A rant about an agenda driven by cruelty

[Cyrano]

Whether the issue is Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, universal health care, the minimum wage, voting rights, civil rights, women’s rights, immigration, education, or dozens of other humane policies, the Republicans have consistently been on the wrong side of history.

Think about that for a moment. How could anyone with a conscience, and a basic sense of decency, oppose policies aimed at improving the human condition? The answer is simple: Today’s Republican/TeaBagger agenda is driven by cruelty. It denies our shared humanity and seeks to deny “The Other” of everything from health care, to food, to education, to basic human rights. The eventual outcome would be that all goods and privilege would be in the hands of the few, and everyone else would be left to eat dirt.

It’s not so amazing that they can get a sizable portion of their victims to go along with them. Perhaps as many as a third of all Americans are aiding and abetting in their own destruction. The tools used to seduce them are anger, hatred, fear, and in all too many cases, “God” and a scripture which is cherry picked to justify anything. The carriers of the message are Fox “News,” hate radio, and toxic politicians acting like modern-day versions of Caligula. And all with an assist from a compliant main stream media.

The outcome of this era is in doubt. Americans of tomorrow may look back on this period of time as one more giant stain on our country. On the other hand, a well-motivated minority can come out on top as history has often proved. Perhaps it will be neither. A future generation may find itself buried beneath a crumbled infrastructure and pummeled by a wrathful climate brought about by our inability to stop the insanity.

I find that I’ve totally depressed myself with what I’ve written here. So I’m planning to take the day off, pull the plug on the TV, do some yoga exercises, eat some fresh fruit and vegetables, get some fresh air and sunshine, read some Isaac Asimov, and check this post occasionally to see if anyone has paid any attention to this rant.