I wrote the following rant in 2016 during the heat of the campaigning as tRump was taking the Republican nomination. There was a lot going on at the time and I feel this rant got buried in the news of the day, tRump said this, tRump said that. So here it is again with a brief update at the end:
I would like to ask the Republican Party, in particular, and those in Congress, Why have you declared WAR on ME? I am only one of many with a disability. I survive on my V.A. comp check and a meager Social Security Disability check. If not for the V.A. medical care, (A single payer system that works), myself and many more of my Brothers and Sisters would be dead or living in the streets, as many are today.
About my SSDI, it amounts to about $500.00 a month, (which is far less than you are willing to spend for ONE PLATE at a fundraiser), and I know others that only receive as much. I would have a little more money, but I pay $200.00 a month for Medicare. How would anyone get by on that amount when a small apartment cost $600.00+ a month and still need to pay for utilities, gas in their 30 year old car, (assuming they even have one), food, clothing, health care co-payments and maybe a student loan because, at 60+ years of age, they needed training for some new job that no one will hire them for because of their age?
You look at me and see that I have all of my body parts and think I should have a job. As the people have been asking since the 90’s, “Where are the jobs?” You have shipped the jobs overseas so you don’t have to pay the laborers a minimum LIVING wage. You support big corporations and the filthy rich with tax breaks and subsidies yet (in some places at least) tax the meager Social Security checks. You say we shouldn’t get “handouts” because it makes us “lazy” and we are getting “fat” off of tax-payers money. People are getting “fat” because of the toxins you permit corporations to put in our food. People are not “lazy” because they have no jobs, there aren’t any!` I do not know of any “takers”, you complain about, that have gotten so rich off of their Social Security or off of Welfare, that they stashed their money overseas. The same cannot be said of your corporate and rich “welfare queen” friends.
You don’t want to pay for health care when people are sick because the corporations are allowed to dump toxins in the water, on the land and even into the air we breathe. That seems ok with you as long as billionaires are fattening your wallets. Bribery was illegal 50 years ago, and now you take bribes every day. Why are we, as taxpayers, giving you a salary and free health care, (which you deny to everyone else), when the billionaires give you millions in “contributions”? You don’t even do the JOB you are being paid to do, representing ALL of the people of this country.
The way I see it, you are all guilty of nothing short of treason. You have sold our democracy to the very people that seek to destroy it. That by definition is treason, punishable by death according to the laws that were put in place long ago. The corporation “persons” that you give your allegiance to are just as guilty of this as you are and deserve the same penalties.
As a Veteran, I swore an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States against ALL enemies, foreign and DOMESTIC, an oath I have not been relieved from. Since you have declared war on me and every one like myself, how can I consider you to NOT be enemies of this country? You scream about class warfare yet the rich have fired the first shots and met little resistance…so far. You don’t want to raise the minimum wage so people can survive on two job’s worth of income, meanwhile you join the rich in ripping off the American people. You should be ashamed instead of empowered.
I am glad I am not a woman as it appears you have declared war on them as well. Heaven forbid that I am not a disabled woman with 3 children she was forced to give birth to, working two jobs for less than you would pay a man, trying to cover health care costs for her family, repair a 30 year old vehicle and keeping it fueled so she can get to work and still put toxic food on the table. Then you wonder why she is sick and disabled. You don’t want to pay for the misery that YOU are causing the American people, so you ship the jobs to countries where you CAN dump your toxins and pay so little in wages. You just go on writing laws to protect the corporations and the rich from any retaliation by those they have hurt, be it medical care or outright lawsuits for the damage they have done.
You yell about Muslim terrorists, but ignore Christian terrorists that are no different from any other terrorists. You complain about immigrants coming to this country. Maybe they are coming here because your corporations won’t pay enough to live on in their own countries or are seeking refuge from the wars you keep starting. You call them rapists and murderers and terrorists when, from what I can tell, we elected them to office! Domestic terrorism is just fine with you. As long as they are “Christian” white people. Makes me ashamed to be a white man. I quit being “Christian” a long time ago because of the hypocrisy I saw there and they called me “reverend” when I was doing my duty in the U.S. Army. Well, to hell with your “God” and all the BS you preach. Seems like Jesus said “turn the other cheek” not “shoot first”.
Yes, hypocrisy runs deep in you people. You want “legalized rape”, you want forced birth, (not pro-life), then won’t give the newborn any health care, jobs, clean food, water and air or an education, yet you will be sure they get plenty of guns. Guns for what, hunting up a meal? No! Guns to kill each other off with so you won’t have to provide the necessities of life. Guns, so you can keep your prisons full. You criminalize any race or persons that isn’t “white” or just like you. You preach hate and fear, you deny critical thinking to the students and just train them to pass tests. You rewrite the history books to make sure that things like slavery and oppression are not talked about. You dumb down the people.
You deal out misinformation at every opportunity, keep the people confused and distracted from the real issues. You want everybody to be ignorant, afraid and superstitious, as it is easier to control them that way, so you thump the Bible at every opportunity. I don’t think any of you really believe in a God of any kind, or you would not preach hate and guns. You declare war on every one that does not agree with you. Is this not what was done in Germany 80 years ago? We fought fascism then and now I see fascism rearing its ugly head in my own country and you are the ones permitting it.
You brag about how great Ronnie Raygun was. I suffered 18 years without health care and on half of my V.A. comp under Raygun because of “star wars”. I was not the only one that Raygun broke the law to cut and get his money for “star wars”, and we see how that failed program worked out. Raygun started your campaign against the middle class and the poor, he was an ass! Actually, I believe he was just a figure head and Daddy Bush had a 12 year reign. Then we followed that up with 8 years of Baby Bush. That is 20 years of Bush dynasty and Clinton was in bed with you, at least to some extent. Look at the damage that has been done to the country, and the people, and even to the Earth itself. Do you care? I think not! Your pockets are padded by massive bribes from the rich, so why should you care? The rich won’t be affected by a poisoned Earth, or will they? Who cares, right?
Why should the rich help the commons when they despise them so much? It doesn’t matter to them if our bridges collapse, the roads crumble and dams fail. They don’t want disaster relief for floods, tornados or other disasters. Of course not, it doesn’t affect them, they just write it off on the “taxes” they don’t pay and you make sure they get “their” money from the taxpayers that do. It’s not just the Koch brothers, but every one of the filthy rich rolling in their money bins that don’t want “taxes”.
In case you didn’t know, taxes are the way the government gets its income to operate these needed programs. You constantly scream about the taxes on the rich being too high, “We need to cut taxes” you say, then you raise taxes on the poor and the middle class. So, you take away the revenue and then you say, “We need to cut spending.” “We don’t have the money to help the people, so we have to do away with Social Security, Medicade, Medicare, infrastructure spending, disaster relief, “Obamacare” and anything else that helps the commons”. Oh yes, I fully understand that kind of thinking. Give your paycheck back to your boss and tell your family that you don’t have enough money to put food on the table. Work long hours so that your boss has all the money he needs for his new yacht, then go home to your sick children and tell them they can’t see a doctor. Why? Because you “don’t have any money”! Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? You give the money to the rich and tell the poor, the sick and disabled people to “hurry up and die.” Just how lame and heartless can you be?
And one more thing, The Koch brothers have pledged almost a BILLION dollars to buy the government and all three branches thereof. I wonder how much would they have paid in taxes and how far that money would have gone to government helping those in need and creating jobs by restoring our infrastructure.
Yes, I am what you call “a taker”. What do you suppose I do with all that money I “take”? I stimulate the local economy in ways you refuse to. I support local businesses by making most of my purchases there. I avoid almost all of the corporate stores like Walmart to the best of my ability, sometimes I have no choice, my phone for example. I contribute to the food bank when I can spare the cash. I do business with the local thrift stores so they may help those less fortunate than myself. I volunteer my service in teaching science to the children and bringing the love of learning to their hearts. I have managed to stay out of your private prison system, I don’t lie, cheat or steal (as seems to be the norm for you), I help others when I can.
The government you hate so much, gets a little something back from me in return for the money I “take” and I do pay my taxes, gladly! By paying my taxes I am supporting my government’s programs for helping those in need, repairing our infrastructure and getting paychecks to government employees. As a “taker”, I do far more in one month than you have done in the last 8 years for the American people and that probably isn’t saying much because I am on a fixed and limited income. What does that say about you? I don’t believe any of you can name ONE thing you have done to help the American people, but the list of what you have done for the corporations and very rich “welfare queens” is extensive.
I know I have only scratched the surface of what you are doing, but I grow weary of writing. I’m not that good at putting my thoughts down, however this needed to be said. Since you have declared war on US, I consider you to be enemy combatants in every sense of the words. All of you are worse than all of the things you complain about combined. You are not worthy to be called “American” nor are the corporations you worship.
You are all guilty of war crimes, crimes against the American people, crimes against other countries, crimes against humanity and crimes against our planet Earth itself. How many of you would survive a modern day Nuremburg trial? I will rally my Brothers and Sisters-at-arms to the cause, they took the same oath I did. “ALL enemies, foreign and DOMESTIC”!
I am a white, male VOTER and no matter what you do, I will NEVER vote for a Republican again no matter how awful the other candidate might be. (FYI, the last Republican I voted for was Nixon). You can gerrymander the districts to your hearts content, you will not silence my vote. I will spread my voice and expose your lies to everyone I meet and do my best to get you and your NAZI cronies out of power. This is NOT the America I defended and I will do what I can to bring it back in spite of you.
I would sign this “respectfully yours” but you have not earned my respect and, even as a “taker”, I am NOT “yours”.
Rollin R. Grey III – Disabled AMERICAN Veteran
* This is only my second post. On my first one, I was called “the rookie diarist”. Well, I AM a rookie, I’m not that computer savvy, I don’t have photo-shop, all I have is a layman’s voice. I hope this one is better than the last.
(Update)
Having read it again, I am amazed at how little has changed in the six years since I wrote this. In that 6 years, my SSDI has changed to SSI and my Medicade has changed to Medicare. I have had two Cost of Living increases and both cost me, $12.00 a month less every month because my Medicare costs rose faster than the increase in the income check. So, even with the COLA on my V.A. Comp check, my situation hasn’t improved, it just balanced out and stagnated.
Everything else in the original diary still seems valid even today. The Republican party is adding Civil Rights and Human Rights violations to it’s extensive list of crimes and their cult worship of the Golden Toilet has reached a Jim Jones level. They are actively seeking ways to kill off the population so the rich can have it all to themselves. The flaw in that thinking is that with the commoners gone, they will become the commoners until the last man standing. Then, what good will it do to have everything when the last one standing is alone?
Thanks for reading.