Monday, November 12, 2012

I'm Still Angry


I have tried to put the last election behind me. I have tried to just move on and hope for the best. Then I realize that this is a futile course of action. In fact, it is not an action at all, it is doing nothing and hoping that somehow, something changes. In other words, I'm hoping that someone else (somewhere) does something.

Perhaps I could say (as Maximus did in the movie Gladiator) -
I am a slave! What possible difference can I make?
But I am not a slave. Or, am I?

I need to work to put food on my table and to keep a roof over my head. I do not grow my own crops nor do I own a herd of livestock with which to sustain myself and my family. I did not go forth into the wilderness and construct my dwelling with my own two hands. Those days are long past. The insecurities and dangers of having to make one's way in the world, shall we say, "the old fashioned way" are long gone.

We have traded the dangers and insecurities of living on the frontier for a modern society. A society where someone else grows the food and slaughters the livestock for us to feed upon. A society where most of us are really just small cogs in a big machine. Everyone does their part, everyone who does their part gets paid. And with that pay, we can purchase food and a place to live and transportation and what-have-you.

The days of rugged individualism are past. Now we are, in reality, simply worker bees in a very big and extremely complex hive. My freedom is somewhat limited with respect to society at large. I am free to worship, free to speak my mind, free to bear arms and free to associate with whom I will.

I am NOT free from taxation in all of its many forms. I am not altogether sure that my interests are properly represented in government. At any level. I live in a very liberal state. Republicans are as rare as a virgin in a bordello in this state. Democrats, as you may suspect, are as thick as fleas on a dog.

I do not begrudge the government a tax on my income. We need to somehow pay for infrastructure, the police and fire departments and the military. I will willingly contribute what I feel is my fair share. So far the government and I have been in agreement as to what constitutes my fair share.

What I do begrudge are the myriad other taxes I encounter everyday. Sales tax, hotel room tax, excise tax and others.

If I buy something, I pay sales tax. The money I use to buy things is taxed. The gasoline my car burns to go buy things is taxed. My car itself (at least in my town) is also taxed based on its value. The property on which I live is taxed. There is a 1% tax on "prepared food items" in this state. I'm sure the sum-bitches in Providence are working hard right now to figure out a way to tax even more things. Or raise the existing tax rates.

The only thing a politician will work harder at then thinking up ways to raise "revenue" is thinking up ways to spend that so-called "revenue". Doesn't matter if they take in $100 in taxes, they'll spend $110. Then raise the rates to cover the $110, and then spend $120.

A friend of my commented the other day that "a lot of people seem really angry about the election". The implication was that he was not and he couldn't understand how others could be. Of course, he has a Rhode Island state employee pension. For those who don't understand what that means, let me put it this way, in this state you can actually retire at a relatively "young" age and actually afford to live on your pension.

This friend of mine drove a city bus as his career. Now he owns a rather plush RV with which he and his wife travel to Florida for the entire winter. No investments, just the state pension. I'm paying for that. Me and all the other Rhode Islanders who have the misfortune not to work for the state.

Yes, many of us are angry about the recent election. We see our pockets being plucked for another four years. We see the prospect of continuing to have a job get smaller and smaller.

We (those who ARE angry) also see that there are those in this society who do NOT contribute to the common weal. That bunch seems to be calling the shots right now. At least at the ballot box. So yes, I'm angry.

I'm just not sure exactly who to be angry with. The politicians? Those who voted for them? Those who didn't bother to vote at all?

How about: ALL OF THE ABOVE.

Guess I'll just soldier on and see what happens next. I'll pay my taxes and do my civic duties. Right now I have to say that both political parties have failed the American people as a whole. The Democrats with their "tax and spend" habits and the Republicans who don't seem to know how the game is played anymore. Four years from now they'll put another decent nonentity up for President, try and play nice. And lose again.

This country hasn't been right since the Kennedy-Nixon debates. The televised ones. Yup, we elected the guy who looked better on television. Least that's the way I see it. That's the way I saw it when it happened. (Of course, I was only seven. Not exactly politically sophisticated.) But still. Some historical accounts agree with my assessment from that year.

So go back to watching Jersey Shore America. Go back to nodding your head at whatever the MSM tells you. Just don't be surprised when someday you wake up and all of our freedoms are gone.

8 comments:

  1. Did you see the demographics of the election? He won in every category. He had a ton of Catholics who voted for him too- probably a lot of the Hispanic population who see the immigration issue as more important that the religious freedom and abortion issue. The left vilified the right as wanting to take away birth control and abortion, led by a evil rich corporation-friendly white guy. The economy was seen as the biggest issue, but for some reason the other issues out-weighed the economy, or they saw Romney as being no more capable at handling it than Obama, or seeing Romney as being part of the problem that got us in here in the first place. I'm a little demoralized, as even if they believe all of what I just wrote, their ignorance of how he's stealing our freedoms and fundamentally ignoring the constitution is the most disheartening.

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    1. In my neck of the woods the Dems pounded on certain themes in pimping local Democratic candidates: Romney is going to cut taxes for millionaires and raise them on the middle class, Romney is anti-woman, Romney is going to destroy Social Security "as we know it". In other words, the Dems were painting all of the local Republican candidates with a "Romney" brush. Few (if any) of the local Dem campaigns indicated what their candidate was going to do, only what they claimed the Republicans were going to do (which was all bad, according to the Dems). Campaigns in Massachusetts and Rhode Island were unbelievably negative. Most of them (near as I could tell by doing some digging) were also out and out lies. The American people have been manipulated and bamboozled. This is what happens when people aren't paying attention. Romney was sold locally as just another big business type who would exploit workers to enrich his millionaire buddies. And the fools bought into it. They re-elected the con man from Chicago! I remain, shocked and appalled.

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  2. Amen, brother. Spot on about the Kennedy-Nixon thing (although Mr. Nixon was no bargain, IMVHO, but point taken.) More and more each day, I lose faith in the ability of this country to remain free in any way, let alone in the myriad ways we became used to during our earlier years.

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    1. Indeed. The potential and actual loss of our freedoms is most troubling.

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  3. Guess I'll just soldier on and see what happens next.

    Yup, we have no other (realistic) choice. I also hear ya about the "Blue State" thang, although I believe it's actually WORSE to live in a state that goes Blue because of the two Big City voting blocs (in my specific case: The Great Unwashed in ABQ and the Swells in Santa Fe), while the REST of the state... including my county... is as red as red can be. I see a lot of justifiable anger amongst the locals about this election and a lot of "what the HELL do we do next?"

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    1. At least you've got that Buck. There are no red areas identifiable on any election map of Rhode Island. We conservatives are tiny red specks invisible to all.

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  4. I have never experienced such negative feelings about a Pres. election as this disaster. I have never felt such despair and hopelessness about our country's financial condition as right now. I guess I felt that we would wake up, kick that socialist give-away artist to the curb and start to turn the economy around. ( Not to mention restore respect in the eyes of the rest of the world). Nope. We continue to look like morons by re-electing that punchline of a Pres. who finds more ways to give away money through programs we cant afford, while less money is being collected because fewer people are working AND more companies are spending money in other countries to make things they sell here. Who wants to invest in USA when they are taxed into oblivion, stockholders demand a return on their investments, more corps. are finding higher profits overseas. I have been asking people if they feel the same way or is it because at my age (2 mos from 60) I feel like my time to see this nation turn around is running out. Most shake their heads, shuffle their feetand agree that we are in deep trouble. It is disheartening to consider the world my grandkids will inherit. We are living in a country where the majority of voters believe a pack of lies because they're too $#%&*()__ stupid to recognize BS when its thrown at them.
    I live in Fla., where it took 4 extra days to count the votes, because the system is so messed up. The Supervisor of Elections in our county( who won re-election by the way) authorized robo-calls on Tues Nov 6th to people who had signed up for vote-by-mail telling them that they had another whole day to get the ballots in. That would have been Wed Nov 7th....unbelievable! Now said Supervisor is 'investigating' to see where the mix-up originated. I have a lot of confidence that the truth will come out. Remember the old Chicago election day advice " Vote early, vote often"....wait a minute, where did our President come from?

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    1. I'm with you on the negative feelings. I feel as if the country I grew up in, the country I gave 24 years of my life to, the country my kids gave multiple years of their lives to, is no more. Somewhere along the way we started down the wrong path. While some of us could sense that, most of the American people seemed content to go along. Perhaps it can be blamed on our innate American "sense of fair play", perhaps most of us were/are too naive to realize that there are people who will lie, cheat and steal to get what they want. Somehow those people managed to get a bigger and bigger say in what goes on in this country. Somehow we let them run things. I guess it's like the old story of the frog in the pot of cold water. Gradually the water temperature gets raised, it's slow so the frog doesn't really notice it. As a matter of fact, for a while it actually feels pretty good. But eventually the water is boiling, the frog dies. By the time the frog notices, it's too late.

      I pray it's not too late for America.

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Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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