The Election is just days away and (finally) we can move on from the muck. Who should you vote for? Here is my case for voting against all Republican candidates in your districts and states.

What it comes down to is simply this: What have Republicans actually done while in full control of the government for the past six years? As the party in power, this election should be a referendum on their rule. I know the Republican National Committee would like everybody to consider their candidates solely on “local issues” as they keep pressing, but the thing is that a representative is not alone in power. He represents a party as well, and must be judged by the whole as well as the part.

Republicans in Congress have had an opportunity held only by few in the history of America. They had control of both Houses of Congress and a very conservative administration. They ran on the idea of smaller government and accountability, returning money back into the hands of the people. So went their slogans long ago. They had full control and could have gone in that direction. Instead, what happened?

We had a slight recession in 2000 and 2001 that came from the Internet bubble bursting. Republicans promised that reducing taxes would alleviate this recession. Theoretically they were right. However, the tax cut they created was not to take full effect until late in this decade. Just how would tax cuts in 2008 and 2009 alleviate a recession in 2001? Who knows. But this was the beginning of the deception to arise out of Republican leaders in Congress.

Remember also how Republicans used to believe in not interfering in state rights, and more importantly in the affairs of family? Well, what was Bill Frist and Congress doing interfering in the Terry Schiavo issue?

Rubber-stamping the Executive

The biggest problem to arise out of Republican leadership in Congress is their worship of Bush, rubber-stamping everything he asked for, never once apparently caring to check the President and his administration to ensure no funny business was going on. Well, as the Abramoff scandal proved, the Republicans in Congress were in the same pocket with the White House. Republicans abrogated their Constitutional responsibility to be a check and a balance on the White House. There are far too many examples to name right now. Probably the only thing Republicans were going to hit the White House on was the Harriet Myers Supreme Court nomination, but even in this case, even though the evidence was overwhelmingly against Ms. Myers, Republicans took no stand until the outcry was too hard for even them to speak out. On the war in Iraq, the evidence is overwhelmingly clear that Mr. Rumsfeld is a disaster as Secretary of Defense, yet no accountability calls from Congress. Republicans are too worried about looking “soft” and they dare not speak out. Are these the qualities of leaders of the most powerful nation on the planet?

Pork Barrel

Pet projects to throw to constituents back home was the worst America had ever seen. As this op-ed points out $24 billion went to 6376 pet projects, including the infamous Bridge to nowhere, Senator Stevens’s pet project. Look to what level a Republican Senator Stevens went to keep his pet project:

ALASKA SEN. Ted Stevens threw the senatorial version of a hissy fit on the floor the other day. The issue was a proposal by his Republican colleague, Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, to block $453 million earmarked for two Alaska bridges in the recent highway bill and instead use some of the money to rebuild the Interstate 10 bridge across Lake Ponchartrain wiped out by the recent hurricane. Mr. Stevens is one of the masters of the Senate at steering federal money in the direction of his state, but he was not going to stand for this reverse flow.

“I will put the Senate on notice — and I don’t kid people — if the Senate decides to discriminate against our state and take money only from our state, I will resign from this body,” Mr. Stevens vowed. Sounds awfully tempting to us — but not, apparently, to Mr. Stevens’s colleagues; the amendment failed 82 to 15.

What’s most impressive about Mr. Stevens’s tantrum is his ability to summon up this degree of righteous indignation — self-righteous might be more apt — over the alleged mistreatment of a state that benefits enormously, and disproportionately, from federal spending.

This is the Republican Congress, ladies and gentlemen. Note that President Bush did not veto that bill. (To date, Mr. Bush has vetoed only one bill, dealing with stem cell research). So unlike Ronald Reagan:

For example, Ronald Reagan vetoed the 1987 highway bill because it included 121 earmarks and was $10 billion over the line he had drawn in the sand. ”I haven’t seen this much lard since I handed out blue ribbons at the Iowa State Fair,” he said. President Bush is a great admirer of Reagan’s record in foreign affairs. Too bad he shows so little interest in following the Gipper’s fiscal lead as well.

Corruption Scandals

Abramoff. Foley. Cunningham. Ney. DeLay. You name them, Republicans have them. What is worse is that these are the leaders, not the run of the mill middle of the pack Republicans, but the leadership. The evidence seems to be that Hastert knew about Foley’s actions, but swept it under the rug to make sure they kept his seat (perhaps he would retire after the election and allow Republicans to replace him). This goes back to the issue of checks and balances. Who is keeping a check on Republicans in power? Certainly not the Executive. Both are bedding with each other, two lovers, both cheating on the other and their children, but both not having the will to hold the other accountable.

Division, not Unity

Bush and Republicans promised in 2000 they would be uniters, not dividers. As we’ve seen these past six years, the opposite has been the case. I’ve never seen America as divided as it is today. Is this really what we need?

The Worst: Debt

Just what has this Republican leadership done to curb the debt our children and their children will have to pay? Republicans cut taxes, but then did nothing to curb spending. In fact, as I’ve shown above, they increased spending on pork barrels and other pet projects. This lack of concern about the debt that future generations will have to pay is perhaps the strongest reason I have for the removal of these individuals and this party from power.

Conclusion

Vote against Republicans. Hold them accountable for their actions these past six years. Someone has to. They obviously cannot do it themselves. Don’t listen to the issues of morality, such as gay marriage and abortion. Those issues are named appropriately as “wedge issues,” to divide the nation, not bring it together. The world is not going to end with a Democratic Congress. Don’t listen to Bush who says:

“However they put it, the Democrat approach in Iraq comes down to this: The terrorists win and America loses,” Bush told a raucous crowd of about 5,000 GOP partisans packed in an arena at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, one of his stops Monday. “That’s what’s at stake in this election. The Democrat goal is to get out of Iraq. The Republican goal is to win in Iraq.”

He is not speaking accurately. It is not Congress that executes the war, but it is Congress that checks the president to ensure our funds and our soldiers are not being spent in vain. What Mr. Bush does NOT want is to be held in check, even though Constitutionally, that is the role of Congress vis a vis the Executive. He must be held in check by Congress. If not, we lose out on who we are as a nation.

Tomorrow I am going to write why you should vote FOR your Democratic candidate. For the time being, if anyone has other reasons to vote against their Republican candidate, feel free to post here. If you feel there are valid reasons to vote for the Republican candidate, I will be glad to read your thoughts. If you have straw man talking points, please, there’s no need to post them.

UPDATE

I like what contributor DK writes on Talking Points Memo:

I hope that when the political history of the last half century is written it will show, as it should, that the Republicans engaged in a brand of divisive electoral politics that pitted Americans against each other: white against black, men against women, rich against poor, native born against immigrant, straight against gay. Republicans deserve to be tarred by history for exploiting our weaknesses, our prejudices, and our lesser selves for their own political gain. But those are still our weaknesses and our prejudices. We own them. And it is our lesser selves that have succumbed to the Republican political pitch and been willing to be exploited. Removing the Republicans from power will only be a temporary fix unless we fundamentally fix ourselves so that no one, no party, no movement can exploit those same weaknesses again.