There are some folk who don't see the gem inside my rough exterior who might consider me a hot head. To which I say a hearty "bite me". But let this opinion be a caution that within this blog may lurk items of a venting nature or perhaps those which might be considered a rant. So be it. Proceed with caution. You have been warned.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

There are times...


when you just want to scream out of frustration. This election season is one of them. We've got Todd Akin in Missouri talking about "legitimate rape" and demonstrating abysmal ignorance of elementary human biology. We've got Mini-mitt Ryan and his dog torturing boss trying to set up a Republican platform that denies abortion to even victims of incest, rape (which they refer to as "forcible rape" - I guess as opposed to "fun rape") and mothers whose health is in danger. We've got congressman Steve King in Iowa who refuses to think about rape unless he has personal experience of it (maybe there's a big bear out there that could help us out with this) and refers to multicultural organizations on college campuses as being composed of people who "feel sorry for themselves". Airheads Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann are still making pronouncements that any number of slack jawed yokels are gleefully parroting and Rush Limbaugh has just announced that if Republicans want someone not to run for office, he can make sure that they don't (who’s really in charge??).

Yet evidently there are actually women, millions of them, that are going to dance off to the polls and vote for an administration that promises to push them back to an era sometime before World War II. There are millions of struggling middle class workers who cannot wait to cast their ballots for people who openly admit that they wish to increase their tax burden in order to lighten their own. There are many thousands of young people that are willing to support fetus protection but think it is perfectly alright if they and their friends be sacrificed as cannon fodder in future Iraqs and Afghanistans. And all of these people agree that it doesn't matter how long it took Bush and his billionaire banker buddies to create the current economic crisis, Barack Obama should have solved it all in four years even though opposed by a congress that refuses to do little more than pass their own pay raises.

Albert Einstein once said "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." Al, once again you nailed it. I don't know if there is a word for government by the stupid, but I fear that we are about to find out how it works. Or maybe it's too late. Google "government by the stupid" and you get 220 million hits!

I take this very personally. At the beginning of the Bush administration I was looking forward in eight to ten years to retiring. Then came the destruction of my retirement accounts by the unregulated robber barons of the banking industry. So I am still working. Now at the end of Obama's first term I'm back where I was eight years ago. If things continue as they have I might have a chance to retire in a couple more years though at a significantly reduced standard of living than I anticipated BB (before Bush). If Romney is elected and succeeds in gutting Medicare, reducing Social security and letting the bankers run wild again I'm sure that I will have to die at my desk.

There is no doubt in my mind that the Republicans are attempting to create a slave class that will support the one percent that controls the wealth in the United States. Let’s take a look at what creation of a slave class would involve.

1. Create an educational system that turns out citizens incapable of critical thinking and who will follow orders and accept their lot to work at mind numbing jobs to produce wealth for their overlords. This has already been largely accomplished. Teachers now are required to do little more than practice crowd control while turning out students that can barely pass standardized tests.

2. Place the burden of economic support of the government squarely on the shoulders of the slave class and exempt the ruling class from same. In progress.

3. Eliminate meaningful health care for the slave class while also eliminating birth control. This lets members of the slave class die off when they are no longer productive while ensuring continued production of future workers. An avowed goal of the Republican Party.

4. Create a police state where constant surveillance, suppression of free speech and control of mass transportation enhance feelings of helplessness in the slave class. Traveled by airline lately?

I’m not going to belabor this as it seems glaringly obvious. I remember in the 60s when a whole generation felt it was nearly in their grasp to make a brighter, friendlier future there was a radical group called the Weathermen. Though mistaken in their methods, their name came from the saying “You don’t have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing.” For those of us that are still able to and are still allowed to think the direction of the wind is all too clear.

For one who saw the promise of the bright passionate youth of the 60s die, the thought that we may be on the verge of a totalitarian government supported by what would amount a modern reincarnation of feudalism makes me wonder what new horrors we may be exposed to before the transformation is complete.
 
(addendum)
And now that the convention is over all I can say is - Seriously republicans? Seriously?