This country is so majorly fucked up

[kevinbgoode1]

67. Thank you for this post. . .one thing that continues to bother me

. . .is how easily so many people are duped into believing a "CEO" is the best choice for President - particularly when his ever-changing positions results in him having NO real policies and makes me believe he is going to be nothing more than a puppet on corporate strings. Why people think that embracing fascism is such a glorious choice for this country astounds me - along with their lingering ideas that government by the people and for the people is somehow inherently evil and that our only hope for a future is government by the rich and powerful.

We've been sinking into this hole for a long time, and I agree that there are few ways to get out. So many people are stuck in some wacko GOP-inspired mindset that all you have to do is work hard and you'll be automatically rich - and we ALL know that is a myth. I had this discussion with a diehard conservative just a week or so ago, and when I asked him how over 300 million Americans could be rich, he gave me the tired GOP line that "they can't - mostly because so many of them are lazy."

Except this time I pointed out that, when I was growing up, the advice I was always given by Republican relatives about planning for the future entailed creating a goal in which I DIDN'T work or produce anything, but instead lived off the labor of others. It was called "investment." Yes. . .for all their talk about "hard work," their entire idea of becoming well-off centers around making money work for you, or, in my mind, making others work for you so you don't have to work. Isn't that, in a sense, the ultimate welfare system of taking the labor of others and reaping all the benefits for yourself?

He just stared at me in surprise. He offered the notion that "yes, but they EARNED that money that works for them." And when I asked what they produced to continue to earn that money, he didn't have anything to say.

Now I'm not against investment or being well-off or anything like that, but I am against those who pretend they did it all themselves and have no dependency on others. But I am sick and tired of listening to right wingers telling me we have to give up social security and medicare to pay for wars they refused to pay for over the last decade. One fast way to shut them up is to quickly ask them why I should vote for a political party which deliberately CUT TAXES at the same time as escalating TWO WARS overseas and how "patriotic" is that idea? I never get an answer to that question.