Republicans want to destroy unions

The Republicans have been very focused on bringing down the unions. They will use any excuse to do so. For example, in this recent round, they blame the unions for the cost of medical insurance and pensions. As if the management of the automakers didn’t acquiesce and enable the unions. And isn’t it the job of the unions to get the best, the most, for their membership? Are the workers supposed to get only what management wants? At any rate, being surprised by all the attempts to break the unions is kinda naive. This has been going on a long time. The important thing is to separate out the facts from the BS and propaganda. A friend of mine, staunchly Republican, blames all of the problems the auto industry is facing on the unions and the health plan and pensions; when, actually, the German automakers, who have equally good plans for their workers, perhaps even better, seem to make a profit, perhaps because their government finances these plans. At any rate, why is anybody surprised at this Republican tactic? It seems to me this kind of naivete was rampant when the Democrats were the minority and people were wringing their hands at those awful Republicans doing such terrible things.

Are the Republicans really that stupid?

Senator Chuck Hagel, obvious unfettered, lashed out at the Republican Party at a talk he gave at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

I happen to agree with two of his points.

The Republican Party has been led around by their noses by such so-called conservative windbags as Rush Limbaugh and by fear of criticizing the current Administration of Bush and Cheney, whose policies have been disastrous, not to mention such players as Karl Rove and Tom DeLay. So as long as these players continue to determine the direction the Republican Party takes, they will continue to go down the path to oblivion.

The other stupid thing the Republicans have been doing, in direct contravention of what the majority of Americans want, is to continue to criticize, grouse, complain and predict dire doom as a result of Obama and the Democrats taking over the reins of government. No reconciliation; no spirit of "We'll work together!"; just "doom and gloom" at what Obama will do. No offering, as Hagel points out, of solutions or alternatives to help lift our country out of the morass Bush and Cheney have created.

It seems there are very few intelligent, positive Republicans. They sound too much like angry old men, who don't know how to do anything except complain. I know I'm generalizing, but my starting point was Chuck Hagel, if you recall, and his blistering speech.