Rep. Bill Sanderson (R) 77th. District Tennessee ~ Oughta Be Ashamed !
e-mail > rep.bill.sanderson@capitol.tn.gov > Nashville Phone# (615) 741-0718
OUT OF TOUCH WITH CONSTITUENTS: Rep. Bill Sanderson is touring a country that has benefited most from jobs being shipped overseas on the same day Goodyear abruptly shutdown its Obion County manufacturing facility in his district.
OUT OF TOUCH WITH TENNESSEE VALUES: Sanderson praises China's government-run economy & communist-run government -- "Things run very smooth and efficient."
OUT OF TOUCH WITH REALITY: In a blog, Sanderson refers to his Chinese tour guide as "Jay-Jay," a "cute china-girl guide" -- says he sees no "repression or un-happiness"
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
http://seanbraisted.blogspot.com/2011/07/aint-china-grand.html
Ain't China Grand
Posted by Sean Braisted
As Union Citys uffers the loss of their biggest employer, Goodyear, resulting in the loss or dislocation of nearly 1900 jobs, you would think this would be the time for that city's representative to be at home, in the district, at least giving the appearance of caring and trying to help his constituents. If you thought that, you would not be Rep. Bill Sanderson. No, instead of being there yesterday when Goodyear closed early, Rep. Sanderson has been off on a legislative tour of China with his son and 14 other state reps. Luckily for us, Sanderson is blogging his way through his trip guided by "Jay-Jay or [sic] cute china-girl guide". While mesmerized by the size and scale of the city he's in [I think Shanghai], he was impressed by how "very, very clean" the city is and how the "Chineese people are very pretty. All skinny and health concious."On his next blog entry he notes the impressive scale of construction and marvels at how China, that communist country we've all been told to fear, has "the arts, convention centers, culture. I [don't?] see them being denied anything." Yeah, totally, Chinese people have everything, except for those minor wants of free expression of religious and political beliefs. Sanderson again gushes over what he has seen: There is something to say for this economy and this government. Things run very smooth and efficient. China is nothing like I expected. From standard American eating places and hotels to the "home-grown" Chinese business, they have taken what we do and are now doing it better. I see no repression or un-happiness. Shanghai is nothing like I could have imagined. I'm not re-posting this simply to point and laugh at what an idiot Sanderson sounds like (but, let's all pause for a moment to do just that). There are a couple underlying problems here.
1) Sanderson's view of China as the happy and prosperous mecca of cute Chinese girls is not reflective of the whole, and you would think a rural representative might understand this. Rural china, much like rural America and Sanderson's district, boasts high unemployment, a diminished quality of living, and lack of opportunities. I would hope that as Sanderson is going through the big cities of China he pauses and asks about how the other half lives, as that might be somewhat informative to his job representing rural Tennessee.
2) From a broader political standpoint, he should understand that China hasn't grown to be the powerhouse it is by adopting a rigorous and uncompromising adherence to laissez-faire capitalism. The Chinese government has invested in infrastructure, directed resources to growing industries, adopted environmental standards to maximize their energy usage...in other words, they live in a planned capitalist economy, not the chaotic and unregulated free for all that American conservatives seem to be advocating. Perhaps when he comes back to America and demagogues "big government interference" he'll think back to his trip to China and understand that they aren't hand-cuffing their industry and economy to rigid utopian ideology, and perhaps neither should we.
Editorial : While Rome Burned, Nero Fiddled ! 77th. District, you wanted Rep. Sanderson(R), you got him. Satisfied Now ?
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