I think that can only be said this way:
And yes, Virginia, there IS a Santa Claus and its name is JUSTICE, with a CAPITAL "J". But if you don't see it during your present lifetime, you will IN YO' NEXT MOFO!
Posted on 03/15/2013 2:29:01 PM PDT by blam
The Great Society Is Dead
Politics / US Politics
March 15, 2013 - 02:07 PM GMT
By: Michael T Bucci
The complicity by both US political parties in a collaborative zeal to gut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is now "on the table" for all to view after each group unveiled their budget plans during the week of March 11. As a senior citizen, once an executive making three figures per hour and now living below the poverty line, constricted by multiple sclerosis in a US state run by a Tea Party Express Governor, Mr. "X" says he feels like someone living on death row.
In his eyes, what he represents to right-wing "bean counters" is a "burden" on their taxes. What he represents to the muddled middle class is a "nobody" - out of sight, out of mind. What he represents to Dems/Libs/Progs is a gadfly because of his published criticisms that soiled their pristine illusions of the man now living in the White House. What he represents to the libertarian and evangelical Christian is someone refusing to take "personal responsibility". Because of his eclectic spiritual beliefs, what he represents to Christians is a New Ager, and to New Agers, a Christian. What he represents to conservatives is a socialist, and to socialists a member of the petty bourgeoisie. Of course, none of these boxes actually fit - they never do. Or, maybe they all fit?
* * * *
Former Vice-Presidential candidate Paul "the Reaper" Ryan is America's budgetary technocrat, and an angel of death to Mr. "X". Ryan vomits over Jack Kennedy and points to "intergenerational" conflicts over future Social Security funding, all solvable through his proposed privatization schemes. Meanwhile, he performs fancy footwork to avoid reminders that his very name is associated with "death panels". Presumably, Ryan the Reaper reflects opinions of his generation who wish a world where one takes responsibility for no one except themselves ("a selfish and individualistic mindset"). Where markets and profiteers dictate and control public policy ("unregulated financial capitalism"). Where the word "liberty" rises above all others in right-wing lexicons while the word "democracy" is scarcely uttered for fear of what it might produce. Perhaps Ryan the Reaper was too busy in back-room spreadsheets to read the words of his religious leader Pope Benedict XVI on January 1, 2013 deploring "rampant capitalism", warning good Catholics like himself (like Paul Ryan!) about "hotbeds of tension and conflict caused by growing instances of inequality between rich and poor" which grow out of "the prevalence of a selfish and individualistic mindset which also finds expression in an unregulated financial capitalism". Too busy, perhaps, in the service of "rampant capitalism", engineering the destruction of The Great Society.
* * * *
The time will come when the "working class" will see the light, come together and confront their plight together, says "X". But beforehand, they first must turn-off Bill O'Reilly, FOX News and Rush Limbaugh on the one hand, union leaders and the Democratic Party on the other hand. The Dems/Libs/Progs must turn-off The New York Times and Huffington Post. The libertarians must turn-off Ron and Rand Paul. The muddled middle-class, now offered temporary immunity from austerity by President Obama and Congress, must realize that the safety nets removed today from seniors, the poor, disabled and unemployed won't be there for them tomorrow - and they will need them, for a time will come when this frigid sea water rises from stowage class to their cabins.
As the far-right advances in power within the Republican establishment, as the entire political spectrum under President Obama continues to veer further right-of-center, the Dem/Lib/Progs will be seen more clearly as enabling members of the "party of Chamberlain" - and "X"s implication here is in stark opposition to one promoted by the American Right. He has no doubt that both established political parties will meet and now are meeting days of reckoning: the Republicans today and the Democrats tomorrow. The far- and ultra-right will dominate one sphere; but who will dominate the other, he asks, since hot cannot exist without cold, and right cannot exist without left?
More people than Mr. "X" fear civil conflict too, delineated not by state geographic boundaries or uniform colors; but demarked by ideology and ultimately resulting in brother against brother, sister against sister, neighbor against neighbor, child against parent, et. al. Meanwhile, alongside the continuing dissolution of America's families, of intergenerational cohesion, of overall communities and society - of which all have been sliced and divided by competitive and powerful self-interests - the US markets might sustain euphoria; creditors might get paid; and the US news media might continue in diverting public attention away from harsh facts to escapist headlines about gadgets, billionaires, sports stars, Hollywood scandals and distorted economic reports from Washington. "If you want to know the actual weather outside," says "X", "turn off your TV and internet and open your windows." "If you want to know which way the wind blows, check your canary."
* * * *
March 1, 2013 marked a watershed event in American history, and on that day the media, markets and people yawned. The contrived budget war is over and the GOP/tea party WON!!! Conservatives and tea party provocateurs gained their greatest leap toward "small government", aimed for since the administration of Ronald Reagan.
Contrary to Rightist "spin", President Barack Obama and Democrats in this century permitted the Democratic Party to become a branch of Republicanism, enabling the GOP to move quickly to the right and sprout further into the far-right tea party, a now separately branded anti-government movement. America became thoroughly right-of-center.
The sequestration order of March 1 that "no one wanted" includes targeting the weakest, poorest, oldest and most vulnerable for sacrifice to the gods of finance, military and markets. The additional cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid proposed since March 1 by both parties confirm the duplicitous as well as conspiratorial character of both political parties.
The rich get to keep their money and, for now, the middle-class feels immunized.
I ask: Who are you America? What do you want? What do you worship? Where do your values lie? The battles still ahead will answer these questions.
* * * *
"Hotbeds of tension and conflict caused by growing instances of inequality between rich and poor" which grow out of "the prevalence of a selfish and individualistic mindset which also finds expression in an unregulated financial capitalism". - Pope Benedict XVI
For better or worse, Athens 2010 arrived in America on March 1.
The Great Society is dead.
Gatsby lives!
(And yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus and its name is Justice, with a capital "J". But if you don't see it during your present lifetime, you will in the next.)
The Great Society was stillborn.
Here is a novel idea: when young people should save and invest their money so there are funds available when they are older.
But we’re chained to the corpse.
Does anyone think the politicians will ever really cut anything?
Whoa. I though I was a strange writer.....
No socialism is forever. It is inevitable, that once the politicians start borrowing from the future to pay for it that the end is nigh.
The great society was the beginning of the mess we are in today.....LBJ was nuts...
It was the continuation of The New Deal, that was the real beginning.
OK, I read this. Didn’t understand it since I’m not stoned to the bone as the author must be. But I read it.
What a pantload.
Yup; self-respect, DIGNITY, and individual responsibility to Progressives is as bad as the "N" word....we all MUST be forced to "share", so the votes can be bought, and servitude continued, to keep those in Power perpetually in Power.....
What a concept, jackwad...........
I think that can only be said this way:
And yes, Virginia, there IS a Santa Claus and its name is JUSTICE, with a CAPITAL "J". But if you don't see it during your present lifetime, you will IN YO' NEXT MOFO!
Another “unfettered capitalism” prog screed. I’d like to know what happened to this guy’s money since he made “3 figures an hour” during his lifetime.
What I don’t understand is Mr. “X” blamed his current misfortune entirely on his MS disease and politicians on both sides?
Just because he was an executive one time making three figure per hour pay does not mean Mr. X does not bear responsibility for his fortune/misfortune, illness or not.
What/where did I get wrong?
In Pulp Fiction that line should have been followed with Porky Pig waving goodbye and saying "Abedee, abedee, abedee, that's all folks!"
>>In Pulp Fiction that line should have been followed with Porky Pig waving goodbye and saying “Abedee, abedee, abedee, that’s all folks!”<<
It struck me the author had SLJ in mind when he posted such an over-the-top piece of bombast...
Here is a novel fact: In the late 1960's I wrote to my congressman requesting to be excluded from the Social Security plan so that I might save and invest my money so there would be funds available for myself when I was older. I received a flat 'no' answer and was told that Social Security was an old age insurance policy that would provide funds for my retirement. It was not an option to opt out of it....
Does anyone believe that the only way to stop the poli's is to cut them off at the knees so you don't have to jump to cut off their heads????
Seniors who are now dependent on SS and Medicare need to understand that the Constitution does not say no these “government” taxing and spending programs.
H O W E V E R ...
Regardless of FDR’s and Johnson’s good intentions, and regardless of the Constitution-ignorant voters who supported the establishment of these “government” spending programs, as a consequence of widespread ignorance of the Founding States’ division of federal and state government powers, including among federal government “leaders,” both FDR’s and Johnson’s programs were wrongly estabilshed outside the framework of the Constitution, based on usurped state powers.
In other words, the Founding States had made the 10th Amendment to clarify that the Constitution’s silence about programs like SS and Medicare means that such programs were automatically uniquely state power issues; only the states can tax and spend for such purposes.
In fact, a major difference between Obamacare and RomneyCare is the following. While RomneyCare is basically constitutional, being based on 10th Amendment protected power to tax and spend for healthcare purposes, Obamacare is based on constitutionally nonexistent federal government powers. In other words, Congress wrongly ignored its Article V requirement to petition the states to ratify an amenment to the Constitution which, if the states had chosen to ratify it, would have granted Congress the specific power that it needed to establish Obamacare.
The bottom line concerning why we now have so many constitutionally indefensible federal taxing and spending programs is the following imo. Crooks have been taking advantage of widespread ignorance of the Constitution’s division of federal and state government powers by doing this. Instead of getting their hands dirty by robbing banks, “elite” crooks are now getting themselves elected to Congress where they fill their pockets with taxpayer dollars based on appropriations legislation which they cannot justify under their constitutional Section 8, Article I-limited powers.
I wonder what his DU / KOS screen name is ?
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