the sky is falling

Many of the political pundits have settled on the idea that the Republicans/Tea Baggers are promoting fear and the Democrats are still trying to push hope. Many of the talking heads on television and radio have carefully taken sides on the virtues of fear mongering verses hope peddling. Many of the news outlets who no longer report on the news but actually create news love pitting fear against hope, and do so by in sighting one end of the spectrum and never offering any coverage of consensus and or similarity.

It seems that ever since the election of 2008 everything is either and or. We have the red states against the blue states. We have the same sex marriage opponents and the opposite sex proponents. We have legals and illegals. We have the Christians and the Muslims. We have abortion rights and anti abortion foes. We have the party of “no” and the party of I think we can.

In the children’s story ‘Chicken Little’, we learn that mass hysteria, forecasting fear is easier than assuring safety and sane. One character is hit on the head becomes hysterical and through its outrage, hysteria, and fact less observations incites enough of a riot for all in the immediate vicinity to consider the consequences and not the truth. Doom and gloom seem to have a surer footing than real and reality. (Many an actor will admit that crying on stage is easier than laughing, more believable to see people sad than it is to see them happy).

The Republicans sans the Tea Bag Brigade, during the early George W. Bush campaign, placed on ballot measures many anti Gay initiatives. Under the tutelage of Karl Rove, that process helped ignite a homophobic rebellion to get out the votes by placing the unproven fear that if Gays in America had any power than this Christian nation would cease to be Christian. Fill the fodder with innuendo, base it on the dogmas of religion, throw in patronizing family values and announce that the sky is falling and if you don’t watch out you will hit on the head with either a very masculine woman or a very effeminate man. Keep fact out of the equation, fill in the gaps with fiction and victory is yours.

After 9/11 we were told that under the Bush/Cheney administration no terrorist attack had been made on this country. Never mind that IN the Bush administration 9/11 actually happened, but truth need not be told. The Republicans were the safety net. We were lectured to daily that they would keep America red white and blue. We need to declare war on anyone WE, (actually anyone Dick Cheney) had paranoid thoughts about, and ask no questions of why, just recite when, and all will be well. Fear found its way into our souls with the elevation of colored terrorist alerts which always seemed to rise in heated colors during any and all primaries or elections. The sky would fall if we did not take away civil liberties from those deemed the villain, habeas corpus was an archaic form of government which needed to be redefined, and instead of a “red under every bed” as proclaimed in the 50’s by Republican Senator Joe McCarthy, there would be Muslim, an Al Qaida, Taliban in every Starbucks, Sears or McDonalds if we didn’t stop them now.

Now we have the Tea Bag Brigade taking control of the cultural war. They are enlisted by wealthy Neo Con, business men to protest anything that has to do with hope. If it is not good for the corporations or the 2 per cent of wealthy Americans, then somehow with out any rational or reason it needs to be called anti American. If unions support anything at all then they are undermining the work ethics of this country. It does not matter that unions have raised the standard of living for millions of Americans and made working conditions healthier and safer, (Never a question that unions also prevent the corporations from making more money off the back of its employees). If it is about the Constitution, it surely has to be about separate and equal or equal for a selected few. Deny gay marriage, so the LGBT community can wed they are homosexuals and deserve less. Deny the rights of 14^th amendment, so having children in this country if you have brown skin is detrimental to democracy, exaggerate the second amendment so if the ballot box does not go your way bullets can and will. Exploit your right of free speech which is allowed in the First Amendment, but anyone who argues with the hate and bigotry you spew has no right to rebuttal. Setting standards, regulations, rules will tear down our economy. Let the corporations, the OIL, FINACE, HEALTH INSURANCE cartels run roughshod, let them police themselves because not to do so is socialistic and communistic. Food poisoning, oil rig explosions, greed in the banking business that is the American way; no health care for the masses, if they want to die young, or live with pain, then by all means they are expandable.

Make sure you find the fear that the uneducated, the hopeless, the directionless, the racist, the homophobe, the ageist, the sexist, the Islamaphopbic, the anti Semite has and instead of finding remedy just fan the flames. Never find an answer just continue to throw pebbles from above and insist that the sky is falling. Lead the lemming to the cliff, and if need be let them dive into the great divide below. Dumb and stupid grow like weeds, there will always be a new army of those who would rather blame then solve.

It seems we voted for change and hope in 2008. The delivery of both has been slow, tedious and sometimes negligent. And now with the dismemberment of anything honest, real, or truthful it seems we all have little patience in letting the hope and change stick.

Do we permit the fear to dominate our intelligence? Do we get hit on the head by a piece of falling rock and actually believe, because so many foolish people cry the sky is falling, that the sky IS actually falling? The call for hope seems to be fading away because those shouting fear are drowning out any intelligible thoughts. The sky is falling ask no questions just flee!

When did America turn even dumber than the last eight years of Bush/Cheney?