Hey Third Party, Rise Up and Meet the Challenge!

Is this the political message Bob the electrician hears?

Republican Plan for America:
• Get rid of Obama
• Make a “simpler” tax code that lowers taxes for the Rich and increases taxes on the poor
• Let the housing debacle take its course, foreclose on millions of Americans and put millions more through bankruptcies to stabilize the banks
• Make a million jobs through drilling
• Reduce business costs by eliminating regulations and unions
• Cut government spending and start America on austerity
• Pass trade bills that loses millions more jobs

Democrat Plan for America:
• Tax the rich
• Tax the middle class
• Spend billions more stimulus to keep union jobs intact
• Keep government big and federal budgets big
• Propose jobs plan that won’t pass Congress, and that will create far fewer jobs than needed.
• Offer housing solutions that won’t stop foreclosures and bankruptcy
• Start a trade war with China that could cost millions of jobs

Bob now must decide which of these two political bags of trash needs to be put to the curb. With such a rotting smell coming from both camps, it will be hard for poor Bob to choose. Can’t he throw out both in favor of another? Will an independent rise up to either force at least one party to turn populist, or to take the White House on behalf of the Great Middle America? 2012 would be easier for a third party candidate to win outright than any post WWII.

Both parties seem intent on not angering the election gods who fund their re-elections, those one percent of Americans whose capital is at risk from any real solution to turn around America. The Republicans are casting their nets toward the one percent by bold, almost irreversible statements like those made by Challenger Mitt Romney who said, “Don’t try and stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom.” In so doing, the Republicans aren’t even hiding their intent from the 99 percent, almost blatantly admitting to the rest of America that elections are won by those that favor the gods.

The Democrats, however, recognize they need the one percent just as much as the Republicans. They know that programs that could turn around America could also put the wealth of the one percent more at risk. Therefore, President Obama’s plan seems to merely demagogue against the Republicans while offering meager fringe plans that sound like the right direction but that go only as far as the one percent will allow. Both parties have set their course for 2012 and it is a rough one for the 99 percent.

Tell me Bob the Electrician, which one of these plans is going to help you stay in your house, fix your credit, get a decent paying job, put your kids in college, and help you prepare for retirement? If you guessed neither, you are more right than wrong, so trust your instinct. If you are leaning toward, President Obama, you will probably be in the winning majority because a vote for words that sound like they are at least in the right direction will beat blatant, irreversible words that shout to the one percent “I am your Republican Guard” any day of the week.

Yet, America should not have to choose between meekness and arrogance. We can turn around our country without an all out class war. Housing debt can be fixed with an equity for debt swap that keeps banks intact, that doesn’t trigger credit default swaps, and that keeps America’s families in their homes. Business and consumer credit ratings can be salvaged with credit amnesty. All able Americans can be placed in jobs through a job voucher plan that immediately sets America back on course. We can begin to dig our way out through increased competitiveness, government can be right sized, and America’s business environment can be made more attractive. Hey, Republicans and Democrats, any takers? How about you Mr. Trump or Mr. Bloomberg?