| A GOP Lifeboat? |
The first sentence of the United States Constitution begins: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice..., promote the general Welfare..., do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." Thus, one of the purposes of our country is to promote the general welfare of its citizens. It has to strike many as ironic that politicians who take an oath to uphold the Constitution have tried to belittle the word, "welfare," and even use it as a racial code word.
We have reached a sad state of affairs when one of our two major political parties and its candidates are running a campaign based on undermining "the general welfare" in favor of personal and corporate greed. In reflecting on the Republican National Convention, former Ohio Governor and a Methodist minister, Ted Strickland, characterized the Republican Convention in the following statement: "The RNC was an exercise in selfishness." Based on their official platform and their speeches, most of those who attended the GOP Convention seem to be comfortable with the proposition: Greed is Good. In fact they were so preoccupied with destroying Social Security and Medicare that they didn't have time to recognize the sacrifices of our service men and women.
We should not be surprised. Mitt Romney is a Wall Street venture capitalist. Paul Ryan has adopted Ayn Rand as his patron saint and has no problem leaving the old, sick, feeble and poor fall through the safety net and drown in an economic ocean governed by the ultra-rich oligarchs.
My friend, Buck, put it this way recently. "You don't want to be at sea in a life boat with Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. If you are old, feeble, or ill, you will be shark food in a matter of minutes. If you're healthy and relatively young, they will pay you minimum wage to row the boat. If you try to negotiate a better wage, you will be shark food. If you accept their offer and row the boat until you become exhausted, they will pay you your wages and then try to sell you life insurance, then you will become shark food. If you don't speak English or don't have a US Passport, you will be shark food, but they will demand you clean the boat before they throw you into the drink. And if you happen to be a woman, your first move should be to jump overboard and start swimming."
We should not be surprised. Mitt Romney is a Wall Street venture capitalist. Paul Ryan has adopted Ayn Rand as his patron saint and has no problem leaving the old, sick, feeble and poor fall through the safety net and drown in an economic ocean governed by the ultra-rich oligarchs.
My friend, Buck, put it this way recently. "You don't want to be at sea in a life boat with Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. If you are old, feeble, or ill, you will be shark food in a matter of minutes. If you're healthy and relatively young, they will pay you minimum wage to row the boat. If you try to negotiate a better wage, you will be shark food. If you accept their offer and row the boat until you become exhausted, they will pay you your wages and then try to sell you life insurance, then you will become shark food. If you don't speak English or don't have a US Passport, you will be shark food, but they will demand you clean the boat before they throw you into the drink. And if you happen to be a woman, your first move should be to jump overboard and start swimming."
No comments:
Post a Comment