America: The Fragile State

The year is 1992. My mom brought me to the now shuttered Catholic School called Notre Dame De Lourdes in Delaware County Pennsylvania. You may know of the area if you follow Bar Stool sports. In fact, I was reminded of my local Highschool pizza joint as I scrolled through Instagram seeing what would be my toothless neighbor discussing bringing the beach to the pizza should I have stayed in my hometown. On that night in 1992, my Mother cemented a Civics lesson about the importance of voting. You see, according to all records and outward appearances we were Voters. My mother told me that you tell people you are Republican to avoid unwanted attention but in the booth, it is your vote. Your privilege. Your voice. She voted for Bill Clinton that night.

I understood Republicans to be the Party of family values, fiscal responsibility, and job growth. You see, I can only make the decisions I make based on my past experiences and the wisdom I have gained over the years. The good choices I make today are only possible because I have spent over three decades of choosing actions that I felt were the best choice at the moment. Frequently, there were better options but I lacked a support network to show me otherwise. It is difficult to think beyond next week when you are young, poor, and in a broken home.

So what am I trying to convey to you, the reader, as I offer you this dialog into my history? I am ashamed that I am no longer able to hide my political affiliation.

I loathe slogans. “Leave no Child behind”, “Hope”, “Promises Made, Promises Kept”. Those were Bush, Obama, and Trump Presidential Campaign slogans. What do they tell us though? No Child Left Behind was a standards based education system, and after seeing how more people voted for sustained failure then accepting that perhaps something is wrong with the Republican administrations that lock children in cages. I was overly Hopeful in believing the American Public would remember the Promises made by George Bush in Leaving no Child Behind. #Sad. This November, we witnessed an additional 12 million voters come out to the polls bringing the total number of voters to 74 Million. 74 Million people believed Republicans kept their promises this last election cycle. Over the past 4 years the microtargeted ads using data gathered through Facebook proved just how effective marketing is. Marketing is the fluff around actual action. The Hype Train. The Trump Train.

I am 35 years old, spent two tours in Iraq serving with the best group of degenerates the Marine Corps has to offer, survived two once in a lifetime global economic collapses, and now I am watching the stock market skyrocket as so many in our country are going hungry. We argue about if masks really stop air droplets, we argue if DJT Jr. asking if the Password to Russian Election Intelligence is “PutinTrump” or “TrumpPutin”. Thank you FBI and Bill Barr for not redacting that and showing the level of incompetence my fellow citizens accept. I had higher hopes and I would love to read the full unredacted report to see just how deep that rabbit hole goes. This article is my way to process the tragical events where we saw the long defeated Confederates organize and act on a plan fueled by stupid. A police officer died taking a fire extinguisher to the dome. Another lady died because she led the charge of stupid into the highest levels of government and received a bullet to the neck where she bled out. She was an Airforce Vet and Mother of two, thank you for your Service and becoming the Martyr to show the depravity fostered and grown within the Republican ranks. So tell me, what do these slogans mean? Is it a Devil Dog War Call like my Oorah? There is no action plan to follow up on these bullshit slogans. If we are to trust slogans, this is literally a Great America Now. This armchair general only see propaganda which mirrors the sentiments used by ISIS. They are taking your culture, they are taking your religion, they are making your life less. I suppose that is why when I went to the Republican Presidential websites last year I could not find any plans on moving forward. The closest tab I could find was ironically enough called “Promises made, Promises Kept” where it discussed building a wall. Insulting, the money used to build that wall was diverted from Military projects to increase troop welfare and clean carcinogenic base water supplies.

Let that sink in. We decided a wall was more important than troops and their health. Thank you for your Service America.

Republicans, I hate how you have forced me to tell others who I am. Am I Democrat, I sure as hell do not align with that. I can discuss how we should have jailed more bankers under Obama or how we need to reduce the drone strike programs, or the NSA and their games, but am I Republican though? I will tell you to immediately never refer to me that again. Which I find a bit funny. With my background and looks I have had multiple people broach the topic (some of which were literal NAZI’s, sorry 1%er’s *BIG FUCKING EYEROLL*) and I can usually dodge the question by saying I believe in data driven policies that benefit those around me. I pose this question to you Reader, When was the last time you had a company sit down at your dinner to break bread? My weasel sentence no longer works because lines have been drawn. The Republican Party is the puppy that shit in the house and now requires its nose to be rubbed in the mess they made. Words have power and we witnessed those words kill four people last week. Can you tell me that if Nancy Pelosi or AOC or Bernie Sanders were found that the mob would hand them policy positions that would create positive impact and lessen their sense of forgotenness. The indifference Republican Politicians offer to their voters is what spawned these actions we witnessed on every TV channel, twitter feed, and Reddit post.

What we have witnessed this past week is the lack of any sort of Government strategy. Too often people incorrectly equate goals with strategy. Our goal when funding schools should have been backed with a strategy to create informed and engaged citizens to expand the taxable base. Instead, we see talking points on anti-vax turning frogs gay paranoia because we have been corrupting American Education for decades for political and monetary gain at the expense of our nations future, our children. A strategy defines a problems and offers cohesive actions and policies to overcome an obstacle. Republicans believe that stating America First is a strategy and so they get frustrated when our Government and its policies fail them, and consequently, they are too dumb (#NotSorry snowflake crowd, I will call a spade a spade), to question their beliefs and how they came to be. In their frustration, we ironically circle back to MLK and see the voices of the unheard because they are poor, they are drug ridden, and quite frankly they are forgotten about by society. We voted through the 80’s, 90’s and the 2000’s to push policies that overwhelmingly benefited the donor and business classes leading to reduced standards of living across the board. That hate, that maleficence, that sorrow has been redirected to incorrect targets and believed because our systems have consistently failed to correct due to the corrupting effects of money in both parties. The empty words pushed by campaigns after deferring to their consultants for maximum impact plants an expectation in their voters mind. The same reason Coca-Cola is the feel good company for movie theaters around the globe is because marketing works. The ingrained powers that be are OK with this because they benefit from the status quo. Believing The Waltons, Mark Zuckerberg or Donald Trump has your best life in mind as they make business decisions to not raise employee wages because they pair a job application with Federal SNAP benefits is insulting to the employee and the tax payer. I was raised in a Union Family believing that America was Great because it had a great middle class. My father helped build American cities and the power plants to keep the lights on at night. What has Paul Ryan done? He pushed a tax plan that used loops holes to allow for a vote which has the individual tax rate sunsetting this year while the reduced business tax rate is set in stone. That tells me everything I need to know about where the interests of the Republican party are at. To quote the greatest investor of all times, “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning” — Warren Buffet.

Republicans, get your shit together. You have been screaming about how awful Democrats are for decades and constantly throw shit. Well guess what, Dad has just gotten home and I hope he takes off the belt for a good paddling. You literally cant even kill the Affordable Care Act when you control all aspects of Government. Get fucked, get humble, and come back to the table when you have grown the fuck up.