund spent $11,787,523 and got a .81% return. Yes, that is correct- less than one percent. I could go on and on with the figures, but you get the idea.
So, here's the mandate--don't try to buy our vote with Super PAC and "dark" money. You can shovel good money after bad, but if you don't have good ideas and quality candidates behind that money, it doesn't matter. We're not going to vote for you. In fact, we don't like the Citizens United decision handed down by the SCOTUS at all. A recent poll of voters by Greenberg, Quinlan, Rosner Research showed that 62% of us are opposed to Citizens United and 46% of us are strongly opposed to it. 55% of voters believe that corporations should not have the same rights as people. If you keep embracing the notion that "Corporations are people too, my friend." We're going to keep on embracing candidates that disagree.
You also tried voter suppression tactics, like having your Republican Governors restrict early voting and having your Republican state governments enact ridiculous voter ID laws, but we still voted. In fact, when we're faced with 4 to 8 hour long lines, it just steels our resolve to cast our ballot. You had Rick Scott down in Florida purging the voter rolls, and we still delivered the Presidency to Obama. You Tea-Partiers had your "True the Vote" intimidation squad at the polls and we were undeterred. You hired companies to hold voter registration drives and then throw away the forms where people registered as Democrats. The irony that Republicans were more often guilty of the voter fraud they railed against was not lost on us.
The mandate: The more you try to take our voice from us, the louder we're going to shout. We will not be silenced and we will not be denied. Everyone in this country has a right to cast a ballot and participate in the election process. It is our RIGHT. Yes, it's true that the higher the turnout, the better the result for Democratic candidates. There's a reason for this: There are more of us than there are of you. 80% of the people in this country own just 11.1% of the wealth in the country. We're not going to vote against our own interests. Like Lincoln said, "You can't fool all of the people all of the time."
This past week, Speaker John Boehner said that because a Republican majority continues in the House there was "no mandate on for raising tax rates" on the American people. Paul Ryan, who along with running mate Mitt Romney, still refuses to believe that their policies were rejected, said much the same thing. Will it surprise you to know that you're all wrong again? The reason that there's still a Republican majority in the House is not because we didn't vote for Democrats--far from it. Democratic candidates received over a million more votes than Republican candidates for the House. You Gerrymandered the districts in 2010 to ensure you couldn't lose control. It was the only way you could hang on to your waning power. As it is, the Democrats picked up 9 seats in the House. No, it's not a majority, but you can see which way the wind is blowing. We kept the White House and the Senate, and we increased our numbers there.
The Mandate: Raise tax rates on people who earn over $250,000 a year. 63% of us support that idea. It's very unfair of Republicans to ask middle class and working poor people to pay the budget deficit alone. What happened to "shared sacrifice?" We support President Obama on this one and we're not going to let you get away with representing only the interests of the ultra-rich. We're not asking for much, just a 4.9% increase. The rich will stay rich. They just have to pay their fair share. After all, middle class and working poor people pay higher state taxes than their wealthy counterparts.
While you're at it, lay off of so-called entitlement programs. When big oil companies are receiving billions of dollars in subsides from the government your carping about a family receiving food stamps rings hollow. 70% of us are opposed to oil companies receiving corporate welfare from the government. The top 5 oil companies recorded record profits in 2011 and the price of gasoline is outrageous. Yet you refuse to stop giving them money. Perhaps now would be a good time for you to lay off of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security along with other programs that help American people. And for heaven's sake, lay off of PBS. You're not going to reduce the deficit by killing Big Bird, and you damn well know it.
The mandate: Leave our Social programs alone. You can find ways to reduce the cost of them by addressing redundancy, fraud and waste within the programs. You can save money by increasing the buying power of Medicare by bargaining with drug companies. Furthermore, eliminate the cap on Social Security. People who earn less than $110,000 a year have to pay FICA on all of our earnings. So should people who make more than that. It's the easiest, fairest and best way to ensure that Social Security remains solvent. Raising the eligibility age is unfair. People deserve to be able to retire and enjoy their remaining years. People deserve to have enough money in their retirement to get by on.
So there you go, Republicans. Get your head out of the sand, and wake up. The voters gave you a number of mandates in this election cycle. You'd do well to heed them. Even Barbara Bush, former first lady (who, by the way, is not known for her generosity for those less fortunate) says that you all need to get over yourselves and compromise. She's right when she says "It's not a dirty word." It's time for you to rethink your party's platform. If you choose to continue your course of obstructionism and ignore the cost to the voters in this country, you're going to find that you have even fewer seats in our government. Mr. Speaker, you left that meeting yesterday with the President suggesting that we extend the deadline on the "fiscal cliff." There's no point. Raise the damn tax rates and be done with it. Mr. President, stand your ground. We're with you, and if Boehner wants to take us over the cliff, then let him. We'd rather suffer some short term difficulties than allow the Republican party to hold us hostage. Call their bluff.
Sincerely,
We, The People
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