There's reason to be angry about things that happen in the United States. Reason to march on Washington, reason to call the President of the United States a liar; reason for rage.
Like the 19 million in fines the five largest California insurance companies have had to pay out in the past 18 months.
Or that domestic violence is a pre-existing condition.
And that executives of bailed out companies are taking home millions.:
"From 2006 through 2008, the top five executives at the 20 banks that have accepted the most federal bailout dollars since the meltdown averaged $32 million each in personal compensation" -Institute for Policy Studies
I don't care where the President was born. I don't care what he thinks of Kanye or what Kanye thinks of Taylor Swift. I do care that we're in another Gilded Age. Economic inequality is greater in the United States than any other industrialized nation. Americans are literally facing real life death panels today in the form of insurance claims departments. We stand, almost all of us, at the mercy of the crappy corporations we work for; as long as our health care is completely tied to them we are beholden - unable to step out of line, to complain about workplace conditions, to attempt to unionize, as our workplaces slash our pay and vacations, increase our hours, bully, browbeat, threaten, and intimidate us at every turn. How easy it is to snuff us out, foreclose our homes, split our families. The dropout rate in poor school districts runs as high as 50% ensuring a permanent supply of troops to serve as chum satisfying our permanent demand of war.
And yet people march on Washington to carry the water for power. Any attempt to point out that we have become a plutocracy is met with fury. Nazis. Socialists. Terrorists.
That's all that's left. Goldman Sachs takes home nearly 2 billion in profit in a quarter but somehow ordinary Americans actually believe Obama is tearing apart the fabric of capitalism.
It's the ultimate case of Stockholm Syndrome. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Simple Jack worm the plutocrats propaganda right into the brains of the oppressed. Instead of recognizing on whom the rage should be directed - it's funneled, as it's always been in American history, toward other marginalized groups.
Field slaves were taught to resent the house slaves. Poor white colonists, barely ekeing out livings were taught to despite the Native Americans, fighting over the same scraps as were they. "I ain't got no quarrel with the Viet Cong", Muhammad Ali insightfully said when refusing his induction into another American War against poor people of color in a far off place, "no Viet Cong ever called me nigger."
Go kill middle eastern shepherds while Goldman Sachs makes 2 billion dollars. Go kill Vietnamese. Or Koreans. They're the enemy. Look over there. Go kill Germans, they sunk the Lusitania. Go kill the Spanish, they sunk the Maine. Go kill Mexicans, they crossed the wrong parallel.
Hate gays. God says so. Or Hispanics. Learn the language or get out of the country. Or blacks. Simple Jack said Obama "hates white people." Rush Limbaugh said today "In Obama's America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering."
Go hate anyone you want. Just let the money keep rolling in.
While the body count keep rising.
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All of America is embracing the Jack Welsh management philosophy. Weed out the underperformers, the 10% that are holding you down.
Well, who is holding America down? Obviously, it is the sick, the poor, and the dumb. And wouldn't you know it, a lousy, byzantine health care system works to prune all three, while making the rich, healthy white folk all the richer (and able to afford the costly care invented by Big Phameceutical, thus completing the glorious Circle of Life)
To make sure that those underprivileged (as well as those with a conscience) don't try to rock the boat, we are systematically stupefied by an all-encompassing media conglomerate that saturates us with garbage and compels the downtrodden to turn against each other by chanting "Four legs good, two legs..." Um, I mean, "Capitalism good, Socialism bad!" Even if that has absolutely nothing to do with the discussion. And to completely eliminate the threat of real change, we marginalize the free thinkers that remain via the Internet, splitting their voices into millions of blogs, tweets, and Anonymous Comments, instead of organizing and demonstrating in the multi-million-man (Yeah, I said "man", because I like the alliterative qualities of the word. Women are also welcome) shows of solidarity that history has shown is the only reliable way that the people can take back what belongs to them.
If, after all that blue-collar America has suffered this past year (indeed, the past eight years, though 9/11 itself is now mostly an afterthought to the networks, and thus most of the American public not directly affected by the tragedy), Americans still aren't willing to get out of their Matrix-like capsules and band together to demand change, then I believe that the battle is already lost. Even a Palin/Wilson win in 2012 won't surprise me anymore.
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