Greetings to one and all on this first day of January, 2011. I sincerely hope that it will be a much better year than the one we experienced in 2010.
While reading an inane “list” blog article on Yahoo.com about seven metropolitan U.S. areas that had been losing population, I was fascinated by all the right-wing reactionaries’ letters. Most of them revealed an appalling lack of education, lack of awareness of what’s going on in this country (let alone the world), and lack of critical-thinking capabilities. One woman’s letter, in particular, stood out because of the vitriole directed at “illegal immigrants” and social-welfare programs. I selected it because it was so typical in how it blamed America’s woes on “illegal aliens”; welfare fraud; abuses of the “generous” social safety-net we have; and others who are just gaming the system. Not a word about the real causes of our decline. I couldn’t resist replying to her. Here goes.
“Audrey:
Wake up and smell the beans. It is NOT the “illegal immigrants” who are causing the problems. It is the fat-cat CEOs who are outsourcing our jobs so that our middle-class is gone. In America, we used to MAKE things. Now, we just make things up! All the lardasses waddling up and down the aisles of Walgreens are busy complaining about the “illegals” and they don’t bother to vote or if they do, they vote for these right-wing, reactionary bastards (Republicans) who ship our jobs overseas; ruin our environment; dumb down our schools; and brainwash our people with that G**damned Fox Network which is nothing more than the Public Relations/Propaganda arm of the Republican Party, the same party that got us into this mess in the first place.
Instead of bashing Obama, why not take over the Democratic Party (the way the right-wing nutjobs took over the Republican Party); elect some people who will actually pass campaign finance reform so that we take PRIVATE MONEY OUT OF POLITICS; return our jobs to the U.S. for Americans; change our tax code and tariff schedules back to the way they were during the 1950s when we had a strong and vibrant middle class; bring back the unions; have universal health care (“Medicare for all”); provide universal free education; and create environmentally-sound and friendly jobs While we’re at it, let’s reverse the budgets for the defense department and the Dept. of Education for 25 years. I GUARANTEE that if you take these steps, this country would be absolutely GREAT once again. It’s because these corporatist bastards and extremely wealthy billionaires have taken over this country that we’re fat, dumb and broke. That’s not the kind of America I want to have. And since I was born here (as an eighth generation American) you can’t say that I’m here illegally. And since I always vote, I’ve earned the right to complain. How about you, Audrey?”
I doubt Audrey or her NASCAR-loving ilk would be able to understand my reply or, if they did, they would violently disagree with its premises. The absolute need for campaign finance reform was never more apparent than in the results of the mid-term elections a couple of months ago. The fact that these brainless morons (the “Walmart Wonders”) are supporting the Chinese economy and complaining bitterly about America’s disappearing middle-class shows that our electorate is ignorant of the causes of their demise. And by continuing to reelect these right-wing reactionaries and “ConservaDems” (“blue-dog” Democrats), these voters are continuing to pay for the bullets used to kill them. If we had genuine campaign finance reform, people with progressive ideas and a sense of civic duty would have a chance to get elected and do things for instead of against the people’s interests. We need genuinely-concerned political representatives such as Wisconsin’s Senator Russell Feingold or New Hampshire’s Senator Bernie Sanders, or outgoing Florida Congressman Alan Grayson, to get elected to office to advance a truly progressive agenda and do things to get this country back on the rails again, headed in the right direction. The sad reality is that we have the finest Congress (and Presidency) that money can buy, and of course the Supreme Court is the last bastion of privilege as we saw last January in the Citizens United ruling that basically said foreign corporations can buy political speech and influence our elections. I hope the proposal to put NASCAR patches on our politicians (to show who’s paying them off) passes. At least, with a little transparency we can see who’s really screwing us over.
As I said to Audrey, it’s time to “wake up and smell the beans.”
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The New America: Fat, Dumb, and Broke Saturday, Jan 1 2011
Politics and Social Commentary swatkinslaw 12:51 pm
Greetings to one and all on this first day of January, 2011. I sincerely hope that it will be a much better year than the one we experienced in 2010.
While reading an inane “list” blog article on Yahoo.com about seven metropolitan U.S. areas that had been losing population, I was fascinated by all the right-wing reactionaries’ letters. Most of them revealed an appalling lack of education, lack of awareness of what’s going on in this country (let alone the world), and lack of critical-thinking capabilities. One woman’s letter, in particular, stood out because of the vitriole directed at “illegal immigrants” and social-welfare programs. I selected it because it was so typical in how it blamed America’s woes on “illegal aliens”; welfare fraud; abuses of the “generous” social safety-net we have; and others who are just gaming the system. Not a word about the real causes of our decline. I couldn’t resist replying to her. Here goes.
“Audrey:
Wake up and smell the beans. It is NOT the “illegal immigrants” who are causing the problems. It is the fat-cat CEOs who are outsourcing our jobs so that our middle-class is gone. In America, we used to MAKE things. Now, we just make things up! All the lardasses waddling up and down the aisles of Walgreens are busy complaining about the “illegals” and they don’t bother to vote or if they do, they vote for these right-wing, reactionary bastards (Republicans) who ship our jobs overseas; ruin our environment; dumb down our schools; and brainwash our people with that G**damned Fox Network which is nothing more than the Public Relations/Propaganda arm of the Republican Party, the same party that got us into this mess in the first place.
Instead of bashing Obama, why not take over the Democratic Party (the way the right-wing nutjobs took over the Republican Party); elect some people who will actually pass campaign finance reform so that we take PRIVATE MONEY OUT OF POLITICS; return our jobs to the U.S. for Americans; change our tax code and tariff schedules back to the way they were during the 1950s when we had a strong and vibrant middle class; bring back the unions; have universal health care (“Medicare for all”); provide universal free education; and create environmentally-sound and friendly jobs While we’re at it, let’s reverse the budgets for the defense department and the Dept. of Education for 25 years. I GUARANTEE that if you take these steps, this country would be absolutely GREAT once again. It’s because these corporatist bastards and extremely wealthy billionaires have taken over this country that we’re fat, dumb and broke. That’s not the kind of America I want to have. And since I was born here (as an eighth generation American) you can’t say that I’m here illegally. And since I always vote, I’ve earned the right to complain. How about you, Audrey?”
I doubt Audrey or her NASCAR-loving ilk would be able to understand my reply or, if they did, they would violently disagree with its premises. The absolute need for campaign finance reform was never more apparent than in the results of the mid-term elections a couple of months ago. The fact that these brainless morons (the “Walmart Wonders”) are supporting the Chinese economy and complaining bitterly about America’s disappearing middle-class shows that our electorate is ignorant of the causes of their demise. And by continuing to reelect these right-wing reactionaries and “ConservaDems” (“blue-dog” Democrats), these voters are continuing to pay for the bullets used to kill them. If we had genuine campaign finance reform, people with progressive ideas and a sense of civic duty would have a chance to get elected and do things for instead of against the people’s interests. We need genuinely-concerned political representatives such as Wisconsin’s Senator Russell Feingold or New Hampshire’s Senator Bernie Sanders, or outgoing Florida Congressman Alan Grayson, to get elected to office to advance a truly progressive agenda and do things to get this country back on the rails again, headed in the right direction. The sad reality is that we have the finest Congress (and Presidency) that money can buy, and of course the Supreme Court is the last bastion of privilege as we saw last January in the Citizens United ruling that basically said foreign corporations can buy political speech and influence our elections. I hope the proposal to put NASCAR patches on our politicians (to show who’s paying them off) passes. At least, with a little transparency we can see who’s really screwing us over.
As I said to Audrey, it’s time to “wake up and smell the beans.”
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