the Republican lie

I'm reading an excellent book called Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War, by Joe Bageant. Mr. Bageant has returned to his small hometown in Virginia after many years and uses it as a back drop for a discussion about the sad state of affairs for this country's tens of millions of poor laborers (mostly white, uneducated). Most interestingly, he discusses how the Republican party has so successfully deceived this part of the population into believing that the GOP is the party for them, despite the reality that it is the party least likely to fight for their well-being. They've pulled this off by feeding on the fear and ignorance of these people, telling them that the Dems are going to give away their jobs to Mexicans, that the Dems want to destroy religion, that the Dems want to take away their guns, that the Dems are Commies, etc. The list goes on and on.

I've always been so frustrated by this, by how poor whites vote against their interests. I'm not under the illusion that the Democrats would sweep in and take care of all these people's problems, but I don' t think there is any question that the Dems are the ones most likely to fight for bettering these folks' lives through better education, social programs, support of labor, and more. The problem seems to be that the Dems gave up on this portion of the population, concluding that they were already lost, and so, especially during the Clinton era, became more the party of the liberal elite, the intellectual, Volvo-driving environmentalists. (Which in turn only turned these people away even more) WHat the Dems need to do, and what it seems that they are finally doing under the Obama campaign, is re-engaging the poor rural whites, sitting down with them and explaining why they and not the GOP understand their pain and will fight for them. If Obama wins, this will be a why, a return to a Democratic party that truly fights for all people. There may yet be some hope for this crumbling nation...

bailout? you betcha!

What times we live in here in the ol' US of A. In the midst of a presidential race that shouldn't be close but is, we are facing the greatest economic crisis of at least my time (that's what they tell us, anyway). And after watching Bush dismantle social programs, veterans' benefits, and much more over the last 8 years, while spending nearly a trillion dollars and thousands of lives on a useless war, what does Bush and Congress do but take $700 billion of OUR money to "rescue" the economy. How are they "rescuing" the economy? Not by creating jobs, reducing health care costs, or any other option that would truly benefit the people. No, they are giving away our money to their already disgustingly rich Wall St. cronies who fucked up the market in the first place! Now, I will admit that I am not an economist and in fact don't know shit about the market, but it is clear to me that there is obviously a systemic problem at hand, and instead of fixing the problem, our leaders are putting a very expensive band-aid on the problem. I'm a doctor, but you don't have to know anything about medicine to know that when you're looking at a gaping wound with tons of blood loss, a friggin' band-aid ain't gonna hold! My feeling is that we should let the market collapse, come what may, analyze the wreckage and figure out what caused this (hmmm...Reagan-style deregulation perchance?) so that it doesn't happen again. Most importantly, don't use OUR money to save the asses of these greedy fat cats. But, back to reality, yesterday the House caved in and accepted this $700 billion give-away, despite the protests of the vast majority of Americans. Gee, in case it wasn't already clear, who does the Congress and the President really serve? Indeed, what times these are (property in Nova Scotia is looking better and better all the time!)