Page 4 — THE LACONIA DAILY SUN, Friday, August 19, 2011
Jim Hightower
Beware Gov. Supercuts GOP-land is all a twitter, now that Texas Gov. Rick Perry has announced that he’s ready to ascend to the White House. His candidacy was actually launched at a Prayer-A-Palooza in Houston the week before he formally announced. While only about 30,000 evangelicals and Republican faithful showed up at the 72,000-seat football stadium rented for his public prayer spectacle, he was given saturation coverage by the corporate media, which has gone gaga over yet another smallminded, right-wing, Texas governor. If the fawning reporters had any real journalistic curiosity about what kind of national “leader” this guy would be, they could have slipped away on that same day to the city’s convention center. There, 100,000 Houstonians gathered in bleak testimony to his gubernatorial leadership. They were some of Houston’s many low-income children and parents who’re struggling to make ends meet in Perry’s hardscrabble Texas economy. These needy families had come to a citywide, back-to-school event where backpacks, school supplies, uniforms, haircut vouchers, immunizations and bags of food were being provided by the school district. Officials expected 25,000 to show up, but four times that number came. Some families camped out for hours before the doors opened, and many were turned away as supplies were exhausted by 10 a.m. “It shows the need,” observed a solemn school spokesman. Perry is known in Texas as “Governor Supercuts,” not only for his spiffy hairdo, but also for cutting the budgets of schools, poverty programs and holding down wages. In his 10-year tenure, Perry has created more minimum wage jobs than all other states combined. His superrich state now has more families in poverty and more families without health coverage than any other. He proposes to bring his “Texas Miracle” to the nation as President Supercuts. With Perry, you get the two basic political strains of today’s Republican Party in one suit. On the one hand, he has carefully posed himself in the past couple of years as the farthest out of Tea Party Republican’s far-out right-wingers. Think Michele Bachman with better hair: Perry called the BP oil disaster an “act of God.” His response to the drought that’s devastating Texas was to pray for rain (God did not oblige). He’s a “tenther” who angrily asserted state’s rights to nul-
lify Obama’s “socialist” schemes (until he needed federal cash to fix his state’s bankrupt unemployment fund). He hates government-financed health care — except for himself and his family. He loudly decries big government intrusion into people’s lives, but enacted a law this year to require any woman considering an abortion to have a grossly-invasive probe inserted up her uterus to make her see a sonogram of the embryo. If elected, he would also try to scuttle Social Security, Medicaid and the federal income tax. All this, he warns, or else Texas might secede from the Union — an idea lustily applauded by the other 49 states. On the other hand, Perry is an exuberant corporate Republican, unabashedly hugging any big business lobbyist bearing a campaign check and a wish list. Although he dresses alluringly for the right-wing extremists, the corporate powers are his true love — and vice versa. Even though he’s entering the GOP primary late, with little time to put together a national campaign, The New York Times notes that Perry has, “a vast network of wealthy supporters eager to bankroll his presidential ambitions.” Why? Because he’s already proven to be a trusted peer of the corporate-political establishment. For example, Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons invested $500,000 in Perry’s politics last year, and this year the grateful governor rammed a special favor into law that lets a Simmons corporation reap a fortune by dumping nuclear waste from 38 states in West Texas. Among the 204 donors who’ve invested $100,000-and-up in Perry’s give-and-get governorship are AT&T, Wal-Mart, the Koch brothers, Dell Inc., Clear Channel, T. Boone Pickens, Time-Warner Cable, James Leininger, TXU Energy, TRT Holdings (Omni Hotels, Gold’s Gym etc.), Bob Perry, Friends of Phil Gramm (who knew he had any!), Bank of America, Valero Energy, Burlington Northern, Harlan Crow, H.B. Zachry, FreeportMcMoRan, Union Pacific Railroad and Exxon Mobil. When Perry promises to do for America what he’s done for Texas, pay attention — it’s no idle threat. (Jim Hightower has been called American’s most popular populist. The radio commentator and former Texas Commissioner of Agriculture is author of seven books, including his new work, “Swim Against the Current: Even Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow”.)
We’re committed to continuing our Old Home Days tradition To the editor, “Remember when. . . our Old Home Days were old fashioned fun?” We do and the 2011 Sanbornton Old Home Days Celebration continued this small town tradition! The committee would like to thank all who helped make this years Old Home Days such a successful event. Without the help and support from
like these would be a thing of the past. We are committed to continuing this town tradition and if you are interested in participating in any way, please contact Julie Lonergan at sanbrec@metrocast.net Thanks again and we will see you all next year! Sanbornton Old Home Days
LETTERS 112th Congress may be the worst but it’s not going to get better To the editor, In chambers the members of the House sit shoulder-to-shoulder in the shape of a horseshoe. Debates are marked by an exaggerated decorum. The casual observer might easily conclude that America has a consensual form of politics. Nothing could be further from the truth. Every member of the House is up for re-election every two years, requiring perpetual fund-raising and careful cultivation of local activists. Many congressmen invest so much time in their districts that they do not bother to rent apartments in D.C. or bring their families to the capital. Some sleep on their office sofas to avoid being seduced by the Washington atmosphere. Spending less time in Washington means there are fewer opportunities for them to befriend members of the other party and to get things done for their district. Increasingly, congressmen are doing less of both. In the House the battle never ceases. The ideological gap between America’s parties is growing. The most conservative donkey in Congress is to the left of the most liberal elephant, and vice versa. The donkeys have become the defenders of social-transfer payments, the elephants are the zealous champions of small government and low taxation. Many of the 87 freshmen elephants who entered the House in November do not believe they were sent there to conduct business as usual or to observe the customary rules of the game. War after all is hell and politics
has fewer rules than war. The addition of inexperienced legislators, burning with missionary zeal, to an already complex system of divided government and separated powers causes even veteran observers of congress to despair. It may well be true that the 112th Congress was the worst ever, but the next will be nastier still. Next year’s elections are sure to produce change in both houses and more polarization seems inevitable as redistricting enhances the role of the primaries. Nobody in a country that reveres its constitution likes to blame the fundamental design of the system. An outsider’s view might be that Congress has forgotten, or disregards the framers’ belief in “deliberation, loyalty and compromise”. As we ponder the scale of our debt and the deadlock between the parties, we should feel frustrated. After the recent debt-ceiling deal a record eight out of ten of us say that we disapprove of the way Congress is doing its job. America needs to make big changes if it is to live within its means. This will not be done by tinkering around the edges. It is the people who work the system who need to change, primarily by meeting their opponents. A willingness to understand the opposition view is required. Progress demands of participants from both parties occasionally meet half way. They might start by asking a member of the other party over for dinner. Vote early, vote often. Marc Abear Meredith
Interlakes shows are so good we’ve returned to see them again To the editor, My wife and I had been season ticket holders at what shall be an unnamed summer theatre in N.H. for about 12 years. The actors were chosen by the playhouse staff. Some were very talented, others were not as versatile. During the 12 years, we never had the desire to see a play more than once during that play’s scheduled run. For the last three years we have been season ticket holders at the Interlakes Summer Theatre in Meredith. The actors are young professionals seeking a career in theatre. They are from all over the U.S. They are
chosen by producing director Nancy Barry at auditions in New York and Boston during the off season. The actors are incredibly talented in all facets of show business. Some have gone on to Broadway. Because of their talent, we have returned to the theatre a second or even a third time to see a play during its run. We in the Lakes Region are fortunate to have such versatile professionals performing Broadway-type plays in our area. Red Murray Holderness
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