Friday, April 9, 2010

Truth and Twain




The Constitution is the new Christ - gun, bludgeon and knife. A tool with which to indoctrinate and intimidate the uninformed. A counterfeit ethical standard by which to judge the morality of one’s enemies. I have heard the right, the tea people, talking about the Constitution and am put in mind of Mark Twain’s statement about truth. "Familiarity breeds contempt. How accurate that is. The reason we hold truth in such respect is because we have so little opportunity to get familiar with it."
- From Twain’s Notebook, 1898

This clearly applies to the fringe of the right. These shouting, screaming, stuttering intellectual ragamuffins are as committed to their version of the Constitution as they are ignorant of its true meaning. If I am not mistaken, that was Twain’s definition of a Blatherskite - the abusive morons of his day.

I am not a great fan of Obama anymore. I am a left leaning Liberal, and he is a Moderate. I have no idea what in the hell the word Progressive means so I don’t use it. Nonetheless, President Obama is the most maligned, ridiculed, tortured and tormented man I have ever seen reside at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Why? He is not radical - I am radical, so I know. He is not a socialist, a communist, or a Nazi. He has done none of the things he has been accused of like plotting a government takeover of health care or turning his back on Israel. So what is the impetus for all the hate and cruelty? In my Constitutionally protected opinion the answer is obvious - it is his black face. The man is black. Bush was an idiot, and Nixon was a scoundrel but the tint of Obama’s epidermis has sent this country into a tail spin of unprecedented force.

What amazes me is the umbrage that bigots take at being labeled racists. They will snivel for days about being victimized by the race card, no matter how vicious and bloody their deeds. The same is true of people who perpetrate class warfare. Don Blankenship of Massey Energy, the company CEO who killed 25 miners in West Virginia is engaged in class warfare every time he sends a man down into a mine he knows isn’t safe. Yet, the words "class warfare" are somehow more profane then Massey’s behavior. Even liberal talkers apologize for sounding like they are talking about class warfare.

I want to get familiar with the truth. I don’t think this country can heal from the carnage done over the last 14 months until we all get familiar with the truth. In my estimation Palin and Bachmann and most of the right are garden variety racists engaged in bigotry dressed up as politics and policy. They remind me of the Klu Klux Klan hiding behind their hoods and robes. The racist vehemence swells as one moves toward the fringe of their party.

The unfettered free market is the first weapon in the arsenal of someone perpetrating class warfare. Whenever money is more important than men and women the Working Class is under siege. I believe that the left uses money to take care of people. The right uses people to take care of money. The struggle is elemental. But then as I said, I am a radical.

2 comments:

  1. If you haven't yet viewed the Michael Moore documentary "Capitalism: A Love Story" please do. I have seen class warfare escalate in the time since Obama was inaugurated too, and have seen it at work over the many years. FDR let the working class rise but it was put down again by the actions of Nixon, a truly evil man, and was most efficient in gutting the power of the unions and enriching the ruling class....a continuing project finished by Clinton and Bush 43. I too am a radical as an FDR admirer and a student of history I know what needs to be done. Can, or will, Obama begin to see this path? I continue to hope, but his skin color is definitely a hindrance. I believe that the "Tea Party" members are not as many in number as many believe, but the MSM continues to aggrandize the movement by constantly following their actions and repeating their lies. It has come to pass that the only News shows I watch are Olbermann and Maddow. I can listen to NPR on my computer and have stopped watching PBS as their news is also slanted....There are several blogs I follow and have been following more closely since the HCR bill was passed. I do not see this legislation as anything but a giveaway to the insurance companies.

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  2. I agree with you on all counts save one. Unlike you I have little faith left in the Obama Administration. For one thing, I can't abide Rohm Emanuel. For another, there is no such thing as bipartisanship with monsters like Palin, Bachmann, McConnell and Cantor - to name just a few. Think of the time he has wasted extending his hand only to have it bitten. I will watch Moore's documentary. How does it happen, Kitty, that in this most Christian of all countries the central God of choice is Mammon? Why are so many in power blind to this hypocrisy? Wasn't it Christ who tore up the temple of the moneychangers? You realize he would be in prison today if he tried to step between our modern day moneychangers and their loot on Wall Street.

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