GaimeGuy said:
It sickens me how the people who protect wall street and claim we can't tax the "job creators" (which isn't true. It's not like Warren Buffett personally funds the salaries of berkshire hathaway's employees. Berkshire Hathaway does.) instead blame the country's problems on teachers, grassroots/door knocking groups, and workers which band together to achieve common goals like better working conditions or to provide legal advice and professional training.
This entire thought process that you and I are talking about is incredibly scary because it takes the need to examine and understand and throws it right out the window. We all know the country has moved on to 30 second sound bites, but at what point should we expect people to actually sit down and go "This can't really be the way it is, right?" and do some research?
If there is anything that bothers me about this country it's the fact that the American people see no issue in being lied to.
I feel like the slide towards labeling people that are actually intelligent as elitests has a lot to do with the issues we're seeing now. We've moved from being a society that is divided on racial issues to one that puts more stock into class issues. The rich vs. poor in particular has reared it's head in a very ugly manner during the last ten years, and rightfully so. The people on the right want to claim that more taxes are wealth redistribution and that is unamerican but have no problem when the river flows in the other direction, as it has for the last 10 years where we've seen wages stagnate for the middle class and explode for the wealthy. The budget can't be balanced on the backs of the poor. The deficit can't be closed by sucking up everything from all but the smallest 1% of our country. This has to be something we ALL chip in on.
The fact that both parties can't and won't accept any responsibility for the current crisis we're in honestly tests my faith in America and the idea that we can still accomplish big things. The fact that something as petty as pandering could possibly push our country over the edge and erode everything that Americans have worked for since this country's inception is something that fills me with pure dread. We have a broken congress that is more concerned with their jobs than addressing issues because they're too busy trying to appeal to lobbyists that fill their political coffers so they can try to be re-elected.
I would venture a guess that it's always been this way, but why does it feel so overwhelming now?
The name calling at best and the downright lies at worse that seem to consume the country is pretty fucking astonishing because it doesn't seem based on any sense of responsibility for the well being of our country and our political system. I wish I could find a concrete reason for our politicians absolute need for mutual destruction rather than having to make some hard choices to actually get things on a more even keel.
Maybe it really is just money. Maybe it really is just class. Maybe some people have no other way to define themselves except for the things they have, that those things define them in some way, and that's why making sure people don't starve to death or freeze to death in the winter is such an appaling thing. People have to feel like they're different, that they did the hard work that others would not, and that's why others suffer.
Or maybe it's just that definition comes from wealth. Or maybe it's a lack of understanding of why helping people isn't a bad thing.
Or maybe it really is just money and the fact that people don't want to have a real conversation about the issues because it would make them feel less special, and realize how stupid they really might be.
Maybe I should stop trying to figure this out and go outside and play with my son.
Yeah.
