Last night, I went to a premiere screening on the Intrepid air craft carrier docked in New York, of a film I scored about disabled veterans called Debt of Honor. When you meet these people who fought in Iraq or Afghanistan, are still in their twenties, and are missing limbs, (and that is to say nothing of the psychological injuries .... sadly, 20 to 30 veterans commit suicide every day! About one per hour!), you realize all the more clearly that there are consequences to the actions of the government that we elect. What almost all of America doesnt realize is that America is not at war. Soldiers are at war. America is at the mall. The freedoms, lifestyle, and benefits that you enjoy and perhaps take for granted, have been provided for you by many people who have fought over time, and sacrificed everything in some cases. In fact, those privileges have been fought for, and provided for you not just by our military, but by our schools, our unions, and in our streets, and court rooms. America, for the most part, is really clueless about the reality of those who provided for them. We use roads, trains, flip on lights, call 911, etc. without ever thinking that those things were largely provided by a government elected by us. In their coercion of patriotism, I hear conservatives using rhetoric like Liberty, or God bless our troops, but they apparently dont understand it, or dont mean it. Being a cheerleader to send somebody elses kid to fight for your political teams rhetoric is NOT patriotism. Like the retired union worker I wasted time debating recently, who was railing against the ACA for being socialist medicine, but who took for granted cluelessly, that he literally depends on government social programs for his very survival, like social security and medicare (which conservatives opposed), plus a union pension that unions fought for years to get (and which conservatives continue to oppose). Most conservatives are at the mall. They are clueless as to what is really happening on their behalf. I fully recognize that there is plenty of corruption and ineptitude on both sides of the aisle, and Im not excusing that for partisan purposes. However, liberals on the whole, unlike conservatives, are not afraid to criticize their representatives for their mistakes. Conservatives evade responsibility for them. However, as I said, conservatives are at the mall. If the draft dodgers that conservatives elected (who swift boated a real veteran) actually had to spend a week on the front lines, instead of counting all their Halliburton cash on the golf course, they would be begging for their mommies! If chicken hawk conservatives survived a week on the front lines, and witnessed some of their friends have body parts blown off, they certainly would not be voting against paying what it actually costs for disabled veterans ongoing care. However, conservatives instead convinced the government to send soldiers to fight and die in the middle east over dubious reasons at best. They were supposed to be greeted as liberators remember? To blame the VA problems, being overwhelmed as a result of these wars, on anybody else (even local VA administrators trying to cover up those overwhelming problems to game an incentive system installed to save costs at the VA), is just as despicable as blaming the economic collapse of 2008 on the poor. Conservatives who support their team without holding them accountable, who refuse to consider reason or logic, who immerse themselves in bubbles of propaganda and cheerlead with other clueless conservatives, are in reality, traitors to the vast majority of Americans (including to themselves in most cases). I like many conservatives personally, but they are at the mall. Conservative representatives have been trying to block our government from functioning. Disrespecting its institutions. Trying to block our democracy from functioning. Trying to rip off tax payers, workers, and consumers alike. Betraying our soldiers. Then they actually have the nerve to complain, like some spoiled brat, about paying for the privileges they have been provided and enjoy. Do you call that patriotism? I call it being at the mall.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 21:14:49 +0000
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