Red Room Where the Writers Are

I'm pretty sure I've written about this before, but dammit I gotta vent.

Okay, I'm not really upset, but its fun to pretend, just for the sake of the article.

George W. Bush ran in 2000 on a ticket of change. Almost all political battles are fought that way. "Status quo VS Real Change" from one perspective and "Real experience VS Juvenile Delinquent" from the other perspective.

Seriously though, how many times does this have to happen before we stop judging politicians on what they say and start keeping score of what they actually do or try to accomplish?

This is not the intended topic of this article though, the intended topic of this article is FUD.

In 2004, GW ran on a ticket that can be summarize thus: "A vote for me keeps America safe. A vote for the other guy and you'll all die at the hands of EVIL TERRORISTS!"

Seriously, that was how he won. Well that and the vote fixing. The GOP was better at rigging elections than the Dems were that year. Last year it didn't matter, everybody was tired of GW's abuses of power (figurative and literal). The GOP didn't stand a chance.

The thing that gets me about how he won is how completely ridiculous it is. The whole concept of safety in life is completely delusional. We are never safe if we are alive because we can die anytime. That is, however, only if you buy into the belief that safety means safe from death. That kind of safety is illusory.

As an aside, there is a kind of safety that isn't illusory. Its safety in the knowledge that we are all alive in the here and now. But that's a topic for some other blogitty blog.

GW won in 2004 because he used Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD hereafter) as a weapon against the People of the United States in his political campaign. Wow, what a crime against the US, what a crime against humanity and what an ego to promise us safety from death. But that doesn't upset me mainly because I see the brilliance behind it. I mean if you're going to be "evil," then dammit be a really GOOD evil person. Be really good at being evil. Those guys are phenomenal at being evil and more amazingly, I honestly believe that in their narrow perspective they justify the evil manipulation by believing that what they accomplish is good. Get that? They commit true evil, using FUD to manipulate the masses, to stay in power because they egotistically think that only they can save the US and its people from the evil of the terrorists by waging a war on terrorism. Oh and its nice they get to make some money and utilize some power along the way. The human mind is spectacular in its ability to delude itself and others, isn't it

What really bothers me about this whole thing is how people believe them. What they do is so obvious and yet a large percentage of people actually buy into the line of bull they issue and thus GW won the election.

They sewed the seeds of FUD and they reaped them. It worked in the short term (short sighted brilliance). But this is why the GOP is in tatters and why innocent people like Sarah Palin and show men like Rush Limbaugh are suddenly at the forefront of the party.

What's left of the GOP has continued the attempt to control the masses by spreading FUD. And, amazingly, some people are still buying it.

This is where Sarah Palin comes in. Because of her innocence, she believes the FUD and because of her nature and her public status, she amplifies the FUD back into the world showing beyond a shadow of a doubt just how ridiculous it is. I feel nothing but compassion for her.

At the other end of the spectrum you have Rush, who is smart enough to know that most of what is being said is at least an extreme
representation of an unlikely outcome, but continues to lay it on because he can make money doing it.

Sarah can easily be forgiven because she really believes what she says, but Rush, I suspect there's a special hell just for him. I don't mean literal hell, I mean some hell at the end of this life or perhaps in the next where he'll have to resolve all this energy he's utilizing.

Right now there are thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands and perhaps even more US citizens who repeat the mantra, "We are becoming socialist," because they buy into the FUD propagated by the GOP media parade. Its obvious to everyone from left wingnuts to moderates how like a big top circus the republicans have become. They've got clowns proselytizing from from their HD camera pulpits all the way to the puppet showmen, pulling the strings of a few key people to make the children run from the big bad wolf.

Most amazingly, its working. People are so much in an uproar about this false concern that the real people behind both parties, the ones who really don't want this new law passed, are able to manipulating everything and make sure that the money they make still rolls in without anyone being the wiser.

It looks like we'll get to keep our existing, highly flawed, expensive, money is more important that people health care system, for a few years more. However, in a few years, after this system buckles under the weight of its own inefficiency and the crushing expenses of the Baby Boomers, after the CEOs and executives have printed themselves a fortune and have moved abroad, the system will fall apart, the government will feel sorry for them and bail them out.

Then we'll have national health care. And it will be the least efficient and most expensive in the world like it is now, except then we'll have the honor of blaming the government for it instead of those nice rich folks who live in Bimini.

The pattern is simple: they all think alike. These capitalists all think the same way, "let things run as they are for a few more years so I can clean up and retire. Forsake (that's actually another form of the F-Word) everyone and let me make money for a few years more." What ever it takes, no matter how short sighted it is, these people keep manipulating the system to make money. We are selling the souls and lives of our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren to line the pockets of these men and to make a few bucks for ourselves as well. We do it to keep our economy going, to be able to gamble on stocks and live the high life. It seems so wrong to try to keep the roaring twenties going, when its plain to see that the great depression will have to return to balance things out. Is it right for us to live off the lives of our children and grand children? I think its horrible.

What we need is to stand up and hold ourselves accountable. We need to grow a conscience, discover some compassion, and see how selfish we are and put a stop to it.

It will not be possible for us to legislate our way out of this mess. The legislature has too much riding on status-quo to allow any real change. If nothing else, Barack Obama has proved that. His momentum has been slain by the rich and powerful of both parties, proving once and for all that the President and the federal government are not of the people, by the people and for the people, but of the rich, by the rich and for the rich.