So the Bushies are going to balance the budget on the backs of the poor while keeping the rich and the war machine well fed. What a surprise. Click Here:The New York Times, 8 Feb 2005, Paul Krugman: Spearing the Beast. Paul Krugman continues to be the best writer on the right wing's attack on Social Security. He's absolutely correct. If they can bring down this cornerstone of the New Deal, then the rest will tumble easily.
But here's the question I haven't seen anybody ask about the dismantling of the evil liberal welfare state. What happens to the destitute elderly and disabled and uneducated and medically uninsured once the safety nets have been completely slashed? Are they supposed to pull themselves up by their nonexistent bootstraps, get their MBAs, and join the ownership class and the local country club? Or are they expected to migrate to Mexico or Canada or Guantanamo? Or are they simply expected to die quietly and cremate themselves so that a strong breeze can erase them from our welfare rolls, and our memory? (Or should they simply pray harder? Is it possible that some of the Bushies really believe that fiery Jeebus is going to Rapture up all the good Christians and slaughter the rest of us?)
Or will these human beings, these fellow Americans, these "others" who could be us with one small reversal of personal fortune, look for some way to rise up other than through the ballot box, if electoral solutions are not forthcoming? Doesn't anyone remember that FDR's New Deal was in many ways the reform of American capitalism that shut down a serious Communist and Socialist challenge in this country? Doesn't anyone remember that LBJ's Great Society was in many ways a response to real pressures from the disadvantaged and the left behind?
Just asking,
True Blue Liberal
But here's the question I haven't seen anybody ask about the dismantling of the evil liberal welfare state. What happens to the destitute elderly and disabled and uneducated and medically uninsured once the safety nets have been completely slashed? Are they supposed to pull themselves up by their nonexistent bootstraps, get their MBAs, and join the ownership class and the local country club? Or are they expected to migrate to Mexico or Canada or Guantanamo? Or are they simply expected to die quietly and cremate themselves so that a strong breeze can erase them from our welfare rolls, and our memory? (Or should they simply pray harder? Is it possible that some of the Bushies really believe that fiery Jeebus is going to Rapture up all the good Christians and slaughter the rest of us?)
Or will these human beings, these fellow Americans, these "others" who could be us with one small reversal of personal fortune, look for some way to rise up other than through the ballot box, if electoral solutions are not forthcoming? Doesn't anyone remember that FDR's New Deal was in many ways the reform of American capitalism that shut down a serious Communist and Socialist challenge in this country? Doesn't anyone remember that LBJ's Great Society was in many ways a response to real pressures from the disadvantaged and the left behind?
Just asking,
True Blue Liberal
No comments:
Post a Comment