Did you see this coming?

Dating back to Richard Nixon's administration, the middle and lower class have continued feeling the financial burdens under a Republican administration. Home sales plummeted during Nixon's administration, and a high inflation was the catalyst for lowering the average person's purchasing power. So, what's changed?

Mr. Champion Conservative Ronald Reagan entered as a very popular statesman. His infamous trickle down economic philosophy opened up the wound again. Something many might not realize is Reagan introduced and passed into law the largest tax increase in U.S. history (adjusted for inflation). Americans spent money on an overbloated military -- i.e. Star Wars. His neglect for urban development sent shockwaves through these communities. Drugs were smuggled into this country and introduced by the wealthy elite. Eventually, it hit the inner city streets. Small-time drug dealers were given outrageous prison sentences, while our enforcement agencies dropped the ball on those who shipped and received these massive quantities of crack and cocaine.

Bush's father raised taxes, we suffered a recession, and he was justly defeated by Bill Clinton. The Clinton years created more than 25 million new jobs (not piddly service industry crap jobs that are minimal pay) mainly in the technology sector. There was no pandering to giving tax cuts to the wealthy when raising the minimum wage. My biggest problems with Clinton were as follows: his neglect to hastily act with the genocide in Rwanda (he admitted he regretted that decision), introducing NAFTA despite its origin that was written to toughen labor and environmental standards that has now been abused, and avoiding tougher stances on companies who began shipping jobs overseas.

When Bush was re-elected in '04, I recall a conversation I had with my best friend. I was fuming when he told he decided to vote for Bush. He said Bush wouldn't take away his second amendment rights but Kerry would. He loves to hunt deer, although he knows my take on it; I don't want to kill Bambi. It would be a sport if the deer can fire back at the hunters. I told him this country will get what it deserves and that's going to be a huge recession. Little did I know, conditions are much worse than my knee-jerk reaction back then. We've seen our oil futures market completely unregualted, outing a CIA agent, continuing to spend $10 billion in Iraq when they misled us into believing the conflict was in its "final throes," and allowing private military contractors to act like Wild West bandits and avoid any consequences for their psychopathic actions. Privatize, privatize, privatize. We now see the results. No one entity or person should be granted extroadinary powers without checks and balances. Unfortunately, this trend more than likely would continue under a McCain/Palin administration. Wake up.