I heard this during this morning’s hike with Mike. “Congress is filled with clowns who have never run a business.”
The subject was an online video tirade posted by a “businessman” who felt that only other “businessmen” could solve the nation’s financial problems, eliminate the debt, and “fix” the nation. Of course, it achieved “viral” status.
The right-wingers all seem to feel that if we would only surrender the government to “business,” the “entrepreneurial spirit of America” would instantly correct all our national problems. Between the libertarians and the teavangelists, the GOPers are constantly harping that business experience makes people qualified to hold elected office.
The collective drive of the three factions is geared toward returning the U.S. to the days of robber barons and laissez-faire capitalism. In concert with that, the three factions want to remove the income tax, abolish Social Security, destroy Medicare and Medicaid, and eliminate all aspects of public education, public health, and occupational safety regulations. Anything to the left of the Confederacy is too far to the left.
Along with the desire to abolish government for any purpose other than protecting the wealthy, many of the right-wingers have developed a disdain for the existence and well-being of all others. This is becoming more widely demonstrated in the current economic arguments that play out daily in the U.S. There is a huge deficit of concern for others among the right-wingers.
I hear and/or see routinely: “I don’t want to pay for “their” insurance, food stamps, health care, schools, child care.”
“ The government has no business regulating food safety, education, health insurance, minimum wage, airlines, trucking companies. “
“Government is evil!” “Government is the enemy.” “Business can do anything better and more cheaply than government.” “Government lies about “global warming,” immigration, endangered fisheries, resistant bacteria, bridge and road safety, private armies, secret police forces with hidden re-education camps.”
“The government is trying to take our guns!” “Obama is a socialist, from Kenya.” Obama has never run a business or made a payroll.
And there it completes the loop today. At some point in time the right-wingers became possessed of the myth that business will provide safe food and medications, assure safe working conditions, conserve natural resources and protect the environment; all without being forced to do so by…Government. In their minds, all those public safety officers, fire fighters, bridge maintenance workers, food safety inspectors, air traffic controllers, and other workers and agencies that make our world a bit safer can be replaced by contractors and “businessmen” working at a low bid basis. Somehow, they have been convinced that such arrangements will provide all that we need. We should each have retirement accounts managed by “businessmen” and investors who also get to handle the federal revenues. Of course, the right-wingers conveniently forget the S&L scandal of the 1980s and the recent banking/investment frauds that nearly brought about global depression. “Wall Street and the financial firms “can be trusted” with personal investments, so they should be handed the nation’s finances to conserve and disburse. These same fools would let Texas re-write history books for public schools, removing science, teaching creationism, and decreasing the knowledge base of our students compared to every other industrialized nation in the world.
I look back at our history and realize immediately that business cannot now or ever be trusted to provide safe food, drugs, cars, buildings, etc... unless forced to do so. I do not want commercial investment firms to have any access to my social security, health insurance, or economic future. I want federal regulations for food, medication, schooling, road and bridge safety, public safety, communications, and many other facets of our daily lives that separate us from Mexico and Somalia.
As a VietNam veteran, I know that governments must be questioned, loudly, frequently, and publically. There is and should be a level of distrust between the citizens who vote for our representatives, and our representatives. Quite frankly, unless one has millions of dollars, and is a teavangelist, everything our Congressman says is suspect and should be verified by at least two outside sources. But even accepting that level of dishonesty in government, business is still far lest trustworthy. After all, they are the source of lobbyist-dispensed graft, corruption, and lobbyist-dispensed re-election funding that makes the offices of U.S. Congressmen so desirable.
We cannot repair our nation by sending “businessmen” to Congress. We’d be idiots to believe that the outcome would be any different than it has been before. A low-bid government leads directly to the 3rd world. No, thank you!
No comments:
Post a Comment