In the race to the bottom of American’s expectations for… well, just about anything we have seen our leaders take every advantage possible of taking more and giving less back to us. Whether it be in the form of rights, money, jobs, security, honesty, transparency, or any of a myriad of things we generally take for granted – we are expected to get less and like it. Rahm Emmanuel’s famous quote, “Never waste a good crisis,” is now an unofficial motto for our government.
As a reminder of Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine, the administration and congress have been using the financial meltdown and crises that should have been easily avoidable to institute harsher policies that consistently target the poor and oppressed (an ever growing pool) and leaves the power holders in an ever better position:
- Millions of Americans can’t afford the most basic healthcare and many go broke trying to pay for services? Declare a healthcare emergency (which, in all fairness did exist, and for that matter, still does) and use that emergency to legislate tribute payments to the very insurance industry giants that created the problem. So, now you are obligated to pay for a product you still can’t afford to use – progress!
- Did our decades of inhuman foreign policy finally cause a reaction and deaths of Americans at home? Then so long to almost any expectation of privacy, justice, and peace. Sure, we haven’t been attacked since (yes we have, but who cares) so I guess my email and phone calls can use some looking in on now and again.
- How about a monumental deficit created from our quest to kill as many people of color in the Middle East as we can? Obviously this deficit is a crisis and we need to create a commission to look into how we are going to solve it (answer: keep the wars, lose Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid). At least we can keep killing Arabs (and now the old/poor!).
And these are just the ones I’m rattling off on the top of my head. The latest one I’ve seen is the utter disgust for the jobless victims of the financial meltdown that our leaders helped create. Senate hopeful, Sharron Angle went so far as to call those unemployed begging for extensions to relief programs “spoiled” and promised that if elected will do nothing to bring jobs to her state. Are you unemployed? Then just stop fucking whining about it, asshole! Rand Paul, another senate candidate, is telling those looking for work to take a pay cut and to stop asking for handouts. As Americans, our pay rates have been stagnating for decades and we have little choice but to take pay cuts. It’s not just Republicans either, but they are the more outspoken and easy to point out. That Obama is working his best to destroy any meaningful reform to our financial system and the senate can do anything besides pass helpful legislation is all the evidence you need against Democrats.