I believe getting many of us in our 60′s or older to admit “We’re glad we’re old” would be a difficult process. The natural feeling is to deny aging, as proven time and again by all the products out there to resist wrinkles, cover graying hair, or regain a youthful glow to sagging skin. With the right contacts we can change the color of our eyes, improve our hearing with almost invisible electronic aids, even replace arthritic, painful joints with miracle metal substitutes.
We might deny our age, what we can’t deny is the continued decline of our country.
A cornerstone of democracy is the individual right to vote. Republican politicians, while proclaiming their devotion to the ideals of democracy, are proposing bills in several states to change how the Electoral College operates, to take the voting franchise away from the individual and to rig the results to insure Republicans win every election.
Pennsylvania state seal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
13 GOP Senators from Pennsylvania are the latest group of Republicans to lead the charge to ignore a basic tenet of democracy and skew the elections by changing the rules for the Electoral College. Governor Tom Corbett was one of the earliest supporters of this plan, going back to 2011. Pennsylvania’s “finest” now join Wisconsin, Michigan, West Virginia, Texas and South Carolina in their efforts to rig the election process.
Many of these same state politicians saw their efforts to limit voting by implementing onerous Voter I.D. laws in this last presidential election thwarted by the courts. That has not stopped them from pursuing the same goal of limiting voting by minorities and blacks, a traditional democratic voting block. Renewed efforts are in place, and there is now more time to tweak laws more likely to be passed by the courts.
National Health Care is the law of the land. It was legally proposed by the President, and passed by Congress. That has not prevented several state governors from declaring they will ignore the law, and not implement it for their states and citizens. Partisan politics is more important to these Governors than doing right by their citizens.
Seal of Oklahoma. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Oklahoma legislators have proposed that an individual company can decide whether to provide birth control to its female employees, based upon no other criteria than its own prejudices. The Republican party, (remember the one of “Smaller, Less Intrusive Government?”), here and in other states, is committed to reducing government oversight of our working conditions, the air we breathe, the water we drink. But these same, old, angry white guys have no problem with injecting their personal prejudices and agendas into the private lives of women.
People are now being jailed, not allowed to face their accusers, with no rights of habeas corpus. Others can be tortured, the strictures of the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war ignored. Unannounced attacks on individuals, at times for no other reason than standing around in a group, or including American citizens marked for killing by drone-launched bombs and missiles. These formerly illegal, unconstitutional acts are now routinely carried out by order of our current and past Presidents. The Rule of Law has been replaced by legally questionable memos, written by Justice Department lawyers buried deep in the organization and out of public oversight.
Constitutional rights are the cornerstones of our democracy, except when the Executive Branch says they’re not.
Corporations are growing ever bigger, their influence in the halls of Congress overwhelming that of ordinary citizens. Their often dubious business practices not only condoned by State and Federal Legislators, they are often granted immunity from redress for possible nefarious practices.
The oil and gas industry is only the most recent example of corporate exemption from responsibility for their processes or possible adverse effects on the environment. The practice of Fracking to recover natural gas from underground rock formations requires at least 80,000 gallons of water per day per well. Going on nothing more than the word of the industry, Congress in it purchased wisdom, granted the industry legal immunity for any damage done, in any manner, as a result of Fracking.
Papa John’s Pizza Durham, North Carolina. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
As a country, we’ve become self-centered and crass, craving objects and glitter at the expense of our weaker citizenry. We prize wealth over heart, lionize the corporate CEO’s and their multi-million dollar pay packages. We applaud their cost-cutting moves of laying off workers, freezing salaries at 1970 levels, and cutting benefits. We’ve publicized the CEO’s of Papa John’s Pizza, Denny’s, even Dunkin’ Donuts for their public rebuke of health care, and their considering plans to cut employee hours so as not to have to pay the ridiculous sum of $.15-$.20 cents per pizza at the corporate level in Papa John’s case, to provide health care for the very same employees who make their companies a success.
And half our legislators in Washington believe that it is preferrable to cut Medicare and Social Security for the aged, Head Start for children’s education, food programs for hungry kids and medical care for veterans and pregnant women, rather than having the global corporations and mega-wealthy individuals pay even a few more dollars in taxes.
Really? This is what this nation has come to? Our values so warped, our congress so steeped in personal greed, so beholden to the lobbyists and corporations that own them, that they are willing, no eager, to destroy the last semblances of democracy, to sacrifice ethics, morality and compassion at the altar of the almighty dollar and partisan ideals.
So, I am glad I’m old, and won’t be around to witness the final downfall of our 250 year experiment in democracy.
But that’s just me…
Good post. The party I left back in 2006 that has been on a death spiral for some time, has as one of its basic operating principles, if you can’t win, change the rule of the game. You show numerous examples of this above. As you note, many of the more shameful activities are going on at the state level. Esquire magazine wrote a piece on how our GOP controlled state in NC is trying to become Mississippi, rather the progressive state it was becoming. The only solution is for people to call these people on the carpet over and over again. As you point, we are up against a huge marketing engine (such as the Oli & Gas commericials with the lovely spokeswoman who says how safe everything is). Thanks, BTG
I’m amazed at their unabashed “chutzpah” in declaring their love of America and Democracy on the one hand, while doing everything in their power to undermine the rights of voters and the sanctity of the vote with the other. I’m going to look for the Esquire piece. And yes, the soft voices and pretty pictures of the BP ads literally make me gag when compared with the reality facing the gulf coast to this day. Even today, a new report came out of continuing sludge problems in the gulf, of coral beds coated in slime, and of floating ponds of oil, even at a subsurface level.
Thanks for writing.
Now that you admit that you are old, shall we dismiss your writings (which we chose to not like) as the rantings of some old, senial guy? Just being sarcastic. You may not have to wait long to see the results of Sequestration.
By all means, dismiss what you don’t care for as the off the wall ranting of an old guy, the early onset of dementia, “alphonso’s disease” as my dad used to call it, or just plain nuttiness. Just don’t ignore me!!! LOL
On your second thought, I don’t see significant cuts to the defense budget as necessarily being a bad thing, and the overall Sequestration is not necessarily bad in its real impact. What is completely disgusting to me is the ineptitude, lack of leadership, and downright nasty partisianship that brought it all about. 536 people in Washington DC should be ashamed of themselves!
Thanks for writing…let’s see…what’s your name again???
Don’t know… We Hermits don’t talk a lot…
I agree with fatherkane. This is a great post and I join you as one who is thankful he is old. But I do worry about my sons and their children. What a world we are turning over to them.
Although we have no children, we are close to several nieces and nephews, and a few close friends, children. I hate to say that perhaps we boomers had it the best, and the one or two generations since then have been declining and their futures are clouded, at best. We’ve not been good stewards of our planet, nor out government, sad to say.
Thanks for the kind support
Reblogged this on The Last Of The Millenniums and commented:
I am glad that I old. The journey has been fantastic.
Too bad the destination is being ruined.
Great, great post!
Thank you for the re-blog and the wonderful comment. I do appreciate it.
Yes, the journey has for the most part, been wonderful and I’ve had some wonderful experiences I would never trade. But the destination is deteriorating rapidly.
Thank you