Monday, February 14, 2011

I Wonder When . . .

I wonder when the Republican Party lost its independence. The interesting thing about American politics is that sometimes you can’t tell when a coup d’état has occurred. Because Republicans represent American Bidness, as opposed to the American people, every once in a while the “bidnessmen”, whom I now call The Dukes, get it into their heads that they want to run things a bit more directly. So, they start writing scripts for their employed sword-carriers, whom I sometimes call The Barons, such that their employees appear a bit . . . well crazy. That is generally the first sign of the coup d’état. The next sign is that the words tumbling out of the mouths of the employed sword-carriers suggest something so antithetical to our American values that one must assume the employers, the Dukes, have become unhinged.
While the royal Republicans and their crazed teabagger serfs continue to speak about becoming fiscally responsible, something one does not normally associate with republicans, their only actions so far, as the loyal opposition now recently in charge, are to propose severe limits on personal freedoms, i.e., attacks on abortion policy, responsible family planning policies, and, of course, their old favorite Gay and Lesbian couples wishing to marry. They seem oblivious to the plight of ordinary working people currently seeking in vain for employment. Of course, they also are not normally associated with caring about ordinary Americans.
Since our current economic plight was brought about through republican policies, e.g., huge tax cuts for the wealthiest citizens, coupled with complete freedom of action for our greediest and least mentally competent citizens—bankers—one might have thought they would lay low for a while. But no, they are now all about reducing taxes further and eliminating any and all programs that benefit the American Middle Class. It’s interesting to observe the change in philosophy between the old robber baron days, and now. In days of yore, people of the ilk of Henry Ford understood that, in order to have any customers willing and able to buy his products—Ford automobiles—he would have to help create a middle class. People would need decent paying jobs so that they could afford not only a place to live and some food, but also one of his cars. Now, the robber barons, people like the Cock Brothers and Rupert the Magnificent, seem not to understand that the great American Middle Class is what made America the powerhouse it has been for the past fifty years. At one level, they seem intent on destroying the educational engine that helped create the Middle Class—the public school system in America. And at another level, they are doing their best to reverse Henry Ford’s policies by sending jobs abroad to China and other undemocratic societies. Their focus on low cost as the sole criterion of American Bidness, eliminating criteria such as quality, seems aimed at eliminating the Middle Class.
You have to ask yourself . . . what the hell are they thinking? Are they that stupid, that short-sighted, and that greedy???
We’ll have to watch and wait, I guess, to see how the next chapter in the great republican coup d’état plays out in this best of all possible worlds.
In the meantime, I plan to continue getting my News from Stewart and Colbert. At least, they make me laugh. It’s safer for my TVs also. I’m less likely to throw a rock through the TV screen.
Meanwhile, let’s enjoy the coming Spring . . .



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