Torturing Those (Strangers, Friends, Neighbors and Family) Who Can't Get A Job! - Reagan Repubs Abandoning Today's Radical Repubs?

In order to torture people, in order to cause them certain pain, you must first obliterate their humanity: you must excise from your consciousness the idea that you have anything in common with them, that you are flesh of their flesh (to use religious language). I believe that is what leading Democrats are now doing. This is more than split consciousness; it’s a new kind of consciousness in which all that matters is the flourishing of their social own class: professionals in the middle six figures who now imagine themselves to be part of the struggling middle class. Meanwhile, the people who actually are part of the struggling middle class are being plucked like so many chickens, with their unions under assault, their kids in lousy schools, their shot (at) any kind of retirement security being stripped away with the blessing of the Democrats.

The thing that "kills" the soul of most of us who have not been able to find work (paying work) in a long time or had our deep and long-term suffering taken seriously by those who continue blithely to say "get a job!" is that it always feels like that we are being separated away from the rest of the population inhumanely without a good rationale by those who don't know anything about how to alleviate our situation. You can't explain to the comfortable how difficult it is to "get a job" due to economic reasons because the economy treats people entirely differently depending on their circumstances. I have siblings who work in the health care and energy industries and both (right now) are doing fine financially. Of course, remove the government subsidies and it's an entirely different story isn't it? When I lost my last good job that had long-term retirement prospects and many benefits, it was difficult explaining to my family and friends how hard it was to get other companies who did somewhat comparable work to consider hiring someone who was 15 years older than the workers they were able to acquire straight out of college or graduate school. Today it's easier but still not always accepted. I've given up hope that the U.S. will ever adopt the socially-conscious, life-affirming policies of other western countries to protect all its citizens. I've given in to the fact that there is something predatory still in the blood of most "Americans," who think they are all self-made without any help from their community or social village. To finally understand the new "American Experiment" has been life affirming in itself. And you never need to worry about being alone again. Because you know you are.

August 1, 2011 New for Democrats: Non-Personhood for the Non-Rich Peter Laarman Many of us have talked for years along the lines first sketched (I think) by Gore Vidal: i.e., that we don’t have a two-party system in the U.S., we have a single party — the Party of Wealth — with two branches. But this talk was heard among the chattering classes only. Officially the Democratic Party and most individual Democrats could still be counted upon to mouth traditional New Deal-ish rhetoric about standing up for working families, keeping corporate malefactors in check, protecting the sick and the elderly, giving kids a shot a better life via good public schools.

Now I think we have a new situation in which Obama and most senior Democrats can’t seriously pretend to align themselves with the tradition of Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson. They will deserve to be laughed off the stage if they try. But that doesn’t mean they won’t attempt it one more time.

A couple of weeks ago, George Packer wrote a piece in which he featured a down-and-out family — the Hartzells of Tampa, FL — who were getting ready to pack up their meager belongings and head off to stay with friends in remote North Georgia in hopes that something better might turn up. There are millions of families like the Hartzells out there — the Joads of this ruthless new economy — but there is no evidence at all that anyone in the political class is prepared to give them a seat at the budget negotiation table.

In order to torture people, in order to cause them certain pain, you must first obliterate their humanity: you must excise from your consciousness the idea that you have anything in common with them, that you are flesh of their flesh (to use religious language). I believe that is what leading Democrats are now doing. This is more than split consciousness; it’s a new kind of consciousness in which all that matters is the flourishing of their social own class: professionals in the middle six figures who now imagine themselves to be part of the struggling middle class. Meanwhile, the people who actually are part of the struggling middle class are being plucked like so many chickens, with their unions under assault, their kids in lousy schools, their shot (at) any kind of retirement security being stripped away with the blessing of the Democrats.

As I write this, I am hearing White House factotums and leading Democratic shills talking about all the “protections” they won in this agreement: no immediate cuts to Social Security and no direct cuts to Medicare beneficiaries—only to the providers (a real piece of chicanery, that). This talk obscures the crushing reality of the deal they are about to vote through: the complete exemption of high-net-worth individuals from any kind of sacrifice, now or in the future, while the sick, the poor, the elderly, and school kids will pay the whole tab for America’s return to fiscal discipline.

I am someone who has resisted the Roger Hodge “mendacity of hope” line on Obama, thinking it too harsh. Until now, that is. My stomach churns to think how this president and the leading members of this party will now attempt to romance, yet again, the millions of America’s non-rich, including the younger voters, many of them people of color, who actually believed that we would turn a corner in 2008.

We turned a corner, all right: we turned a corner toward a complete mockery of democratic aspiration. The one real hope left to us is not that God will now sweep in to deliver the oppressed but that the oppressed will find the godly part in themselves: the self-respecting part that is willing to tell Obama and all the rest: “You betrayed us — we get it — and now you are on your own. We will somehow find the resources among ourselves to make a life. But we are no longer playing your game."

Has a slight movement away from craziness begun? Florida is in the running as one of the craziest states and it seems to be leading the way to an improved sensibility.

Tuesday, August 02, 2011 The Death Knell of the Republican Party? By Geniusofdespair According to the Miami Herald, this was said by Moderate Republican, former Florida State Senator Nancy Argenziano, after jumping ship to run as a Democrat:

"The Republican Party has left me, and I will run as a Democrat, in a sense permitting a claim to ultimate bipartisanship, along the lines of Ronald Reagan. The current iteration of the party abandoned real Republican principles long ago to cater to ideologues and corporations – the Koch entities, most notably – whose interests lie in the profiteering of America and the sacking of the middle class. Current Republican leaders have neither patience with nor allowance for honest elected officials, and they demand that members of the various legislatures – who, after all, have sworn to uphold the Constitution – instead just follow the hijacked party line and shut up."

And in Chronicle Online she said:

"Contrary to the current crop of Republican leaders, I do not want Halliburton in charge of the Pentagon, BP heading up the Department of Environmental Protection, or Enron making energy policy. I have a problem with those who have hijacked the Republican Party to use it for their own self gain; those who wouldn’t have a clue what a Republican platform is and who have mutated the “R” philosophy beyond recognition. I take offense that they use the hard-working grassroots level Republicans to help promote a philosophy that they do not practice. Many good Republicans who worked hard for this party have written books telling us what was happening, apparently to no avail. It cannot be that all that matters is that our side wins at any cost. I refuse to believe anyone could not see the harm in doing that."

Is Florida the epicenter of the Civil War within the Republican Party? We have the Charlie Crist third party candidacy for Senate, another jumped-ship Republican. We have the unruly, insane Governor, Rick Scott - proof that Republicans are off their rockers. Now we have Nancy Argenziano - a small player in a big debate in a "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" moment - who tries to answer the question: What the fuck has happened to Republicans?

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