His Time is Short

His Time is Short
By David Glenn Cox



Were the US economy a patient in a hospital, this is the part when the doctor walks out, shaking his head, and talks to the family. “I’m sorry, we’ve tried everything that we know to do. We’ve cut interest rates three times and we can’t cut anymore. We’ve put the banks on respirators to keep them functioning, but it's done no good. We’ve even pumped in rebate checks to get money circulating back into the economy, but the effects were only temporary. The body just used them to pay past-due bills."

The falling value of homes and the declining wages of the average American have taken millions out of any real participation in the economy. The rising cost of fuel and the related inflation of food prices have produced a paralysis throughout the system. "It is a cancer!” the doctor insisted. “An economy that is at war with itself. Management has fueled growth by lowering wages and cutting benefits, while cutting taxes for the wealthy until the people's debts can no longer be paid. The body politic simply borrowed from the banks but have run out of credit. Only a healthy middle class could save us now, but that was the first thing to go.”

It's called death by supply-side economics. A faith-based initiative whereby entrusting the government to wealthy business interests, they promise to make everything better for everyone. It is always fatal, always has been, always will be. You can’t build a pyramid from the top down. You can’t build anything from the top down, it goes against the physical laws of the universe. Could you imagine a beehive where all is entrusted to the queen? If the worker bees fail, the hive dies and there is not a damn thing the queen can do about it!

Madness is the last stage of the illness; the politicians will live in a permanent state of denial, insisting that all is well, and then grow quiet. The media will trumpet the good news of one corporation buying out another but ignoring why it is that the other corporation is so anxious to sell out. The stock market, like shipwrecked mariners, will cling to the driftwood of the economy. They will cheer and their hopes will rise on any good news. The market, like their hopes, will swing wildly and then drift back into depression when that ship on the horizon turns out to be a cloud or a mirage. Then, one by one, the sharks move in.

In some rare cases the government slips into madness and begins to rant like Napoleon or Hitler! It is a deep-seated neurosis where the beliefs of a lifetime are proved fatally wrong.

“I am the Obergrupen Fuehrer for the state of Kalifornia! You will do what I say, ya? We must not be held back by this economy! There is only one course to follow! We must make an example of state workers! We will shoot a thousand a day until the economy gives in and turns around!”

“Sir, you can’t shoot state workers!”

“Then fire them! Fire them all, the temporary workers, the interns, fire them all!”

“But, Obergrupen Fuehrer, what about the police and fire departments?”

“Ya, they have been loyal to me and their job is to protect me. They may keep their jobs. Fire the rest, we must show this economy that we can’t be pushed around!”

“Sir, we need the state workers; you can’t fire them all!”

“All right then! You will cut their pay to the minimum wage!”

“Sir, our computers are old; we need the temporary workers to reprogram them.”

“Nein! Nein! They must be taught a lesson! They have let this economy fail and now they must pay! They really don’t deserve me, you know!”

“Yes, Obergrupen Fuehrer, they really don’t deserve you!”

As exaggerated and satirical as that may sound, there is a defining principle here. We hear it over and over from Republicans at all levels of government and we need to build a monument to this principle. Because, the American public have an incredibly short memory and will otherwise forget. The principle is simple; it is the guiding light of Republican politics. This is all your fault, Mr. and Mrs. Middle America! They will always blame you!

Katrina? That was those poor people's fault. Besides, they really liked living in the Astrodome! The mortgage crisis? People gaming the system, buying homes that they couldn’t afford! It’s shameful, those working-class slobs gaming those poor, unsuspecting mortgage brokers and real estate attorneys. High fuel prices? Environmentalists and do-gooders standing in the way of our brave oil industry. The GI Bill? Too expensive. Why, all the soldiers will leave the service to go to college and we need them to fight our wars!

This isn’t just a philosophy or a way of thinking; this is who they are. You are the problem to them! They accept no blame or responsibility for any failure because it is undoubtedly your fault. When the Bush administration went into Iraq and found no WMD’s, their answer was simple: the intelligence was wrong. It was somebody else’s fault and they ignored that it was their job to judge the intelligence. They are elected to lead the government, but then blame the government for society's problems, like a carpenter cursing his hammer.

Never has this point been made clearer than by our little Obergrupen Fuehrer in the Kalifornia Reich. He chooses as the solution to a budget crisis to take the shortfall out of the hides of the state workers. He could have raised taxes on luxury items or refinanced the state's debt, but instead let’s punish the 200,000 who get up and go to work every day! Let’s hold them hostage in this political extortion scheme! You remember this, California, and you remember this America, when push comes to shove it’s you who will be shoved.

Reducing wages for all state workers, except for the exempted few, to $6.55 per hour. Workers who only get paid once a month, workers who have mortgages and car notes to pay and children to feed. This is how the Republicans see you, America, a nuisance to be put up with and the best answer to any problem is always to screw into the ground first. Who will pay the late fees? Who will pay for the overdrafts? What creditor will accept, “I work for the state of California” as a legitimate excuse for missing a car or mortgage payment? No, they will be labeled as bad consumers and accused of gaming the system. Just miserable miscreants trying to cheat honest businessmen out of their livings.

If the leadership can do no better than this, then the leadership should be changed. If the system is at war with its people, then maybe the system needs to be changed.

Thanks so much for posting this. I'm glad to be the 5th and send it to Greatest Page.

Arnold is almost as deluded and ridiculous as Bush.

It's not confined to Kalifornia, tho.