This Country Has a Problem

March 17, 2006
R. D. Kushner

And that problem is Republicans.

I usually don't make such broad generalizations, but I think it's past the time for carefully crafted pleasantries about the politicians in charge of the most corrupt American government in history. The other problem with this country is Democrats; but they are only a part of the problem in so far as they are demonstrably incapable of correcting the course of the country as it is being lead into the abyss by an army of hypocrites that call themselves Republicans.

"George W. Bush is the syphilis president." <link> I wish I could take credit for this statement, but it was made by Kurt Vonnegut. It bears worth repeating every day. The analogy is perfect. Syphilis is a disease transmitted by screwing around, and if untreated, the initial symptoms [a rash on the genitals, or a Republican Congress] can cause death:

"The latent (hidden) stage of syphilis begins when secondary symptoms disappear. Without treatment, the infected person will continue to have syphilis even though there are no signs or symptoms; infection remains in the body. In the late stages of syphilis, it may subsequently damage the internal organs, including the brain, nerves, eyes, heart, blood vessels, liver, bones, and joints. This internal damage may show up many years later. Signs and symptoms of the late stage of syphilis include difficulty coordinating muscle movements, paralysis, numbness, gradual blindness, and dementia. This damage may be serious enough to cause death." <link>

This country has contracted syphilis from the President. The most recent sign of infection [conspicuously absent from the front page of the New York Times on Thursday] is that the Senate is expected to pass a resolution Friday that will raise the federal debt ceiling to almost $9 trillion. <link>.

On NPR's Morning Edition, Orin Hatch presented the Republican position very clearly:

"Well we have no choice. We're going to have to do it because of the way the budget system works. It's a ridiculous system, but we have to live with it."

So it's the "ridiculous system's" fault. Republican politicians like Orin Hatch want Americans to believe that their rubber stamping of fiscally irresponsible [and morally objectionable] White House budgets, military actions, and tax cuts apparently has no bearing on the situation.

Claiming that voting to increase the budget deficit is simply a mechanized act to fix a "ridiculous system," is like a serial killer saying that a jury's decision to hand down a life sentence without parole, is simply a function of the judicial system. Although true, both scenarios ignore the obvious: consequences are the direct results of actions.

The act of murder is the cause for a series of events ending with a life sentence in prison. It is true that the judicial system is the vehicle for justice, but the death penalty could have been completely avoided if the convicted criminal had not murdered someone in the first place. In fact, the probability of receiving a life sentence in prison is as good a reason as any not to murder another human being.

Faced with the decision to increase the maximum limit for the federal deficit, Republican politicians are unwilling to acknowledge the obvious relationship between their incompetent decisions and the hyperbolic economic liability that they've conjured for their Deficit President. Avoiding the responsibility for their decisions by claiming that the budget is somehow disconnected from political decision making is akin to murdering someone and then expecting to get away with it. But this analogy does not go far enough. With Republicans, their avoidance of responsibility for their incompetence is akin to murdering someone on live television, without even the pretense of getting away with it, and then arguing that no murder had taken place despite all of the evidence to the contrary.

Americans must weigh the relationship between political actions and consequences as carefully and obsessively as they did when they deliberated the trials of OJ Simpson and Michael Jackson. Alleged killers and alleged child molesters draw Americans to their television sets the way Republican inculcations of terrorism draw Americans toward prejudice and partisanship. Fear mongering wrapped in the cloak of patriotism is a gimmick of despots.

Americans must demand accountability from their elected representatives. Americans must demand accountability from a government which has exonerated itself from all the problems it has created. Exoneration is the tool of a jury, it is the birthright of American citizens. No criminal may exonerate themselves, no matter how powerful their political office. The court of public opinion is in session, and Americans have put Republicans on trial. The verdict will be rendered by ballot in November.