Revolution, dropping out and soup
I'm gonna touch on three topics this evening. Political fiasco, young people dropping out and the soup I made today.
First of all smileycreek and I have been talking about the upcoming government shutdown, as has everyone. We both firmly believe we are witnessing a revolution. This revolution isn't being waged on battlefields, at least not yet. This one is happening within the GOP. It's a political civil war that's taking place.
We know the GOP has been taken over by about 80 Tea Party members. We are all hostages to them because the GOP leadership is completely afraid to control them. They honestly don't care about national election results but rather are hell bent on dictating from within the House of Representatives what the politics of our country will be. They have no respect for either political party or the way politics has been done for 237 years in America. They are revolutionists every bit as much as those who declared independence from England in 1776. The Tea Party has declared their independence from the government and any political party in power today.
They basically desire to roll back everything that's happened since the Great Depression. They will end a women's choice in having any control over family planning or their own bodies. They will end voting equality and rights. They will destroy all unions both private and public. They will privatize everything. They will give Wall Street unfettered control of our money whether saved or invested. They will end all environmental regulation of any industry.
More of my mind farts below the orange table doily
Why do we believe this is a revolution? Simple. It's due to all they are doing and have declared they will continue to do. What we are going through right now will happen again in all likelihood in two weeks and again in two months. Demands will be made which, if not fulfilled, will result in the shutdown of government over and over. This is the new usual. There simply is no appeasing Tea Party folks. Give them an inch and they'll take a mile...over and over again. Governance isn't what they want. They want total dictatorial control over us all.
What these Tea Party folks are doing right now has even been declared to be a "quasi-impeachment" of the President of the United States. In each of the two most recent national elections, the GOP lost. So their response is to double down and essentially not accept the outcome of our national elections. The Tea Party revolutionists have completely taken over the GOP and the purse strings of our entire nation. And they don't care what it costs us and our nation to force their agenda down all our throats.
OH, I made a slow cooker soup today. Chicken sausage, chicken broth, cannellini beans, mushrooms, spinach, garlic, eight minced home-grown Eisley peppers, cracked pepper corns and salt...VOILA! A nice hardy soup for a fall evening.
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I've had conversations lately with folks about the role of government. The one thing that is universally said no matter where they stand politically is
government's now a total mess and does not work. Democrats want to move forward but aren't allowed to by the GOP. The
GOP Tea Party, is a dictatorship that could care less about being in the minority or that most people don't want what they want. That's simply irrelevant.
Polls now show the majority of people disapprove of every one in this free-for-all. President Obama's handling of this showdown is unfavorable, as are both the Democrat's and Republican's handling of current events on the Hill. SO, this means no one has true public backing. Everyone in this dog fight is a "loser" as far as the majority of the public is concerned. What to do? No one knows.
I had a young patient come into my office last week. She's educated, intelligent and works for a veterinarian. The subject of the government shutdown came up. She told me she won't even vote anymore "because it doesn't matter." I assured her it did. She corrected me by speaking intelligently about what is happening now with many examples of just how it actually hasn't mattered one bit how she's voted. She voted in the past two national elections but has since become an absentee ballot voter and told me she'll give it to her mom and tell her mom to vote for her. WHAT?
So I asked her what she plans on relying upon since she's totally given up on voting and politics. She said, "create a community of my friends because you can't count on adults and their world anymore." She also said, "voting is for my parents' generation. They still believe it makes a difference." She told me she lives where she can grow her own food and has water. This is pretty grim but it's also very realistic IMO. I got it.
This wasn't the first time I've come across this attitude in young people. Another person I had a discussion about this subject a couple months ago told me "government is untrustworthy." He felt totally betrayed by Washington because of how much his college tuition is going to cost him now. He blamed everyone, not the GOP or the Democrats. He said, "anything you think you can count on will be taken away." Keep in mind Obama did remove the "middle man" (banks) from jacking up tuition costs, but now look at what's happened since then! This young man is spot on feeling betrayed IMO.
I asked him what he plans on doing. He said he and his friends count on each other. There it is again. You can't count on government because it is unreliable and will betray you. You will need to rely on your friends to make it in the world.
I believe these two young people are right in their assessment. I personally feel like a "tweener" between my parents' generation when government really worked and the young totally disillusioned folks I talk to today. I don't have any real belief that what I've invested in in social security and medicare will be there for me. The contract I've had with the government all my life just won't be fulfilled. In essence I expect to be betrayed.
I also believe we can only succeed locally in politics. We will see more regional politics and less federal politics determining how we are able to live where we live. In California at least we are progressing forward because we have a Democratic super majority. Other areas of the country will descend into the past ways of racism and sexism I'm afraid.
What do you think about this?
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