We're All In This Together?

A recent email written by a very, very conservative friend made me laugh and got me thinking. 

Did everyone know we're all in this together now?

The email in question wasn't sent directly to me.  It was forwarded by a mutual friend.  The author and I met in college in the early 80s, spent a ton of great times together, and stayed in touch after graduation.  He then decided to cut all ties and block all email from me about 12 or 13 years ago.  My recollection is that it was over a difference of political opinion.  I'm liberal and he's conservative.  Sadly, this kind of reaction has been disturbingly typical from conservatives I've met in my life, including my own brother who no longer speaks to me.  His choice, not mine.  

This forwarded email, combined with my experiences with this kind of reaction and rejection, struck me as both humorous and more than a little ironic.  The aforementioned conservative friend's email was his response to the mutual friend's suggestion that he read my blog.  Here's the text that got me thinking...

"I suggest you dig deeper and paste these links into your browser, there is not right or left in the theives  who do this its who ever is in power.

 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122212948811465427.html"

There was more than one link in the email, but this one was the first and seemed like the one with potentially the most credibility.  I read the article and then decided I had to ask..............

What, all of a sudden we're all in this together?

 

I have to say that I think it's funnier than hell that some of my friends of the right-wing persuasion are suddenly talking like centrists and saying things like whomever is in power is the crook.  To be sure, there's plenty of blame to go around and no politician is an innocent.

 

(Where's Che when you need him?)

 

Still.....it's impossible to ignore the facts and the truth.

 

The WSJ article blaming Freddie and Fannie is an interesting twist.  This piece of journalistic legerdemain needs to be read carefully and with some important facts in mind; namely, that the White House was occupied by rich, white bread, oilmen Republicans for the last 8 years and, even worse, we dumb-ass Americans had allowed ourselves to be duped into putting Republicans in charge of Congress pretty much uninterrupted since 1995 (http://uspolitics.about.com/od/usgovernment/l/bl_party_division_2.htm).

 

So whose fault is this current economic mess?   Anyone?   Anyone?  Bueller??

 

And what does anyone expect from the ultra-conservative right-wing shill of a newspaper, the WSJ?  Where's the surprise that the WSJ would do anything but publish this biased drivel, and that it would do anything but try to pin the excessive risks taken by GSEs during Republican administrations on who else but Democrats?  This is, after all, the same rag that published Rove for chrissakes.  Who's next for them, the new de facto Republican icon and leader, Rush?

 

And talk about red herrings.  Comparing deregulated telecoms and the financial services industry?  Classic right-wing reframing and misdirection.  COME ON!!!  How f****** stupid do they think we are?  Of course the WSJ is going to be all for deregulation of the financial services industry.  And just look at who the authored this piece (of crap).  Anyone notice that both are associated with the American Enterprise Institute, self-proclaimed defenders of "...limited government, private enterprise, individual liberty and responsibility, vigilant and effective defense and foreign policies, political accountability, and open debate."  (http://www.aei.org/about/filter.all/default.asp)  Ah-hem.  That, for the uninitiated, is code speak for, "We're a bunch of Rich Republican Mother F*****s!!!"  Hell, Wallison was in Reagan's Treasury Department.  WTF else is he going to do but defend the failed ideology and policies of Ronny, "I-Come-Bearing-Smaller-Government-and-Historic-Deficits" Ray-gun and his minions from the deregulatory right?

 

No, no, no.  Let's make no mistake.  What put us here and in this economic disaster has everything to do with wrong politics, unchecked and unregulated greed, failed leadership, a corrupt belief system, and lack of ethics.

 

In other words and all the sincerest apologies I can muster on an email to my friends who are members, the Republican party.  Republicans are who bear the brunt of this economic collapse. 

 

One thing is absolutely certain....it wasn't the tree-hugging, peace-loving, middle-class-working, suburban-living, shopping-at-Walmart, Union-dues-paying, or even LETTUCE-PICKING-ILLEGALS who approved risky mortgages and then securitized them into investments, traded in unregulated derivatives, or who ran multi-billion dollar corporations (and Ponzi schemes) into the ground while getting rich beyond imagination. 

 

No, no, no.  It was the Rich Republican Mother F*****s, plain and simple.  Remember that the next time who hear one of them try to tell you that we're all in this together.  More importantly, remember it the next time you step into a voting booth.