Ron HartThe Democrats have an impending problem surfacing at an inopportune time: Their beloved big government's feckless response to our nation's problems.
In next week's midterm elections, someone likely will take the divisive and corrupt Harry Reid's place as Senate majority leader. I just hope he or she sprays it with Lysol first. Harry Reid will then have to face his biggest fear, as Nancy Pelosi did hers four years ago: having to fly commercial.
The Dems' pet program, Obamacare, is a disaster. More and more Americans will lose their health insurance or have to pay more for it. Men now have to pay for gynecological exams, and women must pay for prostate exams. The only winner under Obamacare is RuPaul.
The middle class is earning less. Under President Obama, the median annual household income has gone from about $55,000 to $50,000, the biggest drop ever. And Obama's plans for amnesty and open borders will create more competition for middle-class jobs, hurting Americans further.
Ditto for black unemployment. The recession officially ended a few months after Obama took office, and unemployment then stood at 7.8 percent. Since then, the unemployment rate has fallen slightly, but not as much as in most recoveries. Yet, black unemployment fell even less significantly, and for African Americans ages 16-19, it has actually gone up, to 36 percent.
Even worse, many Americans have left the labor pool and live in the "safety net," which has become a safety hammock of Obama's burgeoning welfare state.
Against all evidence, Republicans manage to lose public relations battles on fake issues like the "war on women" and being anti-black.
Republicans should disprove these lies with simple facts. Against Democrats' objections, Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, freed the slaves. FDR, a Democrat, appointed his first Supreme Court justice, Democratic Sen. Hugo Black, who was a KKK member and lawyer. Republican President Dwight Eisenhower sent the National Guard to integrate Little Rock, Ark., Central High School in 1957. Democratic Gov. Orval Faubus kept trying to enforce segregation against Eisenhower's attempts to integrate. The Democratic governor of Alabama, George Wallace, did the same.
The late Democratic Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd not only was a Klan member, he was a recruitment officer. His sheet had badges on it.
Republican concession and cowering on race issues are not supported by facts but by Democratic spin and attempts to manipulate black voters, and by a lack of education about our country's history.
As for the fake GOP "war on women" -- this accusation comes from the same Democratic Party as Chappaquiddick swim champion Ted Kennedy, Bill Clinton, John Edwards, Al Gore and Anthony Weiner.
Ebola is not Obama's fault. More Americans have been married to Kim Kardashian than have died of Ebola in the U.S. But the administration's confused response to the virus, like the debacles involving the Secret Service, Benghazi, Obamacare and the Internal Revenue Service, highlights that bigger government is not better. The cure will come from private-sector drug companies, which have a profit motive.
At least Republicans have dissent and debate within the ranks, instigated by libertarian and Tea Party voices. That's healthy. Democrats have no such debate. They just do what their party leaders and Barack Obama tell them to do.
Voters have a chance to be heard Tuesday. To paraphrase P.J. O'Rourke, it is not how Washington works that should concern us; it is how to make it stop. Getting big-government, high-taxing Democrats out of office is a start.
Ron Hart is a syndicated op-ed humorist. Email him at Ron@RonaldHart.com.