I JUST DON'T GET IT

There's a little trick that I've learned from marketing. Watch the way people and companies advertise and you can learn who they think is their target audience. It's not earth shaking, but it can be handy in competitive markets. It apparently has failed miserably during the current political season.

I just cannot understand why anyone would believe some of what is advertised to be the benefits of electing candidate X, Y or Z. Of course, that's when they actually say anything about what they want to do. Mostly they just point to their opponent and try to rile up the pitchforks and torches crowd. When they do tell us it goes something like this. 

You have some very wealthy people, claiming that "they know how to create jobs," because they're such fine and successful business types, Yet, they're willing to invest millions of dollars, of their own money, to take a job in the government, which government they decry as "The Problem," and do so for the shear love of freedom and country. Back on the farm we used to shovel stuff like that.

Why do I smell BS? First, I don't care how many jobs that X,Y, or Z may have created in the private sector, they are now in the public sector and we know, because they themselves have been telling us for many, many months now, that government can't create jobs! If they're running for a legislative position they're in for a real surprise; you're no longer in charge. You are one newbie fish in a little pond full of much more experienced fish. They have turf to protect. And then there's the other party. They may not be in the majority, but they know all the same tricks that you're party used on them for the last 20 months. You won't get much done, I'm afraid.

More importantly, your job is to legislate. To write laws which compel others to do, or not do, things. It turns out that the only way that you Senator X or you Representative Y can create jobs is to...wait for it...spend tax dollars! The same is, of course, true for the Governor jobs. Those folks may be more in charge, but, according to them, any jobs they create are still government jobs and therefor unworthy of mention. Now, I know that right about now all of my readers on the political right are sputtering and trying to blot up the coffee they just spit on their keyboards, because I have neglected to mention the super remedy for all that ails us: TAX CUTS. To that I will only say: Bush tax cuts 1 and 2 and the $300 billion of cuts in the stimulus package didn't seem to work, so what makes you think even more cuts will work now?

The second problem that I have with the self financed business types is that idea that they're running to help," The Little Guy."  Here's the rub. If you're such a great, and successful, business  person, why would you invest millions more than the job pays? Could it be that you plan on writing laws and governing in such a way as to benefit yourself? Making money is what they do best and, as we saw in the case of Bell, California, you can only vote yourself pay raises for so long before somebody figures it out. No, I'm afraid that the "Spend millions on a government job," types are in it for the money that they and their buddies will make at our expense. They want to lower their taxes and deregulate their businesses because, as I'm sure they would tell us, what's good for them and their businesses is good for the country. If only that were true.

I just do not get why that's not obvious to anyone who looks.