"Yeah, I know it's a fake turkey, but this is MY photo op, asshole!"
As I have watched the tennis game we play with a live hand grenade called politics in the country over the last few years, I am often surprised at the utter disconnect between the "leaders" at the top (no matter what part of the political spectrum) and the "just folks" who make up the majority of the reality here. Those in power seem to have absolutely no understanding of what it is like to live in our culture, day to day, and are fairly disinterested in finding out about it. except in so far as it helps them get elected.
Health care is a matter for insurance companies and corporate health care providers to decide, even though the people most affected (the general population) benefits NOT AT ALL from their obscene profits. Foreign policy is decided based on the biggest benefits for oil companies and war contractors, and the people who do the dying (again the mass of the populace) barely factor into the equation. Media control is given over to massive companies, ignoring the fact that the airwaves are supposed to belong to the people, and everyone suffers except those who reap the profits of the bottom line.
How can this be? How can the majority of the people suffer to give more and more benefits to a shrinking minority of wealthy and powerful entities? Bush, Cheney, and the others at the top of the heap seem to have no awareness of the effect their decisions have on others. Are they really so blind to the devastation their works have wrought on so many?
I hope that change is coming. Obama makes the right noises, and certainly he can be no worse than the monsters who have ruled America for the past eight years. And at least he has the experience of growing up without a trust fund or a rich Daddy to pull his bacon out of the fire when he fucked up.
But will it be enough? Has our country strayed so far from the path of benevolence and generosity that we will only see what's in it for us? Is the Constitution really "a piece of paper", as Dubya has called it, or are the principles contained in it more important than that?
There has been no empathy or compassion that I have seen from the Bush administration that is anything but window dressing. There is no connection to the people who support them and keep them in power. I hope there are some breaks in that veneer of caring, and the underlying contempt is starting to show through. I hope that those most affected by the sick policies of the current leaders will finally repudiate them and cast them out. McCain is just Bush version 2.0!
Health care is a matter for insurance companies and corporate health care providers to decide, even though the people most affected (the general population) benefits NOT AT ALL from their obscene profits. Foreign policy is decided based on the biggest benefits for oil companies and war contractors, and the people who do the dying (again the mass of the populace) barely factor into the equation. Media control is given over to massive companies, ignoring the fact that the airwaves are supposed to belong to the people, and everyone suffers except those who reap the profits of the bottom line.
How can this be? How can the majority of the people suffer to give more and more benefits to a shrinking minority of wealthy and powerful entities? Bush, Cheney, and the others at the top of the heap seem to have no awareness of the effect their decisions have on others. Are they really so blind to the devastation their works have wrought on so many?
I hope that change is coming. Obama makes the right noises, and certainly he can be no worse than the monsters who have ruled America for the past eight years. And at least he has the experience of growing up without a trust fund or a rich Daddy to pull his bacon out of the fire when he fucked up.
But will it be enough? Has our country strayed so far from the path of benevolence and generosity that we will only see what's in it for us? Is the Constitution really "a piece of paper", as Dubya has called it, or are the principles contained in it more important than that?
There has been no empathy or compassion that I have seen from the Bush administration that is anything but window dressing. There is no connection to the people who support them and keep them in power. I hope there are some breaks in that veneer of caring, and the underlying contempt is starting to show through. I hope that those most affected by the sick policies of the current leaders will finally repudiate them and cast them out. McCain is just Bush version 2.0!
But it is amazing how steadfastly the very victims of BushCo cling to the lies.
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