And next month I will vote in what is being billed as a pivotal primary for my new party. My first primary! I've been a "down-low dem" for many years, but no more.
In the past, it was professionally expedient for me to remain neutral, because one of my gigs is as a consultant to a state agency. But that state agency's federal funding has dried up (siphoned off to feed the war machine) and my consulting work along with it. Now I'm "supplementing" with a 9-5, working for a guy who views liberalism as a character flaw. After yet another of his Friday diatribes against the left-wing bleeding heart socialists, I went home with the strange urge to google: "milton friedman is satan."
(great t-shirt slogan, eh?)
(Is the thought of someone other than big bro Google knowing what you google a somewhat discomforting thought to you? It is to me.)
(But I digress...)
While there were many results for good ole Milton, an inordinate amount of the results pointed to pages about "Paradise Lost" (the other Milton). How ironic is that? Google vomits up a succinct two-word summation of my thoughts about this country that I love so fiercely.
The thing is, I want to know what the HELL happened! My vote this November will be cast in the direction of accountability. I want some answers, damn it. And yes, I want some change. I simply cannot stomach another 4 years of business as usual. Oh boy, my first diary, and I'm working up to a rant now... apologies in advance, and please take pity on this long time lurker, first time diarist...
BUT BUT BUT I'm sick of being labeled a bleeding heart whenever I dare question the (big) business as usual direction our country has taken. The other day a fellow down-low dem said to me, "well, only nine more months of BushCo." I am not reassured. Who knows what fresh hell can be birthed in the next nine months? Picture Sigourney Weaver being disemboweled by the Alien baby and you will see the stuff of my BushCo nightmares.
Recently a wingnut acquaintance lobbed a factoid at me (no doubt gleaned from a fair & balanced source) that 53% of Americans now depend on the government for their income, up from 28% in 1950. Without a breakdown of the who and the why, it doesn't really mean much of course. But neocon nutjobs seem to envision millions of able-bodied slugs lounging around in their lazy-boys watching Jerry Springer while gleefully sucking on the government tit ("my tax dollars, damn it!!!"). I look at this within the context of what I see around me, and what I see is people struggling to keep their head above water here in the rust belt. We have a shamefully high number of working poor in this country. The sub-prime crisis is just one more example that the American dream is short-lived for many.
While the first of the baby boomers are hitting retirement age, Social Security is circling the drain. The dynamic of the American family has changed big time since 1950. Back then, you'd have stay-at-home June Cleaver taking care of Grandpa in his golden years. Now it's a nursing home at 6 grand a month, if you can afford it. If you can't, it's a county home and Medicare. Because June has to work well past her own retirement age just to save her own bacon. Pensions are a thing of the past, and people are living much longer despite serious health problems. What do you do when your SS and 401k distributions give you $1500 a month to live on, and your medications cost a thousand? You either die or go on Medicare. Because Big Pharma has stockholders to answer to dontcha know!
The working class is in trouble. There are people in genuine need, and I attribute that need as direct result of the disproportionate distribution of wealth in this country. Everything in America today is weighted toward big business. The fact that last year (their right-wing) SCOTUS overturned 100 years of anti-trust law, legally destroying the ability for small businesses to sell products competitively, tells me that. And it went COMPLETELY under the MSM radar. Trickle down economics = piss on the poor, because the wealth generated in this country is WAY too buoyant. Shit floats. And for too long we have eaten the shit this Administration has served up. Politely. With a knife and fork. Said please and thank you. Asked for seconds in 2004, even! What the hell...?
We don't make anything in this country anymore, because there are just too many incentives to outsource. And it's not just the sweatshop jobs. High tech is gone. Skilled manufacturing -- poof. Anything service-oriented is now CALL 1-800-BANGALORE. China floats our bond market, poisons out pets, and ships us tainted toothpaste and we do NOTHING about it. For so long now we have just rolled over and accepted it. Big Oil can make astronomical record-breaking profits while Mr. & Mrs. Average Joe have to feed their kids cheap carbs and high-fructose everything just so they can afford to fill up the gas-guzzling clunker in the (rented) driveway. And now little Joe Jr. has adult-onset diabetes at age 12 -- no health insurance of course -- so it's SCHIP for him... well maybe. But that's okay, because in a few years we can ship him off to fight the 100 years war so Cheney can build palatial retirement digs with his Halliburton dividends. Since 2001 the cost of higher education has gone up 35% (adjusted for inflation, of course), so at least we can rest easy that Joe Jr. will be too stupid to know he's being screwed. Praise Jesus, we'll just add him to the "family values" party with the rest of the sheeple, and it will be (big) business as usual for the foreseeable future.
So we will continue to roll over while big business offshores, outsources, privatizes, itemizes, and loopholes its way to multi-gazillion dollar CEO bonuses. Round and round she goes, etc. Well, I say no goddamn more. And my wallet and my vote will say no goddamn more.
Because we have got to get a spine, before the wingnuts vote for Soylent Green (with a heavy dollop of high-fructose corn syrup, of course)!
(deep breath)
So this is what comes spewing out from a down-low dem after a decade of pent up frustration. The question is, can we turn things around, can we change? The antonym of hope is despair, and I have despaired of this country for so long that the promise, the glimmer of hope, that we can change was finally the catalyst to get me to check the box: Democrat. Can we change? Yes, methinks, We Can.