If someone asked for your money and promised to mow your lawn, you’d probably expect them to cut the grass. And if he or she took your money and did something else with it, you’d probably be disinclined to keep paying them, in spite of their promises to do so next time.  “No”, you’d say, “first cut the d***ed grass, then I’ll pay you”. The talk of the promise needs to match up to the walk of the actions for a business deal to be successful. Common sense, one might say, and Mr. Blunt and Cranky agrees. He also wonders why so many voters do not apply the same attitude to their political parties and alleged “representatives”.

Both parties and their peeps say things and do things, and the things that are done mean a whole lot more than those that are spoken: true today and in true the past. That is why a biblical reference titles this post (Matthew 7:16, for those who aren’t hip to the scrip) – what you talk and what you walk are valued differently, back in the Y-Zero-K days and today. And what one DOES means a lot more than what one says.

On the Republican side, the clearly-and-frequently-stated agenda of “Beat Obama” matches their actions to a T. The voting records, judicial decisions, executive decisions, from local to federal levels, all pretty much align with that “number one priority” of “making Barack Obama a one-term President”.  The economy, jobs, budget discipline, keeping the government running, supporting our troops, all have been put on the back burner as the Repubs have opened can after can of Whoop-Ass on the Prexy. Sure, there have been some deviations from message discipline, lots of red herrings and smoke and mirrors deployed; but in general, the Republicans said they’d put party over country, and then proceeded to do so. One must credit them with an admirable alignment between word and deed, at least.

The Dems, by contrast, haven’t so much shown deviation between words and deeds as they have shown a complete and utter lack of consistency among themselves as a party. The words and deeds of individual Dems are frequently in alignment, but as a party, they are less predictable than a scrap of used Kleenex in a windstorm.  For an Independent, that is laudable, but for a group that claims to be a political party, it is really pretty pathetic. So, looking at the impact on the average schmuck, is there a difference between these two crowds of poltroons?

Sure there is. Because the average schmuck doesn’t really give a monkey’s arse about the name or party affiliation of the person at 1600 PA Avenue. He or she cares more about water flowing through the pipes, fire trucks showing up at need, not being car-bombed, and all the other jobs that the government does actually being done. So which party is on the side of doing stuff that matters to we schmucks?

To the extent that either one is, the fumbling, bumbling Dems have spent a lot more time working on bills that would actually return value to the taxpayers.  The Repubs, on the other hand, have spent their time showing that they prefer spending our tax dollars de-jobbing a skinny, big-eared black President  than doing their rightful job  taking care of their constituents.

And the reason they are free to act in such a manner is the complete and utter cluelessness of much of the American electorate. If our hypothetical landscaper took our grass-cutting budget and spent it on something completely irrelevant to the intended purpose, we’d fire his ass. But when politicos take our tax money and spend it to bolster their own partisan agenda, we act like we’re smoking a different sort of “grass”, and keep handing over our money (and our votes).

By our actions, they likewise shall know us. And frankly, judging American voters by our actions in the voting booth, lots of us look pretty stupid, indeed.

Mr. B & C