Of Politics and Facebook

Maybe I should stop posting political crap on Facebook. It’s a pointless, argumentative, and occasionally aggressive habit.

Why do I do it? Because I’m angry with the way things are. And I get frustrated that people I know and care about seem determined to vote against their own manifest self interest and mine, and show their soft throats to rich, powerful sociopathic asshats who would happily slash them to turn a quick buck.

It’s true that Barack Obama has not turned out to be the assertive populist I hoped he’d be. His propensity for compromise, and sometimes capitulation, with the minions of the rich has cost us dearly. But at least he tends in the the populist direction. No thanks to the Democratic Party, which is about as effective in driving meaningful social and economic progress as a flock of fat ducks quacking on a pond.

It’s true that the GOP are the lackeys and lawn jockeys of billionaires, that they care nothing about working people or the environment we live in. The values they say they have, they don’t have. But that “family values” fraud is how they get and keep the loyalty of millions of people who simply can’t, or would rather not, think for themselves.

It is shocking to me that the conservatives, who are not really that at all, have convinced their voters that it’s bad to use public money for the public good. They throw up the word Socialism without even defining it, and their people yell

Stop Socialism and Don’t Touch My Medicare!

And through the yelling no one hears the fact that social programs are a vital part of a mixed economy, and that all modern economies are mixed economies. Both government and private sector coexist, and have functions in the economy.

Socialism is where the government owns everything. There are no private sector businesses that aren’t owned by the State. … can you say North Korea?

I don’t belong to either of the two big political parties, because I watch what they do before I listen to what they say. They’re corrupt. They want our votes, but they don’t work for us.

The only people in America who aren’t directly threatened by the policies of the GOP are the very rich. If you work for a living, be afraid of them. They bust unions. What’s worse, they’ll sell you the idea that unions are bad. Never mind that unions helped build the middle class and drive the expansion of our economy in the 20th century. Republicans love to revise history.

They’re coming for the last of the family farms; they’re backed by corporate megafarms. If you have kids, they’re cutting education. If you ever plan to get old or imagine you might get sick, you’re screwed.

And why are these people getting power from the people? Because they’ll outlaw same-sex marriage. They’ll tell you who you can love or not – and if not you then someone you know – and somehow that’s a family value. Never mind that the sanctity of marriage is a religious concept, and the Constitution says the government has to stay out of religion.

It amazes me that so-called conservatives talk about smaller government, and keeping it out of our business, but at the same time demand government prevent gay marriages and stop mosques from being built.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, so long as we all have the right religion.

They’ll rip the safety net out from under the oldest, sickest, youngest, poorest, neediest, most vulnerable people among us, just to pad the profit margins of corporations they now claim are people.

They waive a stop illegal immigration flag with one hand, while holding the door open with the other. Because easy immigration is good for the corporate economy. Actually, it’s good for the whole economy, but they won’t admit that.

People who want power need non-issues to distract public discourse away from the really important topics. Like who, really, has the skills we need for leadership, not just the vapid talk, and the ability to lead?

None of which makes Facebook a good place to voice my political opinions, though, does it? No, because my friends there already know all this, or they don’t care. And beating a hundred or so people on the head with my halfbaked thinking, in a closed social space, is useless and absurd.

No news link or picture, graph or quote by Jefferson or Paine is going to change anyone’s mind, once it’s made up. And most of the people I know have thoroughly made up their minds. So if the country is going to hell in a bucket, and I think it is, we’re all going together. And gravity, like stupidity, is an irresistible force.