The Third Way or the Right's Way

Our form of government is quite literally the "third way." It is a compromise between the privileged and the many designed to prevent class warfare and the resulting tyrannies of oligarchs and mobs. Most Americans are content with this compromise. The radical Right has never been content with the compromise because it doesn't believe in compromises. The radical Right has always wanted to kill the compromise, and now it looks like it's a stab or two away.

It sits on America's chest, wielding a dagger, demanding, "Stop struggling so much; it'll make a mess; it'll be fast and painless; it has to be this way. Look at it as a new beginning - you can come back as whatever you wish."

If it succeeds in murdering America, the radical Right will gut her and make a costume for itself. It'll prance around, madness unbound, pleading, "Look at me: I'm America! I'm freedom, and liberty, and democracy, and all that good stuff you people love! Really I am!"

Pathetic psychopaths...


Edit: added "you people love," & removed comma from first sentence.

a poetic take on the crucial issue of our generation. bravo. very compelling.

whalerider55

:pals:

class warfare is well underway. It's just that the lower classes, for the most part, haven't figured that out yet because the media is giving them others - muslims, terrorists, 3rd world factory workers, the 'liberal media' etc to blame for it, so while the lower classes (or a significant percentage of them) continues to chase wild geese or attack potential allies, their real enemy gains ground daily.

There were enough DINOs to vote for welfare reform. And a lot of them voted for the Iraq quagmire funding thats bankrupting the treasury. We have to apply a quick tourniquet to our fiscal bleeding, or the unrest that you talk about will go above the simmering stage where its at now.

I dont think that it would be that hard to convince people like Lieberman and HRC that putting more funds into the Iraq fiasco is throwing good money after bad. The mistake is pretty obvious. But thats our first step; correct what we can do and grind away at the bigger problem in workable chunks. IMHO.

It helps convince the victim that she has no right to fight back, and the jury that no crime is being committed.

Please, don't call me a "freeper" or "fascist", but I worked in local government in New York for thirteen years and the welfare system truly, truly needed reform (eight years in NYC and five in Syracuse). It was a well-intentioned idea, but, as it grew over the years, it turned into something in large measure counter-productive. This is a rough calculation, but half the women on welfare were simply born into it -- it was a way of life in their families. They had babies when they were teens and never tried to achieve anything educationally or career-wise. Having babies that young puts you at a disadvantage your whole life and the government was, in effect, subsidizing/enabling it. My heart would literally break in two when talking to these women. By the time they were 30, they literally believed they were worthless, that they couldn't hack it in any job or career training program. Opportunities were there for them, but they were too scared and too set in their ways to try. We spent an enormous amount of time setting up peer counseling programs and providing support for those brave enough to try, but few succeeded. When it got too scary, they retreated to the safety of welfare.

Twenty-five percent at least were actively "scamming" the system: Working off the books, getting income from boyfriends, selling illegally obtained Food Stamps for cash, etc, etc. In my heart, I didn't blame them for supplementing their income -- it wasn't like they were living in mansions. Still, there were people in similar financial situations who didn't commit fraud.

The last 25% were the people the system was actually designed to serve: People who'd run into trouble (had a job but lost it, father of the baby had been supporting them but couldn't anymore, etc.) This was the most perverse effect of the system: The system was so bureaucratic, it couldn't help these people very well. For example, you had to wait 45 days before getting your first check -- well, for gosh sakes, if you were expecting your boyfriend to show up Friday and give you money for the baby's diapers and formula and he doesn't, is the baby supposed to wait 45 days until being fed??? (There were emergency programs but they were a nightmare, too -- because there was so much fraud in the system, the system was designed to be bureaucratic and require all kinds of documentation and draw things out.)

Well, that's probably more info than you ever wanted to know, but, in my opinion anyway, welfare reform was a good thing. Young girls should stay in school and get some career training and not rush into motherhood.

I'm not interested.

:hi:

They gave us all this shit.

The radical Right lies because it recognizes that it's working against human nature. The problem with lies is that they undermine logic; faulty logic is the liar's Achilles' heel. This fatal flaw impedes the radical Right as long as the conditions compel it to lie in order to survive.

It is a testament to the radical Right's resourcefulness, deviousness and tenacity that it has survived, thrived, and successfully altered the conditions to almost negate its fatal flaw. After working for 40 years to re-engineer reality, it isn't finished; the flaw is still somewhat of an impediment. Ultimately, the radical Right intends to establish the conditions that will eliminate its need to lie.

At this point in time, we still have truth and logic on our side. If we add courage and determination, aim carefully, and keep the heat trained, we can force the radical Right to reveal itself before it's ready.

:toast: Thanks for an enjoyable post. I really loved the "Stop struggling so much; it'll make a mess..."