A Conservative government in an organized hypocrisy.
- Benjamin Disraeli
The greatest crimes do not arise from a want of feeling for others but from an over-sensibility for ourselves and an over-indulgence to our own desires.
- Edmund Burke
Go ahead; enlarge that graphic…and take a good, long look at it. If that doesn’t give you a solid idea of just how bad things are…well, I’ve no idea what it will take. That red line on the bottom is where we find ourselves today. To say that it’s a far worse place than any other post- WWII recession- longer, deeper, more intractable- would be a horrific understatement. Any reasonable person would look at that and think, “Hey, we all need to pull together so we can get our ox out of this ditch.” Then again, we’re talking about Congressional Republicans, of whom no thinking person would use “reasonable” as a descriptor.
I don’t pretend to know enough about the nuances of the debate over raising the debt ceiling to be able to predict what will happen if nothing is done. What I do know is that there can be no denying that Republicans are using this and every other opportunity they can find to remake America according to their craven, self-interested agenda. Not until those who have have more and those who lack lose what they do have will Republicans relax. Not until America is composed of a clearly defined master class and and equally well-defined servant class will Republicans feel that they’ve accomplished what they set out to.
Call me an idealist, but I fail to understand how it is that America is better off with a “trickle-up” economic philosophy. Are we to be OK with an America in which patients must decide between food and necessary medical treatment? Where senior citizens eat dog food? Where families live in their cars or under bridges? Is it acceptable to be an America where self-interest rules and Americans care only for those they know and/or are related to? Are we no longer a country that can see its way clear to looking out for those who, for whatever reason, simply lack the necessary resources to thrive, much less survive?
It’s a difficult thing for me to feel that Republicans are deliberately working to force the economy into a depression in order to advance their political prospects and the interests of their wealthy benefactors. Then again, it’s difficult to look at what’s happening in Washington and around the country and draw any other conclusion. Whether we’re talking about people who are evil, mean-spirited, self-absorbed, or some or all of the above, the end result is the same.
WE DESERVE BETTER.
