DAILY GUIDANCE: 21st October

DAILY GUIDANCE: 21st October: ALL sorts of things happen on the road to achieving kosen-rufu. Fellow members may pass away, having fulfilled their mission in this lifeti...

I've been a lifelong firm believer in people's rights over the rights of the few and the powerful. In democracy over free market monopoly. As such, I never once in my life voted for a Republican. I didn't always agree with every Democrat I voted for but I have always been deathly afraid of a Republican victory, for that would always mean the negation of the assurance and protection of every one of America's citizens, not just the few who can afford to buy it, and history has proven my fears well founded with every Republican victory. For that reason, I agree with everything that is being said by President Obama and his supporters in this election campaign. However, since this campaign is about reaching the hearts of people who do not see things the way I do, the repetition of the same lines that I have heard spoken by every supporter and by the President is sounding weak and ineffective in combating the stronger message, however deceptive, of the President's Republican opposition. It is clear that we and the President need to come at this in a totally different way. What needs to be established clearly, irregardless of how fast or slow the recovery is proceeding, is the basic difference in the underlying principles by which these two men and these two parties have governed and intend to. Assuring that all Americans have a basic safety net to protect their lives should never be something up for negotiation. This is a basic right that the founders of this nation regarded as an implicit right of all human beings, not even just Americans. We do not throw people out to fend for themselves, especially at critical times like this, when the provision or lack of this basic safety net is the difference between life and death for so many. It is a monstrous human atrocity to view America as a gambling style casino as the Republicans with their unregulated market economy do. And Mitt Romney, in his long career both in the private and public sectors, has shown himself to be no exception to this basic monstrous approach. The America we Democrats have always believed in is one where all Americans come together to ensure that every American has his or her basic needs met. These include the right not to go hungry, the right not to be homeless, and the right to have full and affordable access to health. These are not entitlements. These are basic human rights. To put them on the table as entitlements, as Governor Romney's running mate has, in keeping the American people hostage for the last two years since he's been Chairman of the Budge Committee, is absolutely indefensible. And there is nothing Mitt Romney can say to mitigate or deny the strong statement he made in selecting someone who would do that as his running mate, no matter how carefully crafted and convincing his arguments are. Because facts, unlike people, don't lie. It is clear that, faced with the deficit and the prospect of the fiscal cliff, while my Party has called for revenue increases simply to strengthen and protect this safety net for all Americans, Governor Romney's Party has called tax decreases, something equally at fault in reducing the deficit, for people who don't need them. Study after study has shown clearly that the rich have not gotten any poorer since the recession hit in 2008. So it is clear that they are in a position, unlike the rest of Americans, to step up to the plate and bring back America. Many of them, in fact, have supported our policies to enable them to do so. But the Republicans, under Paul Ryan, have held this team spirit hostage to what cannot be called anything other than sheer selfishness on the part of some to horde money rather than grow the economy, as Mitt Romney claims that somehow his magic wand of deregulation which is dismantling of the safety net will bring about. No person of conscience can accept this state of affairs. The rich have the freedom to invest their money in hiring people and putting them back to work, in investing in creative entrepreneurs to partner with them to find new enterprises that will result in the hiring and training of millions of Americans. The green economy, which Mitt Romney and his Republican friends have consistently opposed, is one very lucrative opportunity to get Americans back to work again. Now I have no problem with billionaires investing in our economy on their own. But the current state of bearish fear of our economic future is driving them to hold onto their money, as has been proven to be the case in the past when our economy was not in robust shape. And at these times, it was government, led by Democrats, that stepped in and given our economy the jump-start it so desperately needed. Do I believe in a government-led economy? Absolutely not. These claims of the President being a socialist are beyond ridiculous seeing how far to the center he has moved and how cooperative he has been with those with a more conservative and laissez-faire viewpoint. And just take a look at Americans' collective wealth today and it is clear that his policies have resulted in anything but a massive redistribution of wealth from the wealthy to the poor. So I don't know what kind of fantasy world these accusers live in but what is frightening is that enough people of reputation have taken them even the least bit seriously. President Obama's last opponent in 2008 even brought up this ridiculous claim. No, the President has never believed in such an economic or political model. But abandoning the responsibility of government in favor of the free market, besides depriving Americans of their role as citizens in being a part of their government, is very dangerous. The market is the place for business to be conducted, not for people to govern and to protect their lives and their rights. To give it over to the most powerful in this Darwinian fashion is to abandon the very thing that separates us as humans from the animals. But the Democratic Party has never advocated the other extreme, that of a government-run economy. No. Our position has always been a partnership of government and business. In good times, business has always led. But when we hit bad times, it is the job of the government to step up, one, to ensure the safety net is in place, and two, to boost, to jump-start the economy so that it can be thriving again. And we have only to look at history to see that the Democratic approach has always, in the long run, been the more lucrative and effective way to grow the economy. This occurred in our biggest crisis, the Great Depression, which itself was the result of an unregulated market. Did the economy come back right away, as soon as President Roosevelt took office? Absolutely not. But I think it's noteworthy that unemployment was at 16%. Not 7.8 but 16%, in 1936. Yet the American people reelected President Roosevelt in one of the most massive landslides in American history. They knew there were no magic fixes to get us out of what was then a much bigger mess than any of us have known in our lifetime. But they knew that continuing to back the government pumped slow growth was the only way to go at that perilous time and they knew more than anything that, as delightful as the roaring 20's may have been when it seemed everyone was becoming a millionaire overnight, that was not the time to go back to the policies that existed then. And as a result, the American economy grew at its most sustained rate. Did it enjoy the greatest peak upward? That's not the issue. We knew peaks in the 1870's with the industrial boom and in the 1990's with the dot.com boom. But those are not what sustains an economy in the long run. No. An economy is sustained and people don't have to worry about their basic needs being met when government steps up to the plate and does its part. And history is shown that at such dire times, even those who can afford to step up to the plate to help the economy, usually won't because they see no short-term gain in it for them. It is for that reason that government must flex its muscle and itself collect the revenue to invest back into the economy, while making sure that all people's basic needs are met. And no matter what Mitt Romney tells you, his words and actions have not shown him to be on the side of history and on the side of the American people, no matter how sweet and tempting they sound. I would be wary of what hasn't been shown to work in the long run because the philosophy of turning our economy into a crap-shoot with a winner-take-all philosophy won't merely be kicking this can down the road and inviting bubble after bubble to collapse and then we're back in this mess.... No, it's kicking the can back in the other direction.