Denying Reality

I was listening to and reading the news stories about the Republicans taking control of the House this next Congressional session. I've read their "Contract for America" and all the ideas and rules they plan. Oh, what ambitions they have for their time in power. Like New Year's resolution, it will be short-lived and politics as usual will resume as the normal order of business.

All the rules about ownership of actions by representatives, which I assume is aimed at the Democrats and not their own party, will become invisible as transparency will be selectively enforced. They don't want transparency, except of course if they already have back rooms ways to avoid it, which, like the White House and the administrations, previous and current, have had for decades.

But that's not my point here. It's their arrogance. Totally blind arrogance where they overtly and mistakenly equate arrogance with patriotism. And more so, their brand of patriotism, meaning corporate-backed and corporation-friendly laws to get what they want more than power, money. It's all about money to them.

They equate patriotism with money. Capitalism and those who practice it, corporations, except those corporations are now global enterprises and could care less about America, but only what they also want, which is the same as the Republicans, money, and even more money, even money paid by taxpayers directed to them in tax cuts and exemptions, contracts, grants, etc. Just money.

And in the pursuit of money, equating the work as Patriotic, the Republicans cite all sorts of ideas and ideals, religions as politics, and greed as virtue, and everything else, meaning the ordinary people not only don't count but aren't really in their world of patriots, except of course those who serve their wars.

They've learned what General Patton said about our enemy, "You don't die for your country, you make the other son-of-a-bitch die for his.", except ordinary folks are the enemy and they're more than happy to send young men and women into a trumped up war for global geopolitics and really oil as democracy and patriotism.

And that's part of their denial. Out of arrogance they only see their America, that top 5% of the wealthy who want tax breaks to get richer and buy more extravagence. And the corporations who worry about attaining more money. To that end, the corporations don't care where the jobs are created, especially if those jobs are here and more so union, which will cost them more in pay and benefits.

It's the bottom line for the wealthy, the value of their portfolio and their assests, and for the corporation, profit and shareholder value. Everything else is irrelevant or unimportant. And that's the reality the Republicans believe and promote as ordinary and patriotic. It is, however, part of our heritage from colonial times. The rich wanted to get richer and companies wanted more revenue.

But even then those folks understood about the rest of what made America great, people and especially the ordinary folks who worked for their living and often their survival. Today the Republicans are blind to the rest of us. You hear it in their words, see it in their lifestyle, and discover it in the laws they propose and those they pass. Some money to us, just enough to make us think we're important, but more money, and most of it, to corporations and the wealthy.

That's their reality. Everything else isn't in their world, not in their view, their thoughts or their actions. We simply don't count except to pay taxes.