S’up?
Okay, my attempts at sporting raffish airs and graces may come up more than a little short, but I mean well. Therefore, one will find “S’up?” and “Yo'” and “Hail Fellow, Well Met!” sprinkled all about my articles, tempering the moods and demonstrating my hipster swell-ness.
That might be sweltering hip-ness, but it doesn’t really matter. I assume you get the point.
Banging, (or beating), a drum, slowly? That little phrase is a traditional reference to a funeral dirge, and the tradition goes back a long ways. (Check one of the Internets. It’s all there.) In this case, I’m focused on the history of the slow drumbeat as it accompanies a funeral procession. Yes, there are often other musical instruments involved in such processions, but the solitary drumbeat gets the message across; its lonely, staccato cadence sets the pace for those escorting the recently deceased to a final rest.
Which, naturally, leads to a discussion about the GOP.
My interest was sparked this morning by a short and still-within-its-shelf-life quote from South Carolina’s governor, Nikki Haley. According to the article, Governor Haley, speaking at the annual Lincoln Reagan dinner, said:
. . . the party’s last presidential campaign was too focused on the things it opposed. ‘America didn’t reject conservatism,” she said. ‘We say what we’re against but never said what we’re for.’
The blurb also says that,
Haley pointed out similarities between her state and Michigan. With Boeing’s expansion plans in South Carolina, both are known for making things . . . And the Republican Party is gaining strength in both states, holding both governorships, she said. ‘Welcome to the right-to-work law . . . ‘
Let me add something to the second quote, first. The term “Right To Work” is another example of political phrase necromancy, wherein word wizards cobble something together that, on the surface, sounds like it means one thing, when in reality it means something quite different. So-called Right To Work laws are not about a prospective employee’s access to gainful employment. Rather, proponents say the right to work means the right to work without being required to pay mandatory union dues. Supporters of such laws insist that unions have been coercing employees into paying union dues or fees that support collective bargaining, whether or not the employees support those efforts.
Opponents suggest the proponents are bags of steaming poo-poo.
The upshot of all this is plain to see. When collective bargaining is diminished or interfered with, the things that unions have historically provided workers, such as better wages, safer workplaces, healthcare, pensions, protection against employer discrimination, etc., have suffered. Granted, Right To Work states create tax and other incentives for businesses, and the number of overall jobs generally increases, but the jobs pay less, and benefits are fewer or non-existent. Republicans, ever proud of their “Family Values” posture, point to the bump in jobs, but don’t care to look at the fact that most of those new jobs pay nothing even close to a wage that can support a small family, or that the absence of healthcare plans creates a daily nightmare for parents who constantly pray their children don’t come down with a fever.
Couple that with the GOP’s aggressive stance against the Affordable Healthcare Act, (Obamacare), and its desire to reward the extremely rich with even more wealth, and you have the Republican Business Owner Worker’s Paradise. When you see “Right to Work”, read right to fire with impunity, reduce wages and benefits, destroy unions and otherwise return to early twentieth century standards in America.
Great stuff.
As to the first quote, once again we have a major player in the GOP spouting off about how the candidates just aren’t getting the conservative Republican message across.
Right, Governor. You nailed the problem. We just didn’t hear you tell us about your values and beliefs. All of America was left wondering, “Golly, I wish some Republican would just stand up and tell me what they believe.”
Good god.
It is truly beyond my ken to imagine anyone who even marginally made it through high school believes the American public didn’t read or hear, over and over again, the conservative Republican “values” message during the previous and ass-chappingly long campaign cycle.
We got it, Governor. And you know what? I think you actually know we got it. But you’re playing that worn out political game again. You know the one I mean. That GOP tactic from the Karl Rove playbook: Say one thing loud enough and long enough, and soon enough, people will believe it’s true. Create whatever reality you wish, and by the time people catch on to its utter and cynical phoniness, a new and equally phony reality will have taken its place.
Repeat, ad nauseam.
Does any of that sound somewhat familiar?
And by the way, it really is time for the conservative wing of the Republican party to panic. Please. Demonstrate a little old fashioned sincerity here, okay? Panic. You folks are in a hurt locker and you know it, but you’re trying to act as if everything’s still peachy, hence you insist that we, most of America, just didn’t get your message. But you’re in that hurt locker because we DID get your message. It couldn’t have been clearer. And you lost the election because your message to America was so brilliantly clear. So just throw caution to the wind and vent that mounting anxiety with a good, primal scream.
You’ll feel better, we’ll feel better about you, and your Chakras will thank you.
