Just heard, on the Lawrence O’Donnell show, The Last Word, on MSNBC, State Senator Grothman of Wisconsin refuse to apologize for calling the protesting constituents who are camped out in the Capitol “slobs.” In not doing this he also managed to dig a deeper hole for himself. It seems union workers, public servants and the like are a different “breed” of people from the Walker supporting constituents of his district. Just click on the link above and start watching the video 1:45 min. into the clip.
Does this consdescending, pompous *bleep* really understand that he is calling the public servants of his state animals? He might as well have said, “Oh the common people, I do think they should be kept out of sight when the upper classes are about.”
This shows a basic BIG problem in the U.S. that is presenting itself all the way from Wisconsin to Arizona. Somehow ignorant people, truly ignorant people who despise education and knowledge, people that did not finish college and have found themselves in the upper socioeconomic brackets of society, through no efforts of their own, have taken over much of our political system.
These authoritarian elitists really think that they inherently are better than every one else and have the right to impose their beliefs on the rest of us and force us to do the work as they reap the benefit. These folks are no better than anyone else and in my opinion have no class, no honor, and no conscience. Our country was founded to help regular people have control over their own property. We attempted to eliminate the power of the Monarchy with our War of Independence. We created our country so rule would not be consolidated and inherited by a privileged few. Common landowners were citizens with equal voice in governance; there were to be no rulers.
While the common person was watching TV and consuming the opiate of the masses, the same little *bleepers* that would have been the simpering tax collectors of the monarchy switched their loyalties to the new monarchy – the corporation. The U.S. originally gave the corporations no rights. They did this for a very important reason. The East India Tea Company was buddy, buddy with the Monarchy, Lords, and Ladies. If you haven’t read about corporate personhood, you should.
I sincerely hope that legislatures start listening to their constituents because we are not that far away from another bloody revolution. I don’t want that. You don’t want that. If anyone in your family works for the city or state, or receives any assistance from the county or state, or belongs to a private union you are cutting your own throat by supporting corporate interests. Forget Repulicans, forget Democrats, look at who is in favor of progressing the state of the common person. Traditionally Democrats support labor and Republicans support management. This is no longer true. Democrats now support labor and management. Republicans support corporate management and owners. Progressives support labor and local business. Conservatives – well that word has been co-opted to the point where it means nothing. If you are talking about religious conservatives, well that has no place in our governance structure. Fiscal conservatism… well, no one has been fiscally responsible for decades. Let’s just get back to government of the people by and for the people.
And if our government refuses to represent the interests of the people, well we have to change the government. I was at a PDA meeting last week and it was amazing, a couple hundred people showed up rather than the group of 20 that were present when PDA tried to start up in Tucson a few years ago. There was an energy there that was calling to be channeled into an aggressively progressive.
At the same time that PDA is gaining steam, the Start Our State, or Baja Arizona, movement is getting attention. Phoenix has been draining the coffers of Tucson returning far less than than an equitable amount to our community, allowing religious conservatives and pseudo-libertarian corporatists to impose anti-American legislation on our state, gut our K-12 and Higher Education systems, and insure a low wage workforce. People are getting fed up.
I for one am very tired of living in states that are absolutely regressive, but I love Tucson. When you are connected to a person who teaches and does research at a University level, you are tied to working in states that may not be your first choice if all other things were equal. I would love to live in a state that somewhat supports my belief in democracy and equality. Baja Arizona might just do it for me.
But if elitists like Walker run Wisconsin, and wackos like Brewer run Arizona, I’m not sure where is safe to go other than metropolitan areas, and I don’t want to have to do that. Somehow I feel like my rights are being stepped on.