Halt! Danger ahead.
No kidding. On one hand, we have the wacko’s encouraging the wackiers to do something violent—perfectly in tune with the Second Amendment as interpreted by one more group of wacko’s, the ones who imagine the framers of the Constitution were omniscient.
On the other, we have our President speaking out of both sides of his mouth, already, again. Today’s New York Times features Barack Obama declaring simultaneously that taxes on the rich must be increased but then offering to “compromise.” Well. You could’ve knocked me over with a feather.
Couldn’t he wait until he was inaugurated to demonstrate how little dedication to the 99% he intends to show in his second term?
Yeah, I know. The loony press has already started to beat up on him for not being “more conciliatory.” I heard Dan Rather criticize the President. Rather can be forgiven by virtue of his advanced age and the obvious impairment of his mental faculties. But for those who have no such excuse, what’s with these people? Are they living in an alternate universe? Even before Obama won his second term, Repugs in Congress announced they wouldn’t work with him.
Yet he isn’t being conciliatory enough.
We have a perfect storm of a weak president and a nutty intransigent House of Representatives. With the Blue Dog Dems giving these nutcases a helping vote, the middle class stands to lose even more of its population while the poor—well, forget the poor. They may always be with us but they are ignored--except to be disparaged.
Psychology teaches us about projection. We see in others what we most despise and/or fear in ourselves. Thus, the lazy rich whine about their long “work” days (sitting at desks and gabbing) and carp about the worthless poor who want handouts. The “worthless poor” come into that office with mops and brooms and dust cloths, and they clean up the garbage and slop and filth left behind by the fat cats. The poor tramp out to fields at daybreak and harvest food they can’t afford to buy. They stand on swollen feet behind counters at grocery stores and 7-11’s and MacDonald’s, while their “betters” push pencils around, figuring out how to maximize profits by paying no taxes and puny wages. But we’re supposed to believe that lowering taxes on the wealthy and corporations increases employment.
Hasn’t worked yet, but that hasn’t stopped the media from treating that cynical argument as worthy of consideration. Again.
The middle class, many of whom hold on with their fingertips, are lying awake nights trying to figure out how to pay the mortgage, stock the refrigerator, keep the lights on, and--oh yes--squirrel away enough cash to send their three kids through college. Maybe if they took a third job.
Nah. They can forget it. Our politicians have put college beyond the reach of anyone not in the 14% tax bracket by virtue of living off their capital gains. You know, that money that people work so damned hard to accumulate. It's hard work opening the mail and reading the stock quotes. Poor things.
Can you believe Mitt Romney? He talks about people who feel entitled to food and housing and healthcare. I’d laugh my ample rear end off if this stuff didn’t pass some kind of ludicrous muster to make it into the arena of sober discourse.
We have the whiniest group of white men bitching about how women and minorities can’t stop whining about their lot.
We have the most dangerous individuals clutching their guns and passing laws declaring open season on everyone else because—get this—everyone else is so dangerous.
And we have politicians declaring war on constitutional democracy while insisting the President is a man nobody can work with. And, by the way, the only reason these despicable people made it back to Congress in the numbers they did is they jury-rigged the districts in their states to make sure those lazy entitled poor couldn’t vote as a bloc.
If Mr. Obama ever needed to stiffen his spine, clench his jaw, and insist on charging these criminals with gorging on human flesh, this is the time. Instead of waffling about cutting back on Medicare and Social Security, the President needs to come back to Americans with a strong proposal for single payer--the ONLY way to eliminate the excesses of healthcare in this country. We pay far more for less because we pay the fat cats who push pencils.
Everyone else built it for them. Isn’t it time at last for the Mitt Romneys of this earth to pay what they owe?