America, how badly do you have to be lied to and abused by the Republican Party before you finally realize they don’t give a shit about you? They’re about money and power – everything you’re not.
And elections are about holding on to power so they can make more money and they will run whatever angry son-of-a bitch, along with whatever crook or pleasant-looking incompetent they can dig up, as long as it plays to the middle class fears of the day, whether it’s higher taxes, ethnic people streaming over the border, or gay people moving next door.
Their elections are misdirections. Fear and bigotry under a waving flag. And, all too often, you buy the bullshit and the spin. And, more often than not, we all live to regret it. You don’t think so? How’d the last 8 years work out for you? An incompetent at the helm of a faltering economy, higher unemployment, a staggering national debt, a mortgage crisis, Enron, Katrina, the Justice department scandal, the Abramoff scandal, the Valerie Plame scandal. And a trillion-dollar trumped up war, thousands of Americans dead. Many thousands wounded. Millions of Iraqis dead and/or displaced. A country in ruin. All based on lies, and deceit. But they’ve smartened up from the lessons of Vietnam. They’ve learned not to show the caskets coming home on the evening news. Because that would upset you.
And yet, despite the abuse of the last 8 years, your response is: “Thank you, sir, may I have another!?” Are you really so blind that you can’t see that McCain, the shake-up-the-government maverick is engulfed by lobbyists and has now successfully sucked up to the fanatical right by picking Marian the Alaskan Librarian, his very own agent of intolerance, the female Quayle, as his running mate, who could theoretically be one malfunctioning defibrillator away from the most powerful job on Earth? Can you really look at this person, this snarky, petty bureaucrat, and feel that she is the most capable Vice Presidential running mate he could find? Man or woman? Are you really that pleased with the notion of her sitting behind that desk in the oval office? Pick your hero: Eisenhower, Reagan… Palin?? Are you that dim that you can’t see that this is no more than a stunt to win an election? (And who cares about the teenage daughter? Mom wants to make abstinence only work in the country. Hell, she couldn’t even make it work in her own house.)
These people have made their careers off the fact that you can be convinced that the party of wealth and privilege is manned by just plain folks who are on your side. Really? How many corporate CEOs live in your neighborhood? Still, some multi-millionaire frat boy or crusty war vet with rolled up sleeves sucks down a beer and a hot dog at the country fair and you gobble up their sincerity like a happy meal. And, all the while, the Karl Roves of the world laugh at your gullibility. Your malleability. Your inability to separate fact from propaganda, which you are fed by an army of media goons: O’Reilly. Hannity. Limbaugh. Savage. Malkin. Medved. Drudge. Dobbs. Beck. Novak. Hate mongering hiding in the Trojan horse of journalism and free speech. They have crafted an intellectual Disneyland with slogans disguised as thoughts. (“The surge has worked!” Just say it over and over and they’ll believe it.)
Meanwhile, like entertaining a puppy with a ball, they keep you occupied with phony passion over fake issues, to the point that you’ve become suspicious of intelligence. That you mistake compassion for weakness. Thoughtfulness for indecisiveness. Where electing a President isn’t about judging a candidate’s vision and intelligence. Now it’s just a Jesus litmus test with a sidebar of flagpins. But that’s ok. As long as the gays don’t marry.
For once: be smart. Look at them for who they are. Rich, powerful people whose only motivation is money and power. And they will screw the poor and the middle class four ways from Sunday to get it. And keep it.
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