Fool me once

Editor:

As a registered Independent and former Republican, I’ve bought into the “less government is best government,” deregulate business” and “privatize wherever possible” theories for too long.

Clearly better oversight and regulation of the U.S. financial house is now needed—at the very time when the Republicans have been pushing for more and more “deregulation.”

The current economic, mortgage and banking crisis demonstrates the bankrupt nature of Republican economic policies and leadership.

To put John McCain (an honest, patriotic and dedicated public servant who has candidly admitted that “economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should”) into the White House is tantamount to handing government economic policies back over to a group of Republican insiders who have done so much to get us into an awful mess.

If President Bush and Republicans had their way, Social Security would have been privatized by now and we retirees would all be relying exclusively on the constantly shrinking values of the stock market to keep us afloat.

How long will the American middle class and retirees of Green Valley continue to be duped into voting against their own best interests?

It seems to me that an old Chinese proverb applies to those Independents who choose to vote Republican this time around: “Fool me once, shame you; fool me twice, shame on me.”

If the Republicans are rewarded with two-, four- or six-year terms in the White House and Congress, shame on all of us.

Larry Backus, Green Valley