First Saturday as the World Turns

The Southern voter

By Ed Rogers

[The first of Ed Rogers's new monthly column appeared on November 2.]

Let’s face it, I’m a Democrat. My mother, father, and grandparents were Democrats. All the way back to the New Deal, the South was Democrat. It was the New Deal—or government if you will—that brought the South indoor plumbing so people no longer needed to rush across their yard to the outhouse. Because of the New Deal, or government, the South got electric lights and telephones.
    When the war came along, new military bases opened all over the Southern states. The government could have built the bases anywhere, but the Democrats pushed to have them built in the South. That one act changed the face of the landscape. The children of farmers had jobs that paid a living wage for the first time in their history. The highways, schools, and most fabricated things we take for granted happened because of government involvement. The hatred that is exhibited toward this same government, and I mean our government, can only reflect the hatred we have for ourselves.
    There have been presidents who I felt did great damage to this Nation. But I always wanted them to do well, because what hurts a president also hurts the Nation; or as I like to say, us. Now, it seems, Southern states have the idea they can make it on their own. They would be happy to help destroy the economy. To their way of thinking that would prove what they have known all along, government doesn’t work.
    These states are some of the poorest in the Nation. They top the list as the least healthy, the least educated, and the least believing in sex education. “Just say no” has not worked, nor will it ever work. The State of Mississippi has the largest number of teen pregnancies of any other state in the country. It should dawn on them that they are doing something wrong. But, instead, they blame the Democrats for wanting to teach your daughters to have sex. They are against healthcare programs, even though 70% of the people who live in Mississippi cannot afford health insurance. Mississippi is not alone; the other Southern states fall right behind Mississippi on that list.
    For some reason, Southerners elect representatives who believe that Social Security and Medicare are the causes of the United States’ financial problems. The representative from my former district in Mississippi is Alan Nunnelee, who represents the counties Monroe, Marshall, Lafayette, Winston, Calhoun, Itawamba, Lowndes, and Chickasaw. You can see what he’s about by visiting GovTrack's website page for him.
    Southerners need to take a good look at their parents: without these programs, their parents would be living with them and they would be picking up the hospital bills, or maybe they could put them in some state home, if their state hasn’t cut the funding for those homes. The money that funds these programs comes out of paychecks; it is a little at a time, and is cheaper than if they had to care for their parents on their own. Once again, the groups that can least afford to be without these benefits live in the South.
    Some United States Representatives and Senators have prostituted themselves to the special interests. These groups pay for TV advertisements and own a number of news outlets. Voters who are too lazy to research the facts believe whatever is put out over the airways. These same voters keep putting the prostitutes back in office. These morally corrupt elected officials work for the moneymen, not for the citizens of their state. An honest person running for an elected office cannot win the contest. If he is honest, no one gives him money, and without money, there is no airtime. Lies pass for honest debate because the voters have no desire to hear the truth. They’re playing a football game and each side wants their team to kick the hell out of the other team.

In October we finally stepped back from total destruction. In the “House of Representatives,” 144 Republicans voted to go over the cliff. Voting in Congress is not a game; there is no next Friday night, where you can redeem yourselves. However, that bothered only eighty-four members of the House Republicans; the others were content to play their fiddles as Rome burned.
    The men and women we elect change history, sometimes for the good of the voters, but most of the time it’s for the moneymen. The thing to remember is that the money people have only one vote. In order to prevail, they have to buy the rest of the votes they need. The citizens of the USA do not need a paid radio host or a TV talking head to tell them how or what to think. Get a book and read, look up how someone voted on a bill, then see who benefited from that vote. If not that, then you can sit in front of your TV and sell your vote to the highest bidder.
    If a candidate gets donations, he has to report those donations. Anybody can check this record. However, it does you no good to check only one side. It is not a game, not if you are looking for an honest man to elect. Read up on the candidates and listen to what they have to say, see if their talk matches their vote.
    Stupid, crazy talk can come from anywhere. We hear it on news shows, in the streets and the halls of Congress. Even most of the Southern churches have got on the crazy train. Next Sunday, when your preacher says that there are no Democrats in heaven, you should ask yourselves, which way is your preacher heading?
                            “Vote early and vote often.”
_______________
Copyright © 2013 by Ed Rogers

Comment box is located below