Madder Than Hell

Why do the Republicans hate the United States?

I'm getting tired of a political party that exists only to exist, only to get its members elected next time. We elect our representatives to do their very best for us under the Constitution. Maybe it's worth quoting the preamble:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Doesn't say anything I can see about making the politicians and their friends richer. Doesn't say anything about power in perpetuity. In fact, if you look through the rest of it, there's more about limiting power. Domestic tranquility - how about that?

Temper tantrums would seem to be outside the bounds of domestic tranquility, so this business about shutting down the government is, simply, ugly. Not to say stupid. Shutting down the government was what got Newt Gingrich thrown out of elective office for good, although he managed to break the Senate in the process. Turned out that people like the national parks, veterans' benefits, and Social Security checks, which went away when the government shut down.

So what is all the anger about? Rich people are angry because they will have a few dollars less than the usual gazillions. Poor babies. Tea Partiers are angry, well, because! Their slogans are incoherent, as anger sometimes makes people. And it's hard to believe that there isn't an element of racism in it.

But I'm angry too! Why are those people standing in the way of progress? Why do they want sick children to have hospital emergency rooms as their only medical resource? Why do they want to heat up the planet and kill the polar bears? Why are they so selfish: my money, my taxes, me, mine, gimme, gimme? Why are they lying about the civil rights movement? Why is there no end to the whining about religious issues that I don't care about, except for the fact that so many of those angry people insist I live by their religion?

While the Republicans have been saying "No," they haven't proposed any solutions to problems. Repealing health care reform will put us back to where we were: insurance companies making life and death decisions for us. More tax breaks for the rich will further exacerbate the problems incurred by those rich financial traders. And if you like oil-rig blowups, salmonella in your eggs and spinach, and more risky financial deals, you'll love a Republican Congress!

They're pushing scare talk instead: be afraid of Moslems, sharia law, the national debt, immigrants, EMP launched on ICBMs from caves in Tora Bora, and sex. I would think we would all be getting tired of nonstop fear by now.

So I think we need to keep repeating stuff like this and this until the election. And probably after.

Photo stolen from Kevin Drum, although I think I've seen it in other places too. Oh, you say it's not a photo?