Just when I make up my mind to engage in one final push on behalf of the Democrats this election cycle...
Look,
I don't care for this Bush administration bailout plan as it currently
stands one damned bit. The greedy Wall Street assholes responsible for
last week's economic meltdown want to
dump it all on the taxpayers. And Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson seems quite happy to do their bidding -- especially since he might get his own
unitary executive privileges, free of any and all sorts of oversight,
out of the deal. There's nothing new or surprising about certain folks
on Wall Street or their Republican enablers in D.C. trying to find new
ways to turn disaster into capital -- when all you've ever really been
good at and for is lusting after power and money, kicking others in the
gut while they're down is pretty much the only outlet for pleasure
available to you.
What gets me is that the Democrats in Congress
just might go for this plan. It wouldn't be the first time they got
buffaloed by their supposed political counterparts, of course. But when
you place this twelve-figure bailout plan next to a war in Iraq that's
going to cost more than one trillion dollars, a war in Afghanistan that
is spinning out of control, what looks like an undeclared war in
Pakistan now underway, our military doing all it can not to break under
the strain of two (or three) wars, and then when soldiers come back
wounded and traumatized, they can't even get decent treatment for their
service to their country...
There's no way we can sustain all of
this at once. And that's not even getting into our inability to maintain
our own roads, bridges, levees, et cetera. I understand why the heads
of corrupt banks and insurance companies want the people they've
swindled to indemnify them for being swindlers -- they're human scum,
period. But given the magnitude of this scandal -- I mean, people have
been losing their homes, but people's nest eggs and pensions are being
fucked with on a higher scale now than before -- why would the Democrats
sign off on this without at least adding legislation that offered
comparable protection to the victims of the swindling? If the taxpayers
have to eat this, shouldn't they get to decide how they're going to eat
it?
And if Paulson gets what he wants... Well...
I guess
there won't be much left to say after all. Other than the choice of
words that will be on the banner displayed for the cameras and home
viewers while Bush signs the bill he wants into law. I adjusted to the
Dems allowing something as heinous as the military commissions act to be
signed into law -- there at least remained the chance that they'd
locate that elusive spine of theirs and undo that legislation once they
were in a position to do so. Or a convincing illusion of a chance. But
if they let these greedy fuckers off without a hitch this time, this
late into Bush's presidency? I don't think I could adjust to that, not
after all the passes I've already given that party.
I wonder if
this is how battered wives who keep giving their piece of shit husbands
one chance after another feel? If what convinces them to stay is a kind
of dread that, as bad as the relationship is, breaking it off would be
even worse? Because that's the closest thing to an analogy I can come up
with -- the main difference is, I'm not actually married. I never took
an oath or a vow to give my loyalty to the Democratic Party, I didn't
sign a contract, I just decided it was the best decision to make. None
of this is binding -- I just keep holding out hope that the Dems will
FINALLY start expecting as much of themselves as I, and millions of
others, expect of them, and act accordingly. We're on the brink of a
second great depression now. This is their time.
If they cave this time...
They
can fuck November 4. The relationship's over. In fact, they can have
the house and everything in it, because I won't want to look at anything
that reminds me of them. Okay? All I ask from then on is that they
refrain from contacting me at all times (i.e.: no more e-mailing me for
donations -- they didn't ask me if I wanted to bail out a bunch of Wall
Street crooks, they'll have no right to beg for any more handouts). I'm
serious. I've managed to put up with illegal wiretapping, torturing of
innocents in my name, my country's good name going sour because of a war
launched on bogus pretenses, and all kinds of other shit only because I
always thought there was a chance I'd see my side make reparations and
deliver some justice in the end. The people we're expected to bail out
and, in essence, exonerate them for their corruption and treachery? They
never cared about who they hurt or destroyed as long as the money kept
pouring into their coffers. They never gave a damn about America, only
themselves and their net worths. I expect the Republicans in Congress to
try and force me to pay for these scumbags' rottenness. But I also
expect the Dems to put up one hell of a fight to keep this from
happening. If they don't, then the only conclusion I can reasonably draw
is that the Dems don't really give a damn about America, either.
And that, is, bullshit.
