It continues to baffle me that many Republicans think they are the fiscal conservatives and better for the economy. Bill Clinton defeated an incumbent Republican then went on to preside over the balancing of the federal budget and handed off a thriving economy to his successor. George W. Bush passed large tax cuts in 2001, presided over the 9/11 terrorist attack and ensuing crisis, then passed MORE tax cuts in 2003! And all the while Republicans worked to deregulate banking and environmental standards to make it easier for businesses to make money, often to the detriment of the average citizen. I remember sounding the alarm in 2004 that Republican actions could be sending us into a financial abyss, but people re-elected Bush anyway. *POOF* – Suddenly I was labeled a “raging liberal” and we cratered into the Great Recession, aka the Global Financial Crisis.
I used to lean right, politically. I voted for Reagan and then his successor, George H. W. Bush. I never voted for Bill, but I’ll admit that it was during the Clinton years that I started to shift – mainly because I’m fiscally conservative. Clinton was able to balance the federal budget and hand off a stable economy to his successor and I respected that, but it was George W. Bush who solidified my shift to the left.
If I were a single-issue voter, that issue would be fiscal responsibility and the economy. That sounds like TWO issues, but as an accountant I’ve learned that they are intricately interwoven. It IS about the money money money. (Uh cha-ching cha-ching.)
I’m shocked, SHOCKED, to hear that the president lied to the American people. No… not shocked that he lied, he does that almost daily and often twice on Sundays. I’m shocked to HEAR him, on tape in his own voice, admit to it. Trumpies will say that he just “downplayed” the truth or exaggerated the facts, but the statements in the February/March recordings are a stark contrast to his public statements at the time.
I get it. Hillary was a flawed candidate. There were lots of reasons not to like her. For many Republicans and conservatives, she was simply the wrong flavor of politics. For others, there were legitimate concerns about some of her policy objectives. Some of you were unsuspecting victims of misinformation created and promoted by a Russian group recently outed by the FBI as the Internet Research Agency and their cadre of internet trolls. Some of you even helped their efforts by disseminating the misinformation further with shares and re-tweets. Given all of that (and more), it is amazing that she still won the popular vote. Not that it mattered.