Republicans play bait-and-switch game

It is amazing how many average Americans happily vote for Republicans who will make their lives more difficult. Republicans voted and worked against programs that aid most people. Now they work to derail health insurance reform.

For years, the Republican strategy to get elected has been to rely on “wedge” issues such as gay marriage, gun ownership, abortion, who's patriotic/who's not and fears of socialism to pit us against each other on social issues. At the same time, they create economic policy that benefits the very wealthy and powerful at our expense.

It's a classic bait-and-switch routine in which the average voter is caught up. The rhetoric more powerfully affects the way people vote than the results of the politicians they support.

This makes America a potential dictator's dream - a complacent population preoccupied by consumerism and entertainment, not paying attention to what the political leadership is doing to them, easily swayed by propaganda and reactive to trivial issues out of proportion to their importance.

Palin/Beck 2012?

Tobey Long

Marion