Republicans In Power and A Fearful America
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A short time ago I wrote an article about America being mentally ill, or at best a very, very confused nation. Once again it’s showing that same side of itself over the Ebola scare. Don’t misunderstand: Ebola is to be taken seriously and I believe that the CDC and the medical professionals are doing just that. Unfortunately those running for office are using it as a scare tactic to try to convince people that the sky is falling and they’re the only ones that can save us.
Desperate measures to be sure. The problem is that there are a lot of people who listen to the hyperbole and want to start wearing aluminum hats on their heads. These are the same people who like to walk around and figuratively pound their chest and shout about America being the greatest, strongest, best nation on the face of the earth. All the while they are doing this they insist on carrying the biggest and most guns they can strap to their bodies and are willing to fight their government at the drop of a hat. To say the least, this is a confused nation.
Recently some yokel here in Tuscaloosa, Alabama wrote a letter to the editor stating that he thought it was time for Alabama and other like-minded states to secede from the union. One person claiming to be an attorney, said he would be glad to draw up the paperwork for them just before he moved. I responded that I thought it would be a great idea and that I too would be moving because I would want erect a barrier to make sure the idiots stayed withing their own countries. People in Alabama rail at the federal government while not understanding that Alabama is a welfare state. For every one dollar that goes out of this state to the federal government it receives $1.83 in return. I have not seen the data on most of the other states like South Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, or even Texas, but I imagine they can make a similar claim.
I am sure there is a psychiatric diagnosis for what ails an entity that constantly works against its own self interest; is constantly in a state of conspiracy beliefs; is chronically complaining about its conditions while also saying it is great; behaves like it is ten foot tall and bullet proof, but tends to run for cover at the first sign of trouble. Americans were were happy about kicking Saddam out of Kuwait and back into Baghdad. In fact we had little to say when the allies gave Iran to the Shah, or when we were funding Osama to help kick the Russians out of Afghanistan. We were with the almighty honor code of the Geneva convention on torture until,…. September 11, 2001, and then …. BAM… there went the bravery, the honor code, all of the goodness, and it was then OK to not have so much freedom in this country.
America the Great was suddenly splitting hairs over exactly what was torture. Was it OK if people suddenly disappeared and were whisked away to some unknown location and never heard from again? Could we, the great America with our proud justice system scoop up people and hold them indefinitely without a trial in a made up prison in Cuba? Could the government start monitoring what we read in our libraries or on the internet? You bet your tiny little ass all of that and more suddenly became not only possible but became reality. Why, one may ask? It is really a very easy question to answer. We were never what we pretended to be, we were just isolated from reality and, in fact, we still are until it smacks us in the face again.
The people in this country, by and large, are spoiled brats. This is true more so for those who have been born since the mid 1970’s. There has been no draft so no one has to do anything to earn their rights in this country except be born under the right conditions. They are automatically entitled to all of their rights under the constitution and under civil law unless they really screw up. So they grow up feeling entitled and believing that this is the greatness nation without understanding why it may be a great nation. The vast majority of those born in this era are basically ignorant of what has made this nation what it is and really don’t care. They just know that they’re entitled. This is especially true with the states and their political representatives that I mentioned above. Those are all about hating the government.
If one wishes to understand a lot of this confusion it is necessary to revisit the presidential campaigns of 1968 and 1972. Richard Nixon and his campaign devised what is now known as “The Southern Strategy” which, contrary to the arguments of Pat Buchanan and other conservative talking heads, was not just about race. That would have been far too simple for a man as smart as Nixon, and he was a smart man. Rather, it was about combining the economic policies of the traditional Republicans with the social policies of the Southern Democrats who were also known as the “Dixiecrats.” It is where you combine the religious fervor of the Southerners with the Republicans view of low taxes and the “trickle-down” economic policies. That is really difficult to beat.
In the South some of the people have started to catch on to this trick but most have not. The social agendas still override just about everything else in the Southern states with the possible exception of Florida, which is only partly Southern. I will not disagree either that racial prejudice is also a major issue in the South also but the racial issue goes far beyond the South. To Republicans everywhere the word Democrat is synonymous with minority, especially African American. But, the initial push by the Republicans in 1968 and 1972 was basically Southern Baptist religious ideologies and Republican economics, and that is still where they are today. It is rural America ideologies of days gone by and ignorance of the world at large combined with the slick big corporation ideals of money and greed against the rest of the country.
In conclusion I must say that if the Republicans, as they are now being constructed, ever get total power in this country, it may be time for me to move to Canada. I keep waiting for the pendulum to swing back the other way but it may take too long to do so. Something has to change on the Supreme Court and the states have to change the way they have gerrymandered the voting districts or we are in for a long rough ride. I believe that the Democrats can hold onto the Presidency but I feel that congress will go to the nut cases until at least 2020. It it doesn’t change then I feel sorry for you young folks because this country will never be the America that I knew it to be.
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Before I became a republican I made fun of the people who demanded government keep it’s hands off their Social Security and Medicare and farm subsidies and other government goodies while hating Obama and socialism or being idiots. Now of course their “my people” so they are now referred to as patriots and real Americans. They vote also. You ought to hear my pal Congressman Sam Graves appeal to these patriots I talk of. Man is a genius at telling them whatever shit they want to here. Even though my pal sam has received hundreds of thousands in farm subsidies himself. The man is a real patriot.
Oh just come over here! Every other bugger does 😉
Terrible though Ebola is it’ll be yesterdays news soon enough. Not for the families of the poor sods who’ve died of course but in ‘world’ terms it’s already on the way out.
Bit slow on the uptake your Republicans eh? 😉
What a depressing article :-(, but unfortunately, one with which I agree entirely. I voted yesterday, and I don’t know whether anything I did would make any difference whatsoever, but I did all I can – other than continuing to encourage others to do their best to make the country as good as it was, or at least as good as they believe that it should be. I wish that I could bug out. The US is no longer the best. Despite the fact that Republicans and Democrats alike WISH that it were, I am convinced that the Republicans, in particular, are trying only to make their own particular environments the way they like without realizing that that same safety net about which they complain is what keeps them above water. People in the red states do not want to be poor and takers, so they believe that getting rid of programs for the poor and takers will, automatically, make them no longer poor and takers.
Sigh
I too wish I could leave. I actually have dual citizenship with the UK, and have family living there, but at this point in my life I suspect it’s too late.
Mike, I am like you in terms of age but I have had thoughts of moving to a more reasonable state to retire. However, I hate cold weather. I may just find me a little cabin in the woods with complete solar power and say screw it all. But you know me, pretty soon I would be organizing all of the animals to join the fight.
Marsha, I know exactly how you feel. Living in Alabama is much akin to living in a dark forest of ignorance where every talking point of the Republicans echo constantly. I try to point out to my friends who are Democrats that this battle is really not over if they do not want it to be. Obama was beaten 60% to 40% in Alabama last election which seems pretty bad. However, most of the people who might have voted for him did not. There are a lot of people in this state who now are able to afford some type of insurance because of Obama care but do not even realize it because this governor has bad mouthed it so much. However, A really big chunk of people now realize that because of the governor they can not get Medicaid. The more radical the far right gets the more people they will lose, I hope.