I’m referring, of course, to District 26, a Congressional district in western N.Y. state that is rock-ribbed Republican. Rocked indeed by a picture of their oh-so-conservative Republican Senator posing shirtless for a prospective internet girlfriend – hey, I thought he looked reasonably buff for a Washington pol.
So, in our sex-obsessed society, he had to resign to have more time with his family…. to put it back together, I assume. So no problem for the GOP, right? Rock-ribbed and all that? But that was before Ryan’s plan to turn Medicare recipients like me over to your friendly health insurance company. Those Tea Party-lovin’, conservative seniors in District 26 suddenly saw a threat to themselves. No longer was it just Blacks and gays, immigrants and poor people, getting the shaft; now it could be them! In fact, given their age, it would definitely be them. Three months away from 70 and very healthy, I still need to go in for skin cancer checks and sometimes have something removed. Would I put that off if it meant paying for a policy I couldn’t get with a voucher? Would I refuse to spend the money out of my pocket when my grandkid needed a hearing aid?
Medicare makes sure that at least seniors get medical care. It’s like all those socialistic programs, giving a support system to those Republicans despise. In their eyes, if you cannot afford to live in a gated community with rent-a-cops to keep out the riff-raff, what good are you? What do you deserve other than to die in a ditch?
Please don’t tell me about the generosity of conservatives. Will they tell the folks in tornado-ravaged Joplin to turn to their local church for help – if they can find it? No. Will they provide the millions of dollars to pull those people out of a completely uninvited natural disaster? No. They sit back and wait for the Federal government to come in. Just like in Katrina…….. oh, wait! That didn’t happen, did it? In fact, it hasn’t happened yet.
Now, let me take you back a pace, to just when this financial meltdown we call a recession started. Who was president? How long had he been president? What condition was the economy in when he became president? What condition was the economy in when he left the presidency? What did he do during his tenure that cost the country not billions but trillions of dollars and very countable lives? And what was the rationale for letting the economy just take care of itself? Who cut back on numerous government agencies that oversee vital public services? Who told us the churches would take care of the needy, just as they always have? Who put his cronies in crucial positions of public and military trust, incompetent cronies whose only recommendation was that they spouted Bible verses? Who used 9/11 to excuse turning the country’s Constitution into a leaky vessel, allowing practices that take us back to the 50s?
And will Americans remember this in 10 or 15 years? Of course not. They will still say Republicans are fiscally responsible and strong on defense. Idiots.
I just had to add this:
Keep in mind, it’s not just Bush & Co. and it’s not some wild-eyed Republican radical in some obscure district quoted by Rachel Maddow. Rachel et al. quote the top ranks of the GOP. This is where the birther stuff, the Tea Party “I want my country back (from that Black guy)” chants, the Muslim and socialist attributions toward Obama are all coming from, the very top ranks of the GOP. It was Michael Steele who had the nerve to refer to Afghanistan as Obama’s war.
And while we’re on Steele, let’s not be fooled by the GOP’s election of a Black man to lead the party. It’s like the extra make-up a street-walker puts on her ravaged face. The GOP is ravaged by racism, the sell-out, the pandering to racists started long ago. Kevin Phillips and Ken Mehlman of the GOP have admitted to the Southern strategy and those people they appealed to are now an albatross around their neck. They can’t get rid of their base, as base as it is.