Sunday, August 28, 2011

Crisis

Crisis! I am sick to death of hearing everything being called a crisis. The Debt Crisis. The Deficit Crisis. The Health Care Crisis. About the only real crisis in America today is a Democracy Crisis. Yes, our two centuries old experiment in self government is in crisis. Because a small group of democracy-haters stormed into Congress and proceeded to do their best to take down the Government. They've taken the concept of "majority rule" and turned it into "minority destroy". They've excised the word "compromise" from their personal dictionaries. They've bastardized the US Constitution to suit their anti-democratic purposes. They've made a virtue out of being irrational, unethical, praising pseudoscience while denying real science. Calling for an end to the EPA, Social Security, Medicare, FEMA, the Education Dept., and countless other federal agencies. They claim to want to downsize the federal government and turn those responsibilities over to the states. And we all know how well the states did at defending civil rights, or women's rights. Or in managing environmental resources. I mean, what's a little smog, a little poisoned water among friends? Oh, wait ~ those idiots advocating the destruction of the EPA won't be subject to smog or polluted water. They're too rich to have to put up that. And who cares if the poor, the elderly, the children, the middle class have to suffer? Someone has to, to make their America great again, right?

Only don't ask them, don't ask the Republicans or the Tea Partiers (a subset of the Republican Party, to be sure), just don't ask them to share in that sacrifice. What? Raise taxes on millionaires or billionaires? Never! Raise taxes on businesses, or simply eliminate the tax breaks they've already gotten? Never! Those businesses would be severely hurt if we asked them to pay their fair share of taxes. GE would have to give up the 4+ billion refund they get for paying no taxes on their tens of billions of dollars in profits. The Oil Companies would lose their free ride, which would really hurt their multi-billion dollar business. Let's tax the poor, instead. They should pay for the privilege of being poor, you know.

When did it happen, this descent into insanity? When did people start believing that they shouldn't have to pay for their consumption of America? When did they start believing other people should pay for their consumption, because,gosh, being rich is the result of tremendously hard work and sacrifice already.

And let's get God into Government. That's always worked so well, you know. Theocracies are thriving democracies, aren't they? Oh, wait. They're not. But who cares? As long as it's "my" religion doing the ruling, I'm fine with that. And those who aren't? Well, they should just shut up, and leave or die. Their choice. Who said theocracy was undemocratic?