So we had an election and the President was re-elected.
During the election, we heard a lot of promises about making the better-off amongst us pay their fair share and the general notion was one of unyielding tenacity as opposed to the "compromises" that seemed to largely characterize negotiations during the previous term i.e. starting from a position of appeasement and then calling whatever resulted, a "victory".
All the while never using the word "pyrrhic"
And the other side called the resulting watered down version of what had been planned, an immoral, absolute affront to all things basic to humanity as the civilized world knows it.
And their side rallied around the dog whistles, and presented a Norquist mandated, Limbaugh orchestrated, unified front of outraged proportions.
And they created issues and conversations, where none truly existed. They created positions of contention through the repetition of lies until everyone forgot that we were responding to shit they made up, mostly on fox noise. And it worked.
And Our side splintered into various factions of "satisfied" "less-than-satisfied" etc as we spoke of victory and loss and the need to reach across the aisle and compromise.
They spoke of their "victories" and we spoke of bi-partisan compromise.
As the election wrapped up and the mandate we had won was deemed a "non-mandate" by their side and the five minutes of cooperation came and went in less than a news cycle. Boehner's comments of cooperation and negotiation were muffled and withdrawn and re-written as quickly as those of Rmoney's had been each time they leaked out during the election.
The tbagging voices and Norquist resumed their position of steadfast non-cooperation as though nothing had changed.
And Our side started reworking our positions and falling into the old postures, so we could once again call whatever resulted a "victory".
Maybe not that completely but I didn't hear much in the "like hell you will" department.
But, I am admittedly slightly jaded.
Ever hopeful, but slightly jaded.
I expect the relief of being a lame-duck to free the President to just-get-it-done, and if there are some broken tbaggers, so be it. In fact, it's a good thing. Make a few examples and see how the people of this broken nation react.
I think smacking down the rethugs loudly would be met with a resounding "hell, yeah" by the majority of the country.
Remember the insults and lack of respect the the Other side showed the President during his first term. The racially motivated slurs on his character- "race?- you mean he isn't a White Christian?- I had never even noticed" - they say when called on their bullshit.
These are not civil, respectful politicians- these are people (in their case, I use the term loosely) who hate the President and everything he stands for; there is no room for compromise with these guys. They need to be summarily shown for what they are and then dismissed- made irrelevant, unworthy of consideration so the rest of us can get on with rescuing the Middle Class, indeed, the country, from the broken situation that their lame-ass hero Dubya drove us into, with fox noise providing the soundtrack.
Fox proved it's irrelevance, so has the GOP, we cannot, through appeasement, allow them to frame the conversation otherwise.
Fuck bitter pills; I think of the bitter pill from Aunt Pearl in Greater Tuna.
It was strychnine-laced and she used it to eliminate neighborhood dogs that bothered her chickens.
We don't need bitter pills in any way, shape, or form. The ninety-nine percent has been passing those out for thirty years. Basta! Enough is enough.
The stakes are high, we all knew it coming into this election. That's why folks turned out to save ourselves from the Right.
Just because the media and the echo chamber and the Right say it wasn't a mandate, doesn't take away from the fact that it was a mandate.
Don't need to see the numbers on this one, just need to know what is at stake:
The Middle Class, the character of this nation- the same character that re-elected the President on the promise of a life preserver in this ocean filled with banksters and one percenters whose single common trait is that they worship avarice as gospel.
We need jobs, single payer health coverage, expanded and more complete help for homeowners, among other things; and the focus to not get distracted from these goals by wolf cries of "deficit"- no one worried when Dubya financed the wars and created this mess.
I often wonder since he truly believed it was "divine will" to invade Iraq, if the means of financing the invasion was revealed to him in the same way?
We have to spend on the right things and without fear- secure in our knowledge that it will work out.
Because it will work out, and just as the the election results came as a surprise to those bubbled in self-delusion, those sworn to Norquist will get the wake up call that will end them as a political force in this country.
And bring our Troops home from the endless wars.
Unplanned rant's over, I suppose.
Just sayin'
Peace.
Edit:removed title reference to "pills", returned to original title to avoid "redundancy" for those counting and it's more accurate to subject matter; removed any indentations because, obviously how one says it is far more important than what one says. tyvm.
