Index

A Banana Republic Without the Bananas

Well, it looks like the right is winning.  The corrupt, unstable banana republic that Reagan and two generations of Bush have worked so hard to create is almost upon us, and it is going to be an ugly thing when it gets here. From the destruction of health care as a public institution to the cutoff of unemployment for the victims of the corruption, the crap keeps getting closer to the fan, and there is a lot of it.  The anger is building, and when it gets lose, we are in for a spasm of violence that would make Pol Pot wet himself with envy if he was around to enjoy it.

Just the other day I had a kid half my age tell me that health care was a privilege.  Of course, he is still in the glow of perfect health that comes with being a high-school jock that got through college intact.  He listens (and swallows intact) all the morass of stupidity that right wing talk radio spews, from Limbaugh to Beck.  It was the calm assurance that comes from a privileged upbringing with no contact with the “lesser masses” that just made my heart drop through the concrete McDonald’s floor.  I was hoping that the next generation would have the brains - and hearts -  to see through all that, but…

The topic on the tube at the moment was health care, and I pointed out that there were an awful lot of people that were suffering and dying from the lack of basic health care, and he had the gall to say “Where - I don’t see people dying in the streets, do you?”  All I could do was mumble something about maybe not on the streets where HE went while looking for something padded to punch.  This is supposed to be a college educated individual, but he can’t see beyond the end of his nose, and doesn’t care anyway.

Close on the heels of that heel came the second biggest embarrassment the state of Kentucky has produced, Jim Bunning, with his  point man act for one of the most inhumane things that the republicans could have come up with - kicking the victims of their economic destruction - the unemployed - while they were down, just for political points.  Even the biggest embarrassment to Kentucky, Mitch McConnell, could not have gotten reelected if he had pulled that one, but Bunning has a bad reputation anyway and nothing to lose, so they put him on point.  I know enough of that family to believe that he probably enjoys the asshole role - it’s closer to his real self anyway, as anybody who has ever looked at his “colorful” baseball history would know.

But why the doom and gloom?  To put it simply, even with the President looking and acting like a real human being, the corrupt worms of the republicans are eating further and further into the economic and moral soul of this country.  The worms are destroying the REAL fabric of democracy - the people’s trust - by destroying the credibility of the system at every turn, and doing it with that aim.  When that trust is gone, this country will become a medieval collection of warring factions that will make Somalia look like a haven of stability.  Every bit of cynicism, doubt or hatred that the destroyers spread brings us that much closer to the maelstrom, and once the slide starts, there is not much chance that it will stop before the total destruction of the United States as we know it.  Too many people will have lost too much for the situation to stabilize without a tremendous amount of blood.

And of course the contemptible young kid with the closed mind and no heart will just giggle and blame it on Obama like everything else.  The only justice that I could see would be if some random act of violence would render him lame or otherwise disfigured, so that he would have to learn why health care is worth something, but with the typical luck of his age, he would probably walk away with a paper cut, and complain about that for a week because nobody would give him a bandaid.

While that is a disgusting thought, it is the best I can do for somebody with no heart. I guess I am becoming intolerant, too, but then I find that I have less and less to lose also.  If you can’t beat’em, join’em, right?

Excuse me, I have some crying to do.