I’ll be as brief as possible.
It’s so simple (and no, I’m not referring only to the mind of Donald Trump). I speak here solely of problems and of the (obvious) paths toward solutions. The task is not as impossible as Republicans Everywhere seem to imagine it to be, nor must it be vindictive. There is, really, only one thing (well, OK, two things) needed to proceed rationally: a functioning mind along with a sense of compassion, not greed.
Think about it. Subtract greed, add compassion, and what is the potential result?
Franklin Delano Roosevelt summed it ALL up seventy-three-plus years ago in his January 11, 1944 State of the Union address in which he spoke the following:
It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth- is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill housed, and insecure.
This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.
As our Nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.
We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.
In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all regardless of station, race, or creed.
Among these are:
The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the Nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.
All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.
America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens. For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world.
One of the great American industrialists of our day—a man who has rendered yeoman service to his country in this crisis-recently emphasized the grave dangers of “rightist reaction” in this Nation. All clear-thinking businessmen share his concern. Indeed, if such reaction should develop—if history were to repeat itself and we were to return to the so-called “normalcy” of the 1920’s—then it is certain that even though we shall have conquered our enemies on the battlefields abroad, we shall have yielded to the spirit of Fascism here at home.
Those were trying times, way back then. We were still sixteen months away from the defeat/collapse of Nazi Germany, and 20 months distant from the fall of Japan and the official end of the Second World War on September 2, 1945. Sadly, we are now seventy-three years and six months beyond the date that Roosevelt laid out his formula for human civility — his ‘Second Bill of Rights’ — and today’s Republican Party STILL opposes virtually every single aspect of it because, in their noisy opinion, civility in re each and every person is SOCIALISM. Deep and dark, it’s the government-fueled rape of their “free” market, the market that essentially defines their wretched and feudalistic (castles v. huts) concept based solely on money and the power it grants.
The obvious problem with such low level of ‘thought’ is that any given society depends upon not just one type of defined ‘person,’ i.e. the free market ‘success’ (rich, powerful; as in, e.g., Herr Donald Trump). The error in that line of ‘thinking’ is a simple one: it allows society’s scum – thieves and bandits dressed and viewed as successful ‘businessmen’ simply because of their accumulated monetary only “wealth” (e.g. Herr Donald Trump) – to be perceived as “honorable,” as obviously “highly intelligent” “powerful” “leaders” etc. etc. etc. Sadly, when driven solely by greed — by the accumulation of money and the power implicit therein — ‘they’ seldom if ever approach any perceived upper level of human societal accomplishment. Au contraire, their major accomplishment is to simply redefine “dregs” not as the crud at the bottom of the wine barrel but rather as those who, on a human/societal level, are considered to be ‘rich,’ not impoverished. Crud. “Dregs: the least valuable part of anything.” They care not for anyone else but themselves. They have succumbed to the false god of Power, and in the process have, knowingly or unknowingly, yielded to the spirit of Fascism here at home.
Apparently about the only thing that’s changed since the FDR era is that the population of the United States has more than doubled, and in the process many new and clever ways to enable accumulation of wealth and power have been devised (by and for the rich and powerful), even as many new and creative ways to diminish the quality (and length) of lives of ordinary people everywhere in the country have also been devised and imposed. And woe be it to ANY movement that intends to reverse that reality in favor of ‘ordinary people’ everywhere. ‘They’re Communists. Liberals. Progressives. They care more about the lives of poor and lazy bums than they care about making America Great. Again!’
Make America Great Again. Oddly, America’s greatest moments ever began on September 2, 1945, the date the Second World War came to its official end. By that point and under the leadership of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Great Depression (thanks, Republicans) was over; the Second World War had been fought and won; Social Security was a reality underway, and the balance of Human Rights, i.e. the right to —
had each and all been announced and delineated by the President of the United States. All that was left was for Congress to act. So today, we have Social Security . . . along with the constant denouncement of human RIGHTS by America’s “right” (fascist) wing, known as, both then and now, the Republican Party — the political organization that cares only for the corporate and the highly biased fragment of the religious worlds, and not a whit for ordinary people.
‘My Message to Republicans Everywhere’ – in response to their recent abject failure in improving Medical Care availability and standards – is a simple one: consult Bernie Sanders, and then do something you’ve long been loathe to do. Care for people, for a change. “Move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.”
It’s so SIMPLE, really, and in that regard, it suits You. Republicans. Everywhere. Totally.
TheZoo 