Republicans in general and the Bush administration in particular are excoriated quite often here at Dailykos and elsewhere. A litany of their high crimes, their misdemeanors and their just plain being meanies fills the blogosphere and increasingly the airwaves.
But, really. It's not like they don't care about America. They really do.
They really, really care about what's happening to you, on account it's on purpose.
No, really. The Bushies do care.
See for yourself...
Republicans care; they care about their money. Wealth is being diverted elsewhere, and as things get worse, the pace of the exodus is accelerating.
They mind that five-sixths of all Americans have health insurance; that's too many! There's a lot of money being left on the table! When only one-sixth have health insurance, the Bushies will feel better.
They care that there are only 30 million Americans living in poverty. The wage suppression team needs to start bringing its "A" game. Labor needs to be disciplined. People more smuggled-in slaves, er undocumented laborers.
The Bushies know the names of the kids who died in Iraq today. They make a point of sending reenlistment notices to their families, because they get off on the extra pain and suffering. I mean, we're not really talking about human beings, here. We're talking about People Who Don't Matter.
They care that our students score at the bottom of the list of the top 30 industrialized countries. It's a sign that they've lowered expectations, and self-engineered validation that it's now time to pack it in and go invest in countries that have upgraded their education systems without all that pesky nonsense about having a say in government. China, for example. Russia looked soft on regular people, but Russia's coming back around to the oligarchical way of looking at things. Good on them.
The Bushies care that the dollar is now the number two currency in the world. They've been shorting the dollar all along to finance other projects. That they are in position to drive the dollar down when it suits them is hardly coincidental.
They care that your vacation dollar buys less than it ever has out of this country. Means there is less likelihood of the riff-raff following them overseas once America is sucked dry.
They care that Iraqi veterans have to beg for their medicine. The idea is that there ultimately be no Iraqi veterans at all. To die is to be martyr; to live past one's usefulness to the regime is an insult. Clearly, a four-time veteran in a wheelchair after taking a round for his CO is a coward and rightly should have been shot.
They care that you have to beg for your medicine; in fact, they're happy to jack up the prices so you'll be more likely to have to go without. Old people having to choose between food and pills is especially entertaining.
They care that your Mom can’t figure out which Medicare plan will actually keep the government’s promise to be there for you. They care so much, that they are working to make sure that none of the plans will do anything but lower the life expectancy of America's seniors. I mean, they already contributed what they can. Why let them live long and healthy retirements, and suck on the public teat? Like rich people can afford to carry everybody else. Not going to happen. They'd rather fund China's pensions, so that's what they are going to do.
They care that you spend twice on gas than you did before the war. That was the point all along -- helps extract American wealth more efficiently, one tank of gasoline at a time.
They care that you can be arrested and detained and tortured and not even charged even if you’re a citizen. Citizenship was a charade, anyway, rights something to make the aristocracies look good while fighting Communism. With no more USSR, no reason to even pretend to be nice to the regular working stiff. Either they work, and fight, and vote appropriately, or it's off to the boiler room for them all.
They care that our allies scratch their heads and mourn the America we once were. That they style themselves equals to America is insulting; they are vassals, or they will be reminded very swiftly why they are the dogs at our feet. Allies and equals, indeed!
They care that the mainstream news tells their lies. After all, that's why they were bought in the first place.
They care how history will depict them, for the rich and powerful and protected fear damage to their reputations of all things...especially when well-deserved.
They care that Bush has disobeyed court orders and is King. It feels great for them to be what neoconservatives have always been: closet admirers of Benedict Arnold, who wanted to be Viceroy of the defeated Colonies, and Aaron Burr, who wanted to be King of America.
They care that one quarter of the country is one medical emergency away from bankruptcy. Fearful, fragile households are more tractable, more easily cowed into submission.
They care that bankruptcy won’t help you anymore either. The very idea of little people expecting debt relief is offensive. Only shareholders and large corporations like Delta Airlines are allowed to profit from not making a profit...because that's an excuse to afflict the little person by taking his pension and benefits away.
They care that we pay more for less medicine than our socialist allies. Lower life expectancy means fewer retirees, thus more money to give to oil corporations and security contractors.
They care that Pat Tillman was killed by his own troops. He made a call for self-sacrifice; the Bushies obliged him.
They care that the Pentagon lied to us about his death. They care about Jessica Lynch, in the same way -- their usefulness to the regime ended the second the truth embarrassed the regime.
They care that troops have insufficient armor; there is no more efficient way to embezzle public funds than running tax revenues through a war zone. Ill-equipped troops shows the program is working.
They care that you are not allowed to see caskets of dead soldiers. The more distant you are from the costs of war, the more you will tolerate their asking you to die more and pay more.
They care that every two days, 6 US soldiers are dead and 40 are wounded. It's getting hard to supply weapons and armor on paper (and pocket the embezzled proceeds) for troops that aren't there. At least the wounded won't get sufficient care, so there's some satisfaction in that.
They care that your children and grandchildren will be paying this bill long past their time. That way, there's no reason to not run up the credit card; someone else is paying the tab.
They care that Osama Bin Laden is still around; his existence is the sine qua non of the greatest train robbery in history.
They care that the news confused Osama Bin Laden and Barack Obama. The more pervasive the xenophobia, the better. The Bushies thrive best where Americans are more suspicious of one another than of the very people who attacked us on 9/11. They encourage this attitude; it's worth trillions of dollars to them.
They care that Habeas Corpus is gone. It's only gone for you, and that means you'll be gone when it suits, and nobody is looking, and nobody will be missing you once you're gone.
They care that tax dollars went to rich churches...at least on paper. It's a great way to funnel launder money and send it to political campaigns and conservative causes, some with openly hate-minded agendas, and staunch approval of terror tactics, so long as it's done against American women and those who seek to help them.
They care that we are torturing thousands of detainees across the world. It's a pilot program to see what will work best to send the message of fear to Americans, should such tactics ever be required to maintain order here in the United States, as they continue to eviscerate and gorge themselves on the carcass of the Republic.
They care that there is an attack on Americans in Iraq every 15 minutes. Justifies sucking Iraq dry, too.
They care that Afghanistan is falling back into Taliban hands. Will justify leaving nothing behind, now that Afghanistan no long has anything of worth to the Bushies.
They care that education has had more cuts than in ten previous administrations. The less free the mind, the less free the bodies. And in Bush's America, that's the whole point.
They care that veterans’ benefits have been desperately cut down. Who wants a bunch of broken old soldiers limping and rolling around, anyway? Bad press...not that the press even notices that veterans exist.
They care that they have broken the law. It's done to make the point: Leona Helmsley was right, and laws really are for the little people.
They care that they are corrupt, and take great care to punish anyone who comments on it too openly.
They care that redistricting doesn’t count the votes of millions of Americans. Otherwise, why bother redistricting in the first place?
They care that voters’ lists have been scrubbed. People need to doubt their ability to vote; they need to know the system is impossible to beat, that it is unfair and unreliable and that they need to stop even trying and just accept the cashing out of America quietly.
They care that people and science suffer because of lack of stem cells. Long life expectancy and good health raise expectations of material and social progress. People need to live short, violent, despairing, impotent and pain-filled lives. That is what enriches the Bush agenda at home and abroad.
They care that millions of Democrats have no homes in the Gulf. What they weren't quite ready to do, Nature did for the Republicans -- nuked New Orleans.
They care that they have not kept one promise regarding the Gulf coast region. It is treasonous to keep promises to enemies of the regime, and regular Americans are the most dangerous thing to the Bush regime.
They care that middle class Americans are losing ground. That there even exists such a thing as a middle class is a threat, as such would be the nucleus of a revolutionary movement to reverse their cashing-out of America.
They care that the FDA cannot protect us from e.coli. The sicker Americans are, the less capable of resisting the cash-out juggernaut.
They care that the EPA is more interested in turning America over to manufacturers. More accurately, they want the EPA to not look at abandoned factories and physical plant too closely as manufacturers, friends of Bush, abandon America for keeps.
They care about being hypocrites: secretly pedophiliac conservatives, politicians on the take, drug addicted talk show hosts. They take care to have the pet media act as public relations consultants on their behalf, and make martyrs out of such persons. That, and to guard their reputations, especially those that deserve excoriation.
They care that our schools have lost prominence. Fewer bright minds means fewer dangerous leaders in the future, and less chance of reprisal when a robbed America looks about for justice at the expense of those who stole from her...them or their descendants. The fear of the rich of justice from below is eternal.
They care that thousands of immigrants are being held in prisons just for trying to come here. If there was tighter control of the media, those workers could be put to use making things or picking fruit or carrying rocks, for no money at all.
They care about a war on science. So long as there is no advance in science, there will be no surprises, and their regime will be most likely to persist.
They care that we have smart bombs and dumb kids. A society with advanced weapons and backward ethics is more violent-prone, and more easily turned to destruction and cruelty.
They care that Bush takes more vacations than anyone. The less of his valuable time wasted on America, which has been written off already, the better.
They care about the truth. They fear it greatly. They fear it so much that they are willing to break every law, including the Oath of Office of the President, to keep truth from being heard.