Collective Selective Hearing Across Party Lines
I’m not generally what one would call a political guy. I tend to believe that both of the major parties in this country are populated almost entirely by self motivated scum who will, in just about every instance, sell their supposedly valued constituents down the river to stay in office or line their coffers for re-election campaigns. Since there’s slime on both ends of the spectrum, I normally just write the whole sordid exercise off as a fact of life and move on.
Recent events, though, have caused me to take a lot more notice of the whole thing. The recent “Obama-care” healthcare mess and the Gulf oil spill illustrated to me just how fucked up and far apart the two poles of the system really are.
And the debate over one sort of points out the hypocrisy of the other. During the lead up to the health care bill, lots of Repulican pundits went on and on about how Obama and his crew were trying to socialize the country, between this and the bailouts of major banks and car manufacturers. Maybe he is, maybe he isn’t. What I find more interesting is the idea of such blatant fear mongering used to further a disparate agenda. The oddest thing to me was the “death panel” phenomenon. How is government officials deciding who is medically viable any different from what private insurers already do, just more quietly. I can’t find anything.
Then there’s the whole BP oil spill mess. I’m not trying to trivialize any of this, as it’s obviously a horrible thing that a large part of the country will need years, if not decades, to recover from. What makes me sick is how this disaster has become the latest platform for partisan sniping. Whilo several states suffer, liberals and conservatives are trying to get a leg up on one another.
The same Republican states that raised an unholy shitstorm over the health bill, claiming that we had “too much government” ran screaming for help the second the spill happened. Understandable, but a little hypocrirical. If I see Bobby Jindal or another Republican yahoo claiming that the Obama adminstration was “unprepared” for the spill, I’m going to go on a killing spree. Last I checked, our federal government has no way to be prepared for the fuckuppery of a private company that isn’t even based in the US. It’s called British Petroleum for a reason, folks.
Before it seems like I’m going off an an anti-conservative rant, let me point out that the Democrats are just as guilty of mass demonization of their counterparts. The Dems trying to insinuate that the Repulicans are somehow in bed with BP is ridiculous. Also, I’m sick of Obama and all of his sycophants continuining to blame the Bush Administration for every failed Obama policy. The stimulus plan didn’t work because it was rushed. No parameters were set, and individual states have no clue what they can and can’t do with the money, Cash for clunkers didn’t work because the government, in it’s hurry to implement the program neglected to give the individual car dealers the money to back up the trade ins. The health care plan is arcane and dense, and I personally object to being forced by the federal government to buy in to an insurance program. That’s a seperate blog for 2014. Barack, buddy, you’ve been in office for 18 months. Your mistakes are on you now, pal. How’s that Nobel Peace Prize working out for you?
I know I can rant and vent my spleen about this all I want and it won’t change anything. The practice of two groups of selectively deaf people screaming at each other will continue endlessly, but at least I’ve said my piece.
About The Plain Simple Tailor
Kail, p.s.
I would think you've known me long enough to know that I excel at getting on everyone's case. 🙂