Ohio Protest
I know that sometimes I tend to simplify things but in this case the reason behind all these initiatives, actions and legislation are more than transparently clear. You see, while a person is worried about losing his bargaining rights when they are members of a Labor Union; or when a senior is tormented over the prospect of not only reductions in a meager monthly check from Social Security but facing the possibility of that being eliminated altogether; it then becomes a priority issue…and to the back burner are relegated issues like the mess the Republicans left behind and tax cuts for the super rich.
Folks in their fifties and even in their forties now are seeing that the goal line has been moved or is expected to be moved if the Republicans have their way in extending the retirement age to 70 or more; people who have no health insurance or a pre-existing condition are also concerned that the Republicans might be successful in rendering the Health Care Reform meaningless by drying up the funding.
Then you also have a myriad of culture war issues: the single mother controversy, the birth certificate debacle, the DOMA bullshit, the opposition to gay marriage and then there is also abortion…a super-charged and emotional issue that in reality should be something only women should be opining and debating. the DADT repeal, We still have our military engaged in two wars and no end in sight.
Make no mistake about it; the Republicans know what they are doing. It is odious, it is crass, it is unpatriotic and un-American. Divide and conquer: by pinning one segment against the other; for example the Labor Union members against those who are not, the revitalizing the abortion issue, the pursuit of irritating and humiliating LGBT Americans, the division of Rich VS poor, Middle Class against the poor and everybody against the rich…it is all a concerted and well planned strategy to distract people from the fact that they failed miserably when they had the White House, Congress and Senate and also because they represent the interests of the very rich and the corporations. This extension of the Bush tax cuts is now placed in the back burner and nobody talks about it although it is the most repugnant, odious idea that is not only unethical but will cause in the loss of revenues and the loss of more jobs.
Immigration is also on the table…not as an issue to be discussed and a solution attempt to be found but as a social issue that satisfies the need of xenophobes everywhere to repudiate people who are unlike them. Yet we see unimaginable racial profiling laws like the Arizona “show me your papers” or what this Texas legislator is now proposing that any employer who hires an undocumented alien will be fined and or thrown in jail…except of course those serving in the capacity of maids or gardeners. In other words, these Republicans think that Hispanics should be kept in their place and that place is as the servants of WASPHROMS. (White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant, Heterosexual, Rich old Men)
The Republican-Teahadists seem to be all under some kind of hypnotic trance, a sort of cacophony they will attach to the end of any sentence, pronouncement or at interviews: KILLING JOBS, JOB KILLING when Democrats propose it but when they propose legislation that will cost us a bundle and cause jobs to be lost they have the nerve to attach the “JOB CREATION” BS. Just like with the derogatory term they love to use when referring to Healthcare reform: OBAMACARE. Then you add to all of that the old Reagan concept of TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMICS, GOVERNMENT IS TOO BIG and you have a whole neat, well package set of talking points.
Having said all that; I hold a great degree of optimism that even though some battles may be lost like the right of Labor Unions to Collective Bargaining in Ohio or the Arizona “Show me your papers” law…the Republican-Teahadists are painting themselves into a corner that has no plausible exit…they are throwing out Blacks, Hispanics, Labor, Pro-choice women, the elderly, the uninsured, people who are unemployed or lost their jobs, people who had their homes foreclosed and gay Americans to name a few. The one thing that encourages me into thinking this way is that the things the Republican-Tehadists are doing are not only counterproductive and odious but it is already creating a backlash, it is galvanizing the center and the left to repudiate all Republicans and also because DEMOGRAPHICS are not in the side of WASPHROMS…eventually and very soon, these will be a minority relegated to an irrelevant segment of the population.
So, I say to the Teahadist-Republicans: keep your distractions, your sabotage of the Obama Presidency, your opposition to any legislation and your attempt to decimate unions. Please, by all means, try to make abortion illegal; by all means, try to criminalize homosexuality and also try to defeat Health Care or even a more ambitious endeavor like enact legislation that will protect America from the irresponsible and speculative financial institutions; it is all going to blow up in your faces.
