Some of you may remember this rant I wrote that made the rec list.
Well, today my father sent me another e-mail with the subject line, "This Will Piss You Off, but Somebody Needs to Get Obama a Teleprompter."
Glad he sent it because I have not been pissed off in a while. I didn't watch the video at first, opting for a cut-to-the-chase approach. Later, I watched the video and found that it was a collection of gaffes and rhetorical stumbles. So I am glad that I replied...and made it personal.
I didn't watch the video, but I assume it is a bunch of film clips edited together to show that he either 1. stumbles when he speaks or 2. appears to contradict himself. It's fine to point that stuff out, but I wonder if you really think we would be in better shape right now with McCain and Palin running the show. I fault Obama for not being FDR, and if he were primaried by a liberal, I would vote against him. But in this environment, he seems to be better than the alternative.
We are being held hostage by a splinter group of absolute idiots, heavily funded by libertarian billionaires, who think it is okay to default on the US's debt obligations and that it is reasonable to cut social security and medicare so they can give tax breaks to Paris Hilton so she can "create jobs." Which is to say that I don't think your email circle understands the game that is being played or the consequences of what they are wishing for.
All this bullshit rage they are cycling back and forth comes from paid internet posters like Andrew Breitbart (funded by the same groups) to start internet memes intended only to stoke rage and influence elections. Your side doesn't even run on issues or ideas anymore. All they say is tax cuts and muslims, and you guys line up like ducks in a row to gut the social security that you paid into your entire lives and fuck teachers out of their pensions. My standard of living will be lower than yours if I stay in education, or if I stay in this country...specifically because of the people you are voting for. So this is not a game to me where the good old boys sure show those high-falutin liberals. This is more like, republicans have branded teachers as parasites and freeloaders, so when I take the paycut coming in the next contract, will I be able to afford to send my son to pre-school in 3 years? Or, will he have asthma because emissions standards for factories have been gutted as a favor to industry campaign contributions? Or, will I be able to retire before 75 since financial market deregulation has left my pension under-funded? Or, when my kid is 40, will there be any food that is safe to eat or fertile soil to grow it in?
Remember when that famous liberal, Dwight D. Eisenhower, said, "Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you can do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible, and they are stupid."
It was back in the socially progressive halcyon days of 1954. They (now codified as the tea party) are still negligible in numbers--less popular in opinion polls than even atheists, who are perpetually in the doghouse--but they are very well funded and have their own media outlet in Fox news, whose disproportionate coverage of them makes them seem like they are a legitimate option.
This country is woefully off-track, mostly because of the legalized bribery of lobbyists and campaign contributions. Republicans want more of that because, as they decided in Citizens United, money IS speech. The more you let a handful of wealthy elites influence the election and frame the discussion, the less representative our government is. What is the republican plan to confront that issue? What is the republican plan to tackle human-made climate change--the most pressing issue our species has ever faced? What is the republican plan to make education work? What is the republican plan to reduce the environmental toxification that is rampant among poor children? What is the republican plan to curtail violence? What is the republican plan to decrease wealth inequity? What is the republican plan to reign in the banks who gamble--just flat our gamble--with our life savings? And when they lose, they pay a bunch of politicians enough money to insure that we bail them out and give them bonuses for fucking us. What is the republican plan to create jobs? What is the republican plan to do ANYTHING but coddle billionaires? Do they have a plan besides cultural warfare and taxcuts for rich people?
These are important, even vital issues, and typically democrats would be better at fighting them. Unfortunately, Obama isn't much of a democrat, so in that respect, I am not sure he is much of an improvement over Bush. But if we had a president who did not even have to keep up the APPEARANCE of being on the side of the people instead of Wall Street and multinational corporations, I can't imagine us being in a better place.
PS. Did you see where Eric Cantor said we won't help any of the victims of Hurricane Irene unless we cut more "entitlements?" He's right. Fuck'em, they are only Americans.
PPS. Did you see where Rick Perry has endorsed taking out life insurance policies on retired teachers so that when they die, the state collects the money?
PPPS. That seems like a party full of sociopaths, but hey, vote your conscience.
PPPPS. Please don't forward me any more emails from your friends. You are going to vote for the guy who wants to destroy my union, take my tenure, and replace me with two adjuncts making 10k/year, and no amount of research or correction will change that fact. You have the money and the power on your side, so business and Wall Street will always win, and shareholder profits will always be more important than any other factor of American life. I am done talking politics with you, so let's just kick back and enjoy the fall of western civilization together.