Progressives, (now that we have allowed the term liberal to be trashed by Fox News pundits), have indulged in a bit of what has been generously referred to as political noblesse oblige for the last 30 years or so. I am not so generous. I call it cowardice, and I think it should stop, and right now.
For far too long, we have allowed fact-challenged, fearful, angry, bigoted, double-digit I.Q. types to have their little rants without suffering idiot-quashing rebuttal and, in so doing, have allowed the bar for serious political discourse to be to be set just millimeters above the ground.
And, for consistently sitting back in muted shock and awe while garbage-in inevitably produced garbage-out in Washington, our tacit acceptance condemns us as complicitors in the resultant disastrous political and economic consequences.
We sat back while a B-movie-co-star-to-a-chimp, spewed memorized ideological propaganda to an ignorant, impressionable public (yes, let’s also admit that humanity has not progressed as far as our technology would lead us to believe) starting with the line: “government is not the solution. Government is the problem.”
The Gipper was right, of course, but the only problem that government actually posed at the time was as an impediment to big business hegemony and the destruction of the middle class. And progressives saw it coming but just lowered their eyes and bared their bums rather than fight against the massive deficit spending, gutting of unions, and a tax structure jerry- rigged to benefit only the wealthy.
The Death Valley Days veteran proclaimed in his best down-home-Hollywood-speak, that lowering taxes for the wealthy/corporations and eliminating burdensome government regulation of business would “trickledown” wealth to the middle class and the poor. So we sat patiently, stupidly, waiting for a flow that turned out to be all trick and no trickle.
And what little wealth did once belong to the middle class actually began to trickle up to the super rich and corporations. Middle class incomes flat-lined, then declined in real terms, and job benefits mutated from rule to exception. We allowed unions to become a dirty word, just like liberals, and the number of unprotected workers skyrocketed like pregnancies after prom night.
Thirty years later, and we are still cowering like sheep, inaudibly complaining (bleating maybe) among the herd that that first drop of wealth from above, never dripped, yet we can’t seem to tear ourselves away from Dancing With The Stars long enough to prevent the new wave of snake oil salespeople from cementing the identical double-speak policy far into our increasingly abysmal future.
As the religious right crazies began taking over media outlets, persecuting gays, and sanctioning the murder of abortion providers, we cowered and did nothing to effectively shame them then and are doing nothing now. You may feel uncomfortable with the notion of someone who blindly obeys the will of divine voices in their head in charge of our nuclear arsenal, but that is what may happen for real next year.
And when the greatly strengthened corporate interests and the religious right picked a guy for their standard-bearer who could not finish a sentence, we clucked our tongues, but little else…and we did this twice. Look where our cowardice got us.
Yet, two unfunded wars, thousands of American kids dead or disabled, corporate hegemony, rampant unemployment, and a collapse of the world economy have had little effect on the behavior of we cowards who knew better, and did nothing, even as we were being screwed from 2000, to 2008, in every orifice imaginable.
And now that corporate financed “grass roots” politicians are altering state laws to disenfranchise the young and the old and the sick and the poor and minorities, what are we doing to stop it? If you think that it can’t happen to you, it may already have.
And now that those same corporate-financed “grass roots” politicians are firing teachers, firefighters, cops, and other government workers, what are we doing to stop it? How many folks on your block have to go into foreclosure, before you will turn off the Jersey Shore and do something to defend your fellow Americans?
And now that those same corporate-financed “grass roots” politicians are spewing the same 30-year-old garbage that health care reform, clean air and water, worker safety, a fair shake for the poor and the middle class, closing tax loopholes for the super rich are all nasty “job killers,” why are we so afraid to openly expose these lies as lies and the spewers as liars?
And when the new crop of Tea/GOP crazies pan Social Security as a “ lie and a Ponzi scheme,” and tell us that we have to turn Medicare over to Wall Street, we can actually spot the mendacity, pouring from their pores like sweat off a racehorse, but what are we doing to send them back to their stables?
How bad does it have to get before we finally lose the Stockholm Syndrome and start answering back: to friends on the social media, on blogs like this one, and during the debate on each and every bull-pucky bill proposed by those corporate-funded “grass roots” politicians.
I, for one, am tired of the self-loathing that necessarily accompanies a life of cowardice. I have always been happy to discuss issues with anyone and everyone who wants to chat and will continue to try and find common ground with those who honestly feel differently than me.
But I will no longer sit back and let the insane run the asylum, and that includes telling a friend, colleague, or politician that he/she is wrong and why, and not backing down when they quote Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, or any of the Tea/GOP presidential candidates in support of their misguided views.
And I am asking all Americans to beg, borrow, or steal a spine and join in a national discussion, which is long overdue.
J. Brandeis Sperandeo
Our President is offering a common sense jobs plan called the American Jobs Act, which will help in the short run and will work in the long run, if combined with, a sensible trade policy and the abrogation of tax-loopholes for the super rich and corporations. A vast majority of Americans are already in favor of the proposals within this plan.
Most of its provisions were based upon GOP or bipartisan ideas, but the Tea/GOP congress has already opposed the plan, because it includes closing tax loopholes for the super-rich/big corporations. And they have already said that they would rather pass nothing, than “give Obama a win.”
Now may be a perfect time to get off your rump and bump, don’t you think? AmericaJobsAct.com
JBS
No comments:
Post a Comment