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First an foremost, the Tea Party wants their membership to vote for ANY Republican and/or Tea Party candidate, it doesn't matter who. They say any one of them, no matter who, would be much far much better than re-electing President Obama again. Would things be much better today if John McCain and Sarah Palin had been elected? |
The Tea Party say Obama's a Socialist; but he seems far too corporate-friendly for my blood. At least Obama would fund extended unemployment benefits for the American workers that the big corporations laid off. The Tea Party wouldn't do that...they call it "wasteful government spending". They say 99 weeks is "long enough". I ask, "Long enough for what? To find a non-existent job? To pay for rent and food? To live?"
Maybe a 99-week congressional job paying $174,000+ a year is also "long enough". Why do career politicians, who themselves are living off the government tit, always accuse others of being freeloaders, and of getting government hand-outs and living out of their neighbor's wallets? The same tax dollars that fund food stamps also pays their salaries too. They're just like any other "government worker" or "civil servant" that they've accused of being over-paid and having unsustainable pensions. They themselves are the fat we need to cut. They are also "wasteful government spending". I suppose it's all a matter of perspective as to what is "needed" and what is "wasteful".
The Tea Party reps in Congress get "government healthcare" and "government pensions", why can't I (Medicare and Social Security)? What makes them so special? Do they get less sick or old than I do? Do they feel less hunger or pain than I do? Do they need less housing, food, and heat than I do? Why are THEIR needs more important than MINE? Especially when it's MY tax dollars that pays THEM to represent MY interests as a servant of THE PEOPLE? Were they elected to rule, or to govern? Were they elected to represent, or to dictate?
It's pretty much common knowledge that the Koch Brothers, and all the other corporate elite, fund the Tea Party - and that the Tea Party itself is incorporated. So isn't it a bit of a dilemma for them if they want to buck the "establishment" when they themselves are part of the establishment? And maybe they'd be better served by getting their own cable media outlet, instead of being associated with Rupert Murdoch and Fox News...that organization, and most everyone that works for it, is corrupted to the tenth power.
And the Tea Party, like any Republican, wants to end Medicare and Social Security to. I have written the Tea Party Patriots several times, and I don't like their stance about throwing the unemployed under the bus...just like the heartless Republicans. Tea Party people like Jim DeMint accuses people like me as "gaming the system". But I'd expect that from someone like him who is also anti-union and against fair wages.
I've worked all my life and never had a problem finding a job. After the economy crashed in 2008 I couldn't even land an interview at McDonalds. Why not? I'm of average intelligence with an average IQ, I'm not physically deformed like The Elephant Man, I'm well-groomed, well-dressed, polite, respectful, and well-mannered. I don't have a criminal history and I've even been told that I look young for being 55 years old. So why, after 3 long years, couldn't I ever find another job again, until I finally lost most everything I once owed - including my life's savings?
In a modern society, we rely on a fiat currency to pay for our rent and food. We can no longer pitch a tent wherever we want to and start growing our own food. Am I expected to be a hunter-gather in 2011 just for basic survival? If one can't get hired to do any job, for any amount of income, how is someone expected to survive?
Can 14 million unemployed Americans rely on their neighbors or local churches to house, clothe, and feed them? Our people in the Armed Services keep re-enlisting, and not just out of patriotism, but because of the unemployment situation. Our Vets from Afghanistan and Iraq have a higher unemployment rate than the national average. Were they just lazy, and did they just want to live on a government hand-out?
I was a bartender, the world's second oldest profession...so what new jobs skills am I required to learn? Lawyers, accountants, engineers, and software designers were also laid off...and now they work at McDonalds. Is there something wrong with me? Or is there really something wrong with our economic and political system if 14 million other Americans can't also find work?
Were the police, firefighters, and teachers (who were also laid off) lazy too, and did they all just want to live on a government hand-out?
During our Founding Father's time, begging was also a profession. Today panhandling is illegal. I received $9,000 in unemployment benefits last year...my only income...and I paid federal taxes on that. All my life I've paid every imaginable tax: property, excise, state, sales, gasoline, and even tolls to cross bridges and travel turnpikes. This year I needed Medicaid for an arthritic back and food stamps to eat; but I'm also called a lazy bum and on the dole for receiving government "handouts".
Everyone in my family served in the military - my father was a Veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars (and a life-time Democrat). But his son is now being treated like a Socialist because he's trying to avoid living on the streets and eating out of trash cans. I lost my job when a Republican had been the president, and I only survive on food stamps now because a Democrat had provided for that need.
It's odd...when asked about cutting the budget, things like Medicaid and food stamps for the poorest of our citizens are the very first things the Republicans and the Tea Party want to cut. But when asked about the tax break breaks for corporate jets, their lame excuse always is, "Oh, but that's such a small part of the overall budget."
Are wealthy CEOs more American than our poorest and weakest citizens? Are the bankers and CEOs and politicians somehow more deserving of respect as human beings just because they have control, power, and wealth? What about being created equal and having unalienable rights?
The New Colossus (On the Statue of Liberty)
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
I guess America can't afford those people anymore, since we can't even afford to feed the poor we already have. The last I heard, Mexicans were moving back to Mexico because of a lack of jobs...and millionaires like Pamela Anderson were reduced to pulling their own weeds. And "freeloaders" like myself are accused of destroying the country because we had the nerve to ask for food stamps when all else failed. As Glenn Beck once said, I should be ashamed to call myself an American.
I was raised as a Catholic, but I don't want no Bible-toting fanatic, who feels no empathy for the poor and who mostly represents the rich, running every aspect of my life. They may say I'm drinking the Kool-Aid, but I much prefer that than their stinkin' tea.
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