This last December I wrote about how every year around Christmas, President Obama gives most of America and Me (I?) a big lump of coal in our stockings by doing something that made absolutely no sense. The year before it was his failure on the “public option” (even though 64% of Americans wanted it; today 72% of Americans say the watered down health care bill didn’t go far enough); this last year it was caving into the Republican demands to extend Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy that added $858 billion to the deficit even though, again, an overwhelming majority of regular Americans like you and me (I?) opposed it. I began to declare that Obama was a Republican in Democrat’s clothing (a position I still hold as true) and I wasn’t alone as the left groaned a collective, “What the fuck, Mr. President?!” Just as the kvetching was starting to warm up Congress threw us all a bone with START ratification, DADT repeal and a 9/11 responders bill which had more to do with Jon Stewart than Barack Obama, yet the left was placated and Obama was a Democrat again. But after reading the quote posted by Militant Agnostic and then the article at Huff Post, maybe the left will get their heads out of their collective asses and realize they’ve been had by a charlatan and a con man. It was a pretty speech Obama gave at the SOTU about building America’s future through education (new budget attacks programs to expand grad-level education), faster internet (while some poor families will now have to go without heat when they can’t pay their bills; I’m reminded of last year when an elderly Detroit man froze to death in his own home after his heat was cut off because he couldn’t afford to pay his bill) and creating green jobs even though he now wants to stop assisting the working poor. Yep, it was everything we wanted to hear and it was all bullshit.
So as our oligarchy stuffs their pockets full of gold as they earn record profits yet again (last year was the record, remember?) and continues to preach the Antionette gospel of cake eating for those Americans without bread, all I can wonder is where is our, America’s, Tahrir Square? Where do we gather for our Bastille Day? How do we fight against our tyrants who hold the police and military in the palm of their hands? America was founded on the blood of men yearning to be free yet we Americans of today have spit on that legacy, exchanging the British crown for a group of wealthy thugs who behave as kings and care nothing about this nation or it’s people other than what they can take and use from them while giving nothing back in return.
Today, it’s us poor folks taking it in the pooper but rest easy middle class, you’re next. That’s the trend after all if you’ve payed attention to austerity measures introduced across Europe. It starts small with the little people of the lower classes and starts worming it’s way through the middle classes. The upper classes? They’ve all gotten bonuses or tax cuts for a job well done.
I am 1/16 American Indian. My great great grandfather was of the Iroquois tribe. I say that to suggest this: just as my Amerindian ancestors were duped for trinkets, guns and liquor we modern Americans prove to be no smarter than they. They give us shiny cell phones and iPad trinkets, flood the market with guns for a song that we use to kill each other with (right Mr. Loughner and Minutemen Civil Defense Corps?) and deluge us with liquor and beer surrounded by hot skanks until we are placated, mollified into thinking we are free. We tell ourselves this is the worst it can get, that they couldn’t take anymore from us, yet every year without fail, those in power continue to steal our freedoms and, in cases of eminent domain, take our homes. And we keep falling back and letting them have their way with us. You can see where that got my great grandfathers people and where it’s getting us “common folk”. Take a good look, because what happened to the Amerindian is now happening to us.
No comments:
Post a Comment
If you have any questions or comments then tell me!