Other suspects are the ministers and priests and fundamentalist preachers who led all their all-too-eager-to-forsake-genuine-reasoned-thought flocks to cast ballots for candidates based solely on their advertised level of support for constitutional amendments that would ban gay and lesbian marriage, constitutional amendments that would ban all abortions (including those necessary to save the life of the mother), candidates who promised to legislate against the scientific use of flash-frozen embryos (the overwhelming majority of which are destined for incineration as bio-hazards), and those who would work on behalf of “intelligent design” and in opposition to the fact of evolution. (Yes! Evolution is a fact. Doubt it? Consider that “man’s best friend” was once a wolf, or that polar bears started out as grizzlies. It’s the “theory of natural selection” that the pontificating ignoramuses and their ignorant parishioners are completely confused about.)
Certainly, for some of the reasons cited above, the biggest malefactors include you and me. A person’s vote is an expression of his or her opinion; what he or she does and does not want, insofar as governing policy is concerned. Nonetheless, for friendship’ sake, for peace in the family, for cordiality in the workplace, or for just cowardly reasons, we refuse to draw the connection. This isn’t to deny anyone his or her vote. Rather it’s to suggest all of us have an absolute right to decide with whom we will associate on a friendly basis.
Let’s use a simple example on this one. Let’s suppose that you and your next door neighbor work for an employer who has only five employees. Times are tough. The employer gathers everyone together and says, “I can either give some of you a raise, which will require that I layoff two of you, or I can forego giving raises this year, and keep all of you aboard. I’m going to put the matter to a vote. You decide which option you prefer. If you elect the one where I layoff two of you, you’ve also got to say who those two should be.”
If you knew that your neighbor voted to have you canned, exactly how friendly would you continue to be towards that person? Well, every one of your relatives, friends and associates who voted GOP in 2004, in 2006, and in 2008, and who yet remain Charlie McCarthy to Rush and Sean and Bill and Fox News voted exactly that way. Yet you fail to castigate them, to rail against them, to remove yourself from their presence, why?
Oh! You didn’t think of it that way. Perhaps you should. Because the righties who catapulted us into the sloshing excreta-filled hog sty are at it again, only harder. They did not get the memo last November. They’re picking nits in Obama’s stimulus package, threatening to damn us all for the sake of a couple million dollars, out of the $900 billion — granted, it will likely climb much higher — forecast thus far. But it’s “pork,” you parrot. You want pork, refer back to the third sentence of this paragraph.
(A pop quiz: Question 1.) If it cost auto execs $23,000 to use the corporate jets to get to Washington and back [acknowledged as poor PR, but given the larger picture . . .], what percentage is that of the $35 billion needed to forestall economic disaster? Question 2.) What percentage is $23,000 of the $350,000,000,000 the finance industry received from Bush & friends, no strings attached? Question 3.) Of the “pork” the Republicans claim is larding up the stimulus package, what proposals specifically compose that pork, what percentage are they of the total, and how much ammo will you need to protect yourself and family when all hell breaks loose this summer?)
In all human history, no human or group of same has ever faced what currently confronts any or all of us. Textbooks are but modest guides. In other words, no one knows what might work. The only thing we know for certain is that the tired old Republican notions our relatives, friends (??? word choice) and associates supported, the ones that put us here, sure as shootin’ will not lead us anywhere but to drowning in the muck. So the next time you encounter any of them expounding the Republican line, summon the courage and decency to thank them for all they’ve managed to do to us so far, then, as you’re turning away, tell them to just shut up.
Recommended Reading: Harold Meyer’s op-ed, “The New Landonists” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/04/AR2009020403117.html).
— Ed Tubbs
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