Saturday, October 30, 2010

Restoring Sanity (or keeping fear alive).

Let me just start out by stating the obvious.  This isn't a fucking squabble.  We're not school children having a tussle on the playground, or a round of "would you stop touching me" in the back seat of the family car.  We have a group of people who deny science, who deny the right of a woman to control her own body, who deny the right of honest, hard working Americans to legally bind themselves to the people they love.  Who wish to do so in the name of religion, or an equally obtuse ideology like faith in free-market gnomes who will somehow make everything work out right if we all just believe hard enough.  We have folks who swear up and down that our duly elected President is an illegal immigrant, a Kenyan anti-colonialist, a Muslim, and a Socialist.  We have people who believe that their taxes went up when, in fact, they've gone down.  And why?  Because we have a "news" network devoted 24/7/365 to lying to anyone willing to buy what they're selling.

And these false "moderates" that are calling for "an end to the bickering" don't grasp what's going on.  We're not bickering.  We're fighting for all of us against a threat you haven't even clued into yet.  A massive conspiracy of would-be theocrats and fascists who want to use democracy to dismantle democracy.  These are people who see no value in a separation between church and state, and no value in preventing large corporations from spewing toxic contaminants into the air, water, and earth in all directions... as long as it's not in their backyard, we must presume.

If you want to "restore sanity" you have to understand that the high ground isn't on some nebulous island in the center of it all.  You can't say "Oh, let's just find a happy medium."  Because where is the middle position between sane and fuck-all batshit balls-out crazy?

That's not to say there aren't some crazies on the left side of the fence.  There are a few.  But the difference is--we don't take them seriously.  We don't let them RUN things.  Who do you think is calling the shots on the right?  Here's a clue... it's not the Eisenhower Republicans.  No, the group that's wrested control of the Republican Party--with the aid and comfort of the fine folks at FOX "News"--make the Neo-cons of G.W. Bush's administration look like rational adults.

But by all means, keep pretending that we're not up to our collective ass in tea-bag alligators.  In fact, it may be those who don't bother getting involved until "things have gotten out of hand" that are really to blame for the current state of affairs.  You abdicate any responsibility for the political situation for years--maybe decades--thinking that it has nothing to do with you, then turn around and look down on us for being in the trenches and aware of what's going on.

You know what?  Thanks.  Thanks for nothing.  Thanks for leaving us to try to defend your freedom to worship wherever you like--or not at all, if it suits you.  Thanks for just sitting back and allowing us to protect your right to drink clean water, and breathe clean air.  Thanks for not pitching in when we went to bat for safer workplaces, and some kind of income if you somehow lose your job through no fault of your own.  Thanks for being too busy to give a shit about protecting social security, or medicare.  For the right of a woman to control her own body, or a child to get some kind of education rather than being forced to work for a living the minute he learned to tie his own shoes.

You know why?  Because every one of these things were opposed by the conservatives.  Every fucking one of them.  And yet we kept fighting for everyone--even the conservatives who hate us--because we ALL need clean air and water, safe workplaces, a safety net in case of catastrophic circumstances, and the right to go to school and worship or not worship in our own way.  We ALL need the right to have a say in what happens to our bodies.

So, please, go ahead and pretend you've got the high ground.  We'll be out here in the trenches, fighting the good fight.  We'll let you know when we've won.  Because you'll sure as hell know if we lose.