Day: May 20, 2010
Oh, Now You Get Mad
Some of the primary results from Tuesday night have all the network pundits slobbering. People are generally ticked off I think with politicians constantly running for election and doing little else. Look at the New York State legislature for piles of examples of that. What is troubling to me is the gross oversimplification that is muddling thinking. Tea parties blame The Obama Administration for all the government bailouts without remembering that the TARP money started with Hank Paulson of the Bush Adminstration.
I like seeing people voicing their complaints, but where the hell have they been? Lord knows the bottom is dropping out of New York State thanks to the poor economy and a me first then the constituents mentality. But a recent email forward caught my attention:
“Oh, Now You Get Mad”
–You didn’t get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President.
–You didn’t get mad when Cheney allowed Energy company officials to dictate energy policy.
–You didn’t get mad when a covert CIA operative got ousted.
–You didn’t get mad when the Patriot Act got passed.
–You didn’t get mad when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us.
–You didn’t get mad when we spent over 600 billion(and counting) on said illegal war.
–You didn’t get mad when over 10 billion dollars just disappeared in Iraq.
–You didn’t get mad when you found out we were torturing people.
–You didn’t get mad when the government was illegally wiretapping Americans.
–You didn’t get mad when we didn’t catch Bin Laden.
–You didn’t get mad when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed.
–You didn’t get mad when we let a major US city drown.
–You didn’t get mad when we gave a 900 billion tax break to the rich.
–You didn’t get mad when, using reconciliation, a trillion dollars of our tax dollars were redirected to insurance companies for Medicare Advantage which cost over 20 percent more for basically the same services that Medicare provides.
–You didn’t get mad when the deficit hit the trillion dollar mark, and our debt hit the thirteen trillion dollar mark.
–You finally got mad when the government decided that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are sick.. Yes, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich, richer, are all okay with you, but helping other Americans…
Now, I’m not saying they don’t a right to be ticked. They do, but “I want to take my country back” is a stupid refrain that means nothing. If that is your soundbite, then shut the hell up. You sound like an idiot who couldn’t get a walk on for the Dukes of Hazzard. President Obama shouldn’t be punished for winning and the state of perpetual pandering isn’t totally at the feet of President Bush. If everybody grew up and did the job and LED, we might have something. If staying elected wasn’t the first priority, we might see fewer folks taking up space and more legislating. They say a statesman is a politician who’s been dead for 20 years. As President Bartlet wished for “we need to be statesmen now.”
Want to blame somebody? I still think my mom is right. Newt happens. Not the rational talking head, who politely disagrees with Matt Lauer, but the contract with America figurehead who was upset that Reagan and Bush were gone. He led an attempt to squeeze the Clinton Administration that has gradually let to both parties behaving like spoiled ten year olds, which may be an insult to real ten year old.
I think that is grown to the current resentment, where people bitch about something that was okay when a candidate they liked was in office.
Crazy, isn’t it.
Mike's Pub 