|
|
|---|
|
American Politics Journal Atrios Barry Crimmins Betty Bowers Buzzflash Consortium News Daily Howler Daily Kos Democatic Underground Disinfotainment Today Evil GOP Bastards Faux News Channel Greg Palast The Hollywood Liberal Internet Weekly Jesus General Joe Conason Josh Marshall Liberal Oasis Make Them Accountable Mark Morford Mike Malloy Political Humor - About.com Political Wire Randi Rhodes Rude Pundit Smirking Chimp Take Back the Media Whitehouse.org More Links |
Hiding
from Reality
by Bob Herbert
However you want to define the
American dream, there is not much of it that’s left anymore.
Wherever you choose to look - at the economy and jobs, the public
schools, the budget deficits,
the nonstop warfare overseas - you’ll see a country in sad shape.
Standards of living are declining,
and American parents increasingly believe that their children will
inherit a very bad deal.
We're in denial about the extent of the rot in the system, and the
effort that would be required to
turn things around. It will likely take many years, perhaps a decade or
more, to get employment
back to a level at which one could fairly say the economy is thriving...
All we are good at is
bulldozing money to the very wealthy.
No wonder the country is in such
a deep slide.
We don’t even seem to realize how deep a hole we’re in. If student test
scores jumped a couple of
points or the jobless rate fell by a point and half, the politicians
and the news media would crow as if
something great had been achieved. That’s how people behave when
they’re in denial.
America will never get its act together until we recognize how much
trouble we’re really in,
and how much effort and shared sacrifice is needed to stop the decline.
Only then will we
be able to begin resuscitating the dream.
Republicans are the greatest salesmen in the world,
or maybe it's just that the Dems are the absolute worst.
The Republican's product is less money in your pocket.
The Republicans (and their friends in the whore press) have convinced people
that their lives would be better if the super rich got more poor peoples' money.
When Bush stole power, he started handing the billionaires unearned millions for no reason.
After ten years of the rich taking money from the poor, the poor decided they LIKED THAT
so they elected people who promised to gut their Social Security. gut their health care, gut their
Medicare and unemployment benefits and even take your food stamps from you.
What the fuck is wrong with people?
Of course, we know the answer.
Today's Democrats couldn't sell a life preserver to a drowning man.
They couldn't sell a glass of water to a man stuck in the Sahara Desert.
The Democrats have a vastly superior product, (more money in your pocket) but people
dislike our top salesman. He sounds too much like a John Kerry speech (not a compliment).
No wonder the country is in such a deep slide.