Is this a great country? Or What?
I mean, where else on earth are the rich and successful the resentfully successful?
In most countries, it's the poor, the downtrodden, the dispossessed who burn with resentment against the winners, the haves, those to whom much is given.
Here, in the U.S. of A, it is the rich who burn with resentment against the poor!
Why, there is genius in that.
Just today, on the radio, I heard Mr. Romney, who paid nearly nothing (13%) in income taxes lambaste those who pay nothing at all in income taxes (retirees, active duty soldiers fighting in Afghanistan, people who make less than $20,000 a year) for not paying their fair share in income taxes.
Never mind these non income tax paying free loaders, these people who have the gall to feel victimize, are paying payroll taxes, social security tax, Medicare tax, state taxes in sales, property, gas, and poll taxes.
They are unworthy, and they are undeserving of whatever government programs they have been paying into all these years. They have a nerve, to have a sense of entitlement.
That's what Mr. Romney is fighting for, a country where nobody feels entitled to anything. As my high school history teacher, Mrs. von Doenhoefer, used to say, "The only right you have in this life, is the right to starve."
Of course, I tried to object and pointed out that the whole concept of a "right" is a mental construct. The lion who meets you on the savanna recognizes no rights. It is only other people who grant you a right, like the right to not be eaten or murdered.
It's the social contract thing. And Jefferson, with his inalienable rights, he certainly stirred up a can of worms.
What, exactly, does "inalienable" mean?
Anyway, I'm grateful to Mr. Romney for clarifying things for me.
Now I know who to loathe.
Now I know who to loathe.
I agree Mad Dog--I can't think of many places where the rich would pay $50K a head to come and jeer at the poor. It is positively delightful though to see Mitt exposed as the condescending elitist that he is. I especially like when he says these people are looking for "healthcare, food and housing" . He states it as if they were looking for cigarettes, beer and mad money. I'm certain at least some Independents and Republicans must be thinking who wouldn't be looking for healthcare,food and housing.
ReplyDeleteI usually don't enjoy watching people squirm, but in this case I can't say I mind watching Mitt tighten the noose on his own neck.
Maud
I like the image--the noose tightening. From your lips to God's ears.
ReplyDeleteMad Dog
While I understand where you are coming from and understand that you are not entirely serious, this sort of imagery is inappropriate. Just today it was reported that someone in Texas hung an empty chair from a noose in his backyard. What do you think he was suggesting? Don't you think political discourse should be more civil and avoid even subliminal suggestions of killing or murder?
ReplyDeleteGood point. Lest we descend to Rush Limbaughville.
DeleteI hereby refrain from such images.
I was just listening to a NPR piece on a song recorded by Billie Holiday, I think the name was "Strange Fruit," or something like that, about lynching, and the whole idea is repugnant.
Of course, it would be Texas. Could have been Arizona or South Carolina.
Did we actually fight to keep those states in the union?
But there I go again.
I should point out, Maud was using a figure of speech and I was guilty of transforming it into an image.
I've been reading quite a lot of GB Shaw lately. I'm going to work on acquiring the British capacity to lancinate without allusion to violence.
I'm not, however, convinced civil discourse is possible unless both sides hold to it.
Gandhi would have simply disappeared among the statistics had he been facing those thugs of the Third Reich. Hitler would have given no more thought to disposing of him than the typical hyena thinks about dragging off a crippled zebra. Gandhi was fortunate to be confronting a civilized adversary.
I'm not sure the Republican party and its acolytes fit that description.