The plusses and minuses of Sen. Lugar's loss in Indiana

As with most anything, there are, in fact, positives and negatives in Indiana Senator Richard Lugar's loss last night.

There's so much shock about this, too, that it's surprising.

The shock is that this never used to happen.

It never used to be that a long-sitting Senator would be unseated. As long as they had breath and wanted their seat, they could have it. It was virtually always so.

But now, with the emergence of the Tea Party, at least, and the really awful economic situation of the country--the worst in 80 years, since the Great Depression--things have changed. People have changed. We, the people want and need solutions and people who will take us to those solutions.

The fact is, Richard Lugar had been in office for 7 terms, for starters. Worse, really, was that he hadn't lived in Indiana for some time, either. At one point, it had been ruled he wasn't even a member of his own constituent area. He hadn't lived in Indiana since 1977, at one point.

The fact that he was a moderate should have, historically, been in his favor and it would have been in normal times.

But these are anything but normal times.

So on the one hand, the time had come for Senator Lugar to perhaps be replaced. He'd been in the Senate for a long time. He was, after all, 80 years old.

On the other hand, he will, quite possibly, be replaced by an extremely Right Wing Tea Party member.

New ideas and new people should be good for the Senate and the people represented. But if they're represented by extremists of either or any side, it's likely not a positive step forward. We need balance.

So let me be clear on this--I think the extreme wings of either political party--no matter the party--is unhealthy for the people and nation. It's only when you have consensus from the middle, the masses, for the entire nation, will we get progress for the entire nation--for all of us.

Link: http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2012-05-08/lugar-indiana-senate-mourdock/54844834/1

We can't do this anymore

I just heard on NPR this morning how Senators John Kerry and Richard Lugar want to give 7.5 billion dollars to Pakistan, to build them up for security in the area.

First, let me say, I respect Senator Kerry and have no reason not to respect Senator Lugar.

That said, I think it has to be pointed out that the time has long since come and gone when the United States can throw money at problems, at other countries or whatever, in an effort to improve the situations in the world.

We're broke, folks.

We are busted.

We don't have any money.

We're borrowing boodles just to function now. And that's just to cover our own inner workings.

We're in debt. Big time.

We have to stop operating on the now old notion that we have money--plenty of money--to fix things this way.

We can't do it. Not any longer.

We can't afford all the banks that are going broke right now. We can't afford our own problems, let alone fixing those of countries 'round the world.

It's over.

Let's recognize our reality and operate from there instead of fooling ourselves into thinking it's still 1962.

It ain't.

Link to original atory:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104154389