Checking out reading material in a Paris bookshop last year
So, according to a new Gallup poll, a record-high 81% of Americans hate the American Government (i.e. hate America) – hate that has been building up over the past ten years (i.e. since W Bush). 82% are against Congress specifically, and 49% of Americans believe the U.S. Government is “an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens” (now imagine living in the rest of the world!). Republicans hate the government more — 92% compared to 65% of Democrats (but they sure love that monthly social security check!). I for one, am glad to know my low self-esteem is patriotic!
Americans, where’s the love?! Isn’t everything working out exactly as the framers of our Constitution planned? Are we not confident that our Republic will continue to be governed by an elite of character and intellect? That our practical politicians, elected to serve the people, are negotiating solutions, rather than insisting on their own version of abstract positions, flexible in their responses to unforeseen events in pursuit of ideals ranging from the enlargement of opportunities for the mass of ordinary, industrious Americans to the principled avoidance of war? Aren’t our political parties brimming with qualified candidates? Isn’t the Republican Party – the current loyal opposition – prepared to question current leadership and to offer commonsense solutions to policy issues? And who isn’t confident that our thoughtful, compassionate and educated electorate, the foundation of our great democracy, will be prepared to cast its vote in 2012, without prejudice, based on the candidates’ positions on public policy issues, and not extraneous considerations? Or that when our carefully vetted and selected representatives convene in the Capitol, it is to engage in measured, reasonable debate about important issues, not wasting time with petty or self-interested concerns, making cogent counter-arguments or else yielding to the superior arguments of the opposition when that course of action is best for the Nation, regardless of any potential impact on their personal political careers or financial interests? Are we not determined to – regardless of personal cost – live in awe of the great gift that our founding fathers entrusted us with, pledging our commitment to the protection of a Jeffersonian Democracy, united as citizens with a duty to aid the state and resist corruption, monarchism and aristocracy? Are we not duty bound to love our country, hence our Constitution, hence that which our Constitution was designed to create (a government)?
The Teabaggers openly claim to love the Constitution so much but revile that which our Constitution was designed to create…. and they are really, really concerned with how this country i.e. “being run”. How to explain away this newfound “concern” for America? It’s black and white. A three years long smear campaign against the president has turned suburban voters into concern trolls, infecting them with the most subtle of racisms where they don’t even know they are being racist or being appealed to racially/tribally by a “tea party”. Let’s turn to literature for some insight. In the oft referenced “1984”, society rests on the belief that Big Brother is omnipotent and that the Party is infallible. But since Big Brother is not omnipotent and the Party is not infallible, the ruling party needs “flexibility in the treatment of facts”. The ruling party has a word, “blackwhite”, that has two mutually contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it means impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of plain facts. Said ruling party is comprised of the top 5% and referred to as the “Inner Party”. It controls all the economic, military, mass media power and “thought police”. The middle class that makes up 13% is known as the “Outer Party” – bureaucrats in blue jumpsuits who do most of the tedious, actual work in the Party government. The 85% majority members are called “Proles”. Poor and uneducated laborers, Proles are kept distracted by Party controlled propaganda TV and lurid amusements. Proles don’t care about anything outside of their own miserable homes and families, porn and booze, petty beefs with neighbors, TV, football lottery tickets. Whereas the Outer Party must conform to the rules of the elite in order to have any semblance of comfort, the Proles are allowed to run wild, their relative anonymity (“Proles and animals are free”), allowed certain freedoms that the beleaguered Outer Party members don’t have. Proles only need to show some semblance of patriotism towards the ruling Inner Party. Other than that, they work and breed, and are usually dead by the age of sixty.
With just a little more tweaking….if we consolidate the wealth a little bit more so that the top 5% have all the money… then the 85% will get what they have been shouting for for the past 2 years. That which they’ve got comin’ to them. The Gallup pole wrap-up is this:
Gallup: Bottom Line: Americans’ various ratings of political leadership in Washington add up to a profoundly negative review of government — something that would seem unhealthy for the country to endure for an extended period.
Oh, never mind.
