Truth, a la Lewis Carroll
Last month’s headlines read, “It’s Over…Hillary Concedes!” Well, I wish it were over but it’s not…maybe it never will be. Yes, Hillary conceded and Barack is the Democrat’s presumptive candidate but that’s only fired up the neo-cons to go all out on their “let’s invent some new facts” program (Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly are burning the midnight oil reading Stephen King to stimulate their minds to fuel the invention of horror stories about pending liberal devastation). Just this past week I’ve received e-mails (forwarded from neo-con neighbors and acquaintances) or read in letters to the editor in our local paper regarding “proof” that Barack is secretly a Muslim and plans to destroy the U.S.; that Michelle Obama will turn the White House into a Mosque; that the book money McClellen received was from an Iranian bank; that all our troops in Iraq (except the cowardly unpatriotic weenies) support a continuation and/or escalation of the war; that high gas prices would be cut in half tomorrow if Congress would agree to drilling off-shore and in ANWR; that if gays are allowed to marry Armageddon is right around the corner; and on ad infinitum. My neo-con neighbor tells me that there is “proof” that the lower taxes are, the happier people are (so just discount the recent data showing the Danish as the “happiest people in the world,” even though they pay about 50% in taxes). I think the most insane was an article published in the Ontario Financial Post which claimed that we should be pumping more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as “The planet is the greenest it’s been in decades, perhaps in centuries”…because “(h)igher CO2 enables plants to grow faster and larger and to live in drier climates.” Just to help out I dashed outside and exhaled for a minute or two.
What I can’t figure is how on earth the people that actually follow this doctrine have made it so far. They must’ve had to actually hold down jobs, speak English, and balance their checkbooks from time to time. Logic tells us that if you cut your income, you must cut your spending (unless you have multiple plastic cards to charge against). That’s all well and good but the same public wants the government entities -- city, county, state and federal -- to provide lots of free services. Police and fire protection; adequate schooling for our children; Social Security; jobs; cheap gas; good roads; recreation sites; etc. But, they think this should all come from somewhere else but their pockets. Where, I might ask? Doesn’t all government income come from taxes?
It eludes my sense of logic that these same people who want government “out of our face” really want government “in our face,” or at least, in our bedrooms, computers and telephones. Listening in to personal telephone calls or checking out their library records they are in lock step (just as long as it is fellow neo-cons who are doing the listening). They are enamored with the Bush Administration’s total disregard for the Constitution and support their secrecy of actions that we’ve seen these past 8 years. They also want the government to keep plugging money into agricultural and oil subsidies; want them to take over the airlines so they can have cheap air fare with Champaign service and plush seating; keep wages high and prices low; and make sure the drug companies have continued record profits (at their expense). They want house values to double every three or four years, interest rates to stay around 4%, and have China and India import lots of cheap foreign goods but decry the exportation of jobs so that these cheap items can keep flowing in. They definitely want the government to ban abortion because “killing is bad,” but go ahead and bomb Iran because “killing is good!” They want to stop those “damn Mexicans” from coming across the border, except to provide them cheap labor for something agricultural and domestic services. Then its “let them in; let them do the work; and as soon as its done, kick their butts out.”
In his essay, The Fall of Conservatism, George Packard writes, “Now most conservatives seem incapable of even acknowledging the central issues of our moment: wage stagnation, inequality, health care, global warming. They are stuck in the past, in the dogma of limited government.” Limited government is great if you don’t demand anything of it. But, that’s not what working-class America demands. Basically, when talking about those who have less than they, the attitude is “if they can’t make enough, they should just die…unless, of course it’s me, then send the unemployment check to my house” philosophy that pervades the neo-cons. They seem to base this philosophy on “prayer will heal the righteous,” thus those that die probably weren’t. Biblical tales such as The Good Samaritan and seem to fall on deaf ears unless it’s the government who is designated the “Samaritan.”
History shows us that our American government was formed by the most learned and educated class of men of that time. And, whether you want this brought to your attention or not, the richest. And these were just not a little bit richer, they were rich in a time when there was a huge monetary and educational gap between them and the common folk. These were the elite of the elite. One has only to look at history to see that Washington, Adams, Madison, Monroe, Jefferson, Hamilton, Franklin and most the others who signed the Declaration of Independence were of well above average means and most had college education. Most were lawyers. One might say they were the educated elite. Yet today, if someone seems to have more education and/or better diction than the average laborer, they are branded as an “elitist” and are trashed at every opportunity.
And then we have the “Disgruntled Hillary Supporters for McCain.” Can there be anything that shows the complete disregard for solving problems in this country more than this group? Like a bunch of spoiled children they’ll forego the changes Hillary wanted to make (get out of Iraq; affordable health care for everyone; reforms on taxes and spending; etc) just to spite those who didn’t believe Hillary was the best choice. As Obama supports all those issues, it is pretty obvious that personality, race and gender are the primary interests of these people. Forget about making this a better country…that’s immaterial! If you wear a pants suit, you get my vote; if you wear a Brooks Bros suit, I’ll fight you to the bitter end. Stupid, stupid, stupid!
No…it’s not over. The trash talk; the innuendos; the purposeful misinterpretations; and the out and out lies will continue to grow. And, there are a good number out there that will believe and repeat. As a line in an 1876 nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll states, "I have said it thrice: What I tell you three times is true." And they call us a “civilized” society!