Friday, April 8, 2011

The Republican War on Everyone Else

The following comment appeared in the New York Times in response to a Paul Krugman column criticizing Republican Rep. Paul Ryan's budget proposal:

Congressman Ryan is from one of the wealthiest Wisconsin districts, just across border from Illinois and a favored bedroom area for wealthy commuters from Chicago. He's representing the wealthy voters to whom everyone not one of them is invisible. 

Congressman Ryan proposed earlier budgets in which he would have eliminated the health care for children (CHIPS.) His constituents didn't protest. As far as they're concerned, Americans working for a living are lucky to be employed and should have worked harder and studied harder. 
His constituents pay to keep him in office because he'll carry their water: make it possible for the strong to prey on those who lack their wealth and connections. It's something the working people in this nation fiercely fought to overcome in the 1930s, 1940s, and even into the 1950s. 
I still recall when my father was a petroleum company executive during a refinery strike during my younger years and him telling how he had to low-crawl to his car after his month of working to keep the refinery operating. I remember the wives of the workers in that strike coming to our rural home with their children, and asking for food and toilet paper. I recall my mother answering the door with a revolver in one hand hidden behind her back. I recall us setting up a a pantry in the garage and my mother telling them she couldn't feed them all but would help in emergencies. I recall my father expressing amazement that after low-crawling to the car, the union workers opened the gate and waved him out. I remember his consternation when my mother showed him the garage pantry and explained why they'd waved him out. She said the strike was between the men, and union or not, she'd always share her food with mothers and children. I remember our house being shot at and seeing the bullet holes in the living room window. 
I recall one of my father's friends over one evening talking to him about a railroad strike. He told of how union workers had been found along the rail bed beaten black and blue. About that moment he looked up and remarked to my father that "little ears were nearby" and he'd better stop or there'd be nightmares. I was sent to bed. 
I recall the news stories on WGN radio about acid being thrown into truckers' faces during trucking strikes. 
I recall the death threats sent to my parents about kidnapping and killing me. I recall at age 7 people in Halloween masks attacking the windows on my bedroom and I then recall being taken to St. Louis where a large black German Shepherd named Windy and I were trained together for my protection. I recall the annual re-training through my eleventh year. That probably had a lot to do with my father regularly took me overseas with him. 
That is the era back to which Congressman Ryan and his bought, phony, grass-root supporters want to take us: the era of real class warfare. It's sick. They're morally corrupt. 
From President Truman forward, every Democratic President has reduced the national debt as a percentage of the nation's GDP. Since Truman forward, ONLY TWO Republican Presidents have reduced the nation's debt as a percentage of GDP: President Eisenhower in both terms and President Nixon in his first term. That's it. Since then, Republican Presidents have always increased the national debt as a percentage of GDP. 
Congressman Ryan's budget isn't the least bit serious. It's not a budget to build a great nation. It's a delusion concocted by his vanity egged on by the thought of accolades and personal riches from this nation's wealthiest. Congressman Ryan's budget has all the scope, insight, and foresight one might find in the Christmas wish list of a sheltered, spoiled child.

11 comments:

Leslie Parsley said...

What a tale this guy tells and how awful but I'm not sure we're not going to revisit those times. It is a shame that one cretan, such as Ryan, can hold the whole country hostage and hurt so many people in the process.

mommapolitico said...

Powerful comment, K. I think he's right about where the GOP would ideally like all this to lead. We've seen The Constitution mauled and maimed throughout the Bush era, and second amendment remedies called for, open meeting laws ignored and bills rammed through illegally called law, and the recent addition of the GOP deciding that all they have to do is put a deadline on a bill and they claim it becomes law. Every indication is that they want their "good old days" back. They'll do anything to get us there.

Thanks for pointing out this comment, K. Hope all's well with you and yours.

Anonymous said...

I think that with the events in Wisconsin AND the Ryan "Path To Prosperity" we have been blessed!

The right has laid their cards out on the table for everyone to see...

Now we have the fact that they are willing to shutdown government to appease the social conservatives and the Tea Party folks.

With all of this, an opportunity should exist, somewhere somehow for the democrats to develop an all encompassing program to take back the House and build their majority in the Senate in 2012.

If you cannot build a populist movement with all of the opportunities that the right has given you now....

Taradharma said...

so sad, Paul, so very very sad.

Jerry Critter said...

That's the country that the "rich and powerful" want us to live in. They rule and we suffer. It will only happen if we let it...and so far we are allowing it.

Darlene said...

I cannot tell you how sad this makes me. I get so angry that my blood pressure goes through the roof. For the first time in my very long life I have to take a break from reading or watching the news because of how it affects my well being.

paula said...

Darlene, take care of yourself!!!!

K---thanks for the wake-up call. Our only hope is that people start thinking seriously about what drastic cuts will mean to their own neighborhoods. How will they fare with fewer teachers, cops, firemen? What if the roads aren't repaired? What if their public television station goes off the air? What if their school no longer provides free lunches to poor kids? What if...
The Post had a story yesterday about people in Oklahoma wanting the federal budget cut, but not wanting anything to limit the many federal jobs they've acquired in recent years. Oklahoma is one of many states that gets more in return from the federal government than it gives back in taxes, like so many others in the forefront of the fight against Obama, health care reform, entitlement programs and anything that sounds like it's not a bonus for them.
Be careful what you wish for.

paula said...

Now they've really gone and done it.

Anonymous said...

I love the phrasing of "entitlement programs" too. As if anyone acts more entitled than the pricks at GE, Exxon Mobil, Verizon etc. These coroprate parasites live large and get tax rebates while if one of us is into the IRS for 1K we get our checks ripped. Ryan needs to get recalled with the rest of those GOP scumbags the Kochs bought for Wisconsin.

injaynesworld said...

A agree with Tao in that the Republicans have gotten so arrogant and sure of themselves that they're not even trying to hide their real motives anymore. Remember when even talking about touching social security was the political third rail? I'm hoping this arrogance will be their undoing. It seems like people are finally starting to see what's happening and getting angry and loudly so about it. I hope it doesn't end up in the streets, but that's how we ended a war in the 60s and it may be how we need to end this one on the middle class.

Thanks for posting this, my friend.

-blessed holy socks, the non-perishable-zealot said...

God blessa youse -Fr. Sarducci, ol SNL