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Friday, April 27, 2012

Friday Big Blue Smurf Blogging: What They Said
Posted by Jill | 5:37 AM
Today's honoree: Amanda Marcotte, who sums up perfectly what the Republicans do to this country. Money quote:
But at the end of the day, the real problem with this country is that one of our political parties not only doesn't give a shit about the stability of this country, and in fact has powerful incentives to dismantle it. It's both an ideological thing---stability is dependent on more equality, which they oppose above all other things---but it's also a political thing, which they've come to realize. Republicans have been kept in check in the past by fear that if they destroy this country, they have to pay a major price for it. But it seems what they've learned from the Bush debacle is that if they destroy this country, all they have to do is make sure the Democrats can't fix it properly, and then they can blame the Democrats and return to power to deliver more destruction. There's no incentive to behave, and many incentives to tear shit up.
Yup. And most Americans simply refuse to see this. Yesterday I had a lunchtime discussion with a co-worker. She and her family came here from a Soviet-era country when she was sixteen. For some reason, she believes that people on "welfare" (defined by her as Section 8 housing) live better than she does. Did I mention that she has a rental house with a Section 8 tenant? I was explaining to her about what an end to Medicare and Social Security would mean, and her response was "Doesn't the government have to take care of you if you get sick?"

People simply can't fathom what the America of Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney will look like. They simply can't fathom one where the public school down the street doesn't exist, and where at best their elderly parents get a voucher for a thousand dollars to buy a health insurance policy from a for-profit company that will cost them $20,000...$30,000 or more a year because of the inherent health risks of living to old age. They can't fathom one where if you outlive your money, tough shit, there are empty packing crates all over for you to sleep in, and if you don't have children to take care of you (even if it's because you outlived them), then you deserve to die. They can't fathom having to pay a hundred dollars to cross a bridge that is only maintained because it's owned by a corporation that has a "right" to make as much profit as it wants. They can't fathom that if their child dies from E Coli from a bad hamburger that their child is simply collateral damage in the right of corporations to make as much profit as they want. They simply do not get what the Randoid utopia will look like for most people. And every time I explain to people what the implications of austerity are, they say "I just don't want to think about it."

And that is precisely the problem.
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8 Comments:
Anonymous The Wifely Person said...
And this is precisely why the Republicans want to gut the education system in this country. They've come to the startling conclusion (and I have to admit I can see how they got there) that We, the People, are stupid and it's in their best interest to keep up that way.

Until Hoovervilles reappear in Central and Golden Gate Park, until a child dies because health care is unaffordable, until the head of family realizes that food/heat/medication/clothing are _not_ interchangeable commodities you will have people trying to put the Romneys of this world into high office.

Only once they have the government they've elected will they come to understand the serious ramifications of their vote.

Or not. Maybe they'll be too stupid to figure it out.
4/27/12, 8:12 AM  
Blogger D. said...
Nail. Head.

I'll be linking to this and probably quoting it well past the point of fair use.
4/27/12, 12:26 PM  
Blogger merlallen said...
I once worked at a hotel when a Saudi guest remarked on our high drug prices. He asked what poor people did when they needed medicine, I told him they died. He was stunned and disgusted. He told me that when poor Saudis get sick the king helps them. I can't believe that a Saudi had a chance to look down on us like that. I was ashamed.
4/27/12, 4:13 PM  
Blogger The New York Crank said...
You don't get it. It's all a socialist plot, and keep your dangfool hands off my Medicare.

Crankily yours,
The New York Crank
4/27/12, 4:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Well, if you could get people to read, you could hand them a copy of one of Charles Dickens' novels("Hard Times," perhaps, or "David Copperfield" [remember Micawber & debtor's prison? We're heading there again])--or anything by Upton Sinclair--and say, "Here. Read this. This is what your Ryan Republican society will look like."
4/27/12, 4:53 PM  
Anonymous CC said...
Even Rand herself had to swallow her pride and apply for SS and Medicare towards the end of her life. But at least that was when the U.S. was in better shape than it is now.
4/27/12, 5:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Anon,
Reading Dickens -- especially -- requires a much higher level of educational "astuteness" than the average "joe" has in this country. And do they even teach Dickens anymore? "Dead White Europeans" and all that. I suspect at best you'll get the understanding of the DVD!

Merl,
The Saudis I know -- and I've worked with quite a few -- think we are at best stupid, and wonder how in the world we got to be the "best" country on earth. They don't believe it, and it has nothing to do with their religion.
4/28/12, 8:25 AM  
Blogger merlallen said...
That was implied. (the stupid part) I don't have a problem with their religion, either. One of the most pious men I know is a Moslem. I'll take him over 90% of the Christians I know. I didn't mean anything bad about him looking down on us at all.
4/28/12, 4:53 PM  
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