But what disturbs me the most (but doesn’t really surprise me) is the fact that Ralph Nader’s 2004 campaign contributions were heavily backed by deep-rooted Republicans who were/are intense Bush supporters. A report done by the San Francisco Chronicle revealed Nader’s Republican supporters raised over $275,000 for his campaign and that 10% of the major donors donated and raised money for the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign. Now, the reason I am bothered by this fact is not because these people are Republicans and all of them should burn in Hell. But Nader, who claims to be an anti-corporate and anti-war candidate, accepts a good amount of money from people who contribute to the corporate influence in Washington D.C. and some of whom are also pro-War.

Granted this is an old article, but you can imagine how many Republicans are worried with this years elections after observing the general populations wariness with the reckless and scandal-plagued Bush administration. With strong Democratic candidates (Clinton and Obama) who are currently fighting for the nomination and, in itself, are screwing up the perfect chance to win over more Democrat votes, Nader’s entrance is as perfect as the Republicans can hope for. And although Nader did win over less than 1% of the general vote in 2004 (due in no small part to the dubious ethics of the Democratic strategy), he still poses a threat to a Democratic victory in November.

I think our anti-war Representatives and Senators are compromising on their values and succumbing to the bullying tactics of both the White House and other pro-war lobbyists and politicians. I find it ridiculous that we can keep funding a failed war for which we have no real answer for our occupation in the area and at the same time can’t provide for those who live in our own country (eg the poor, those without healthcare, etc).

Another important bill passed recently with the Democrats again heeding to the Republican demands. The Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), which originally meant to tax the wealthy who usually end up paying little to no taxes, has in recent years affected more and more households which aren’t considered to be especially wealthy. Congress finally decided to take action and curb those affected by the AMT who should not be. I’ll discuss further in depth about the AMT in another post but for now suffice it to say that there needs to be a “patch” to fix the AMT rules. This patch was written but was immediately criticized by Republicans saying that the provisions to pay for the bill are too costly. So the bill was re-written to take out those provisions meaning we would be spending money to save money. For now it is a debatable topic over whether or not that was a wise choice but with our national debt increasing at a fast rate, there needs to be some reform over the AMT so it does not hurt those who it did not intend to affect.

And finally, it doesn’t make sense to fund a war when we have less and less funds to provide towards it. The Bush tax cuts of 2001 just make it worse since lower taxes equates to lower revenue for the government. Yet War spending and defense budgets are exorbitant and are ultimately going to cost taxpayers a lot more over the long haul. All of this is just too complex and needs to be handled by apt politicians who know what to do. And from the looks of it, we have a while until it will be solved. The Democrats need to stop yielding to Republican and White House demands and should start passing legislation that they promised when taking the majority in 2006. At this point, the Democratic compromise and reluctance is not what is needed to fix this country.