Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Defeatism, my black ass...

The primary elections are over...we've toasted the victories and mourned the defeats.

Now, let's get down to bitness.

A bitch would like to explore the lack of confidence some of my fellow Americans have in America.

Yeah, we're going there.

Let's explore how, in this election year, some would have the masses believe that the status quo is as good as it gets...that this is the best we can do...and that anyone who doubts that and questions the decisions of those in power is defeatist.

The RNC is preparing to call liberals out...again...as un-American. And, although I am tempted to yawn at this tired ass presentation of stale Rovian leftovers, I can't.

Why?

Because too many of my fellow Americans are conditioned to dig into those stale bland and potentially rancid leftovers and glut themselves on that shit!

Think Soylent Green.

Anyhoo...

This bitch looks upon the RNC and the sad version of conservatism it has embraced as the living definition of true defeatism...of a complete lack of confidence in real American values...of an unbelievable disregard for the lives of the masses...and of a delusional vision of a 'this'll do' country populated by 'that's good enough' citizens.

Sound appetizing? Of course not!

But after 6 years of eating that dish the mind begins to play tricks on you, doesn't it? Fuck, some of you ordered that shit...wanted it...and signed the rest of us up for it because you're so motherfucking clever. Not.

Mercy.

But the key ingredient tells the story of a dish doomed to bland nastification...and that ingredient, under examination, is revealed to be pure undiluted defeatism.

Defeatism is Jim Talent and Matt Blunt telling Missourians that we can't provide healthcare to the working poor and their children...that a living wage is a fantasy...that medical research is a tool of Satan...and that we need to abandon our communities to educate our children.

Defeatism is scoffing at the American dream...acting powerless in the face of the exporting of high wage jobs while pandering to rich donors instead of truly addressing wage issues that have been neglected for too long.

Defeatism is whoring our federal budget to special interests...selling out American projects to no bid contracts...passing off bald faced lies as the truth and doing it, Lawd have mercy, with one hand on the Bible and the other one shamelessly dipping again into that same emaciated federal budget.

Stop eating that nasty ass conservative hash and open your eyes!

When they talk of an ownership society free of federal intrusion and then attempt to seize our bodies through anti-choice laws...that's bullshit. When you let them get away with it because you like their wives...that's insane.

When they talk of their Big Tent party on Monday and high voltage fences to keep 'those people' where they belong on Tuesday...that's also bullshit. Finding solace in the fact that they said that shit in Spanish? That's crazy as hell!

And when they speak of values while not even trying to cover the stench of corruption that follows them everywhere...that's bullshit too. Voting for them...again...in the face of all that has happened...that's unacceptable.

I know defeatism. I see it in every television commercial that tells me to embrace what is and abandon any expectation of what should be and all dreams of what could be.

So, bring it on.

Let's do this!

Or are you better of now than you were four years ago?

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

That column ought to be tatooed in reverse type on every Dem's forhead so he/she can read it every fucking morning and night from now till they leave office.

It ought to be tatooed on the naked torsos of each and every pathetically ineffective Dem consultant so they can read it on each other as we hold them suspended above the alligator pit from now till the day after the first Tues. of Nov. so they can't screw another election.

Travis Reems said...

Actually, I am better off now than I was four years ago, thanks to a divorce.

Seriously, America is primed and ready to deconservatize (that is a word in the GW to English dictionary). We just need to get our party's message together, unified and united, and present it to the people. But, I'm afraid that we just can't get our act together and offer an alternative plan. And in the absence of an alternative, the people will settle for the defeatism. Again, I fear that we lack the leaders to manage this coalition party of ours.

cwilcox said...

Shark Fu,
WOW! Thanks for going "there"!

Maureen O'Danu said...

Preach it, Shark! This is an excellent post. I actually am better off now personally than four years ago, but that's because I was in the middle of a mid-life career switch and was tearing through my savings at lightning speed.

That doesn't negate that I'm the exception, not the rule. One of the main reasons I'm doing so well is that the heating and air-conditioning business is booming, and my husband is in HVAC...and which President was it that turned his back on the Kyoto Treaty?

For my anniversary this year I wandered up to a nifty little town called Weston about an hour north of KC and stayed in a Bed and Breakfast (great place to get away....you'd love it). I ran across a woman who is a staunch conservative, and listened to her list for at least an hour the many, many betrayals of the Bush administration. She ended with "I'm so sorry I voted for him". And she had no idea that I'm a card carrying radical liberal feminist.

Interesting stuff going on here in the heartland.

Shark-Fu said...

Travis...
Now you know the only thing we have to fear is fear itself (wink).

You're right...we need to get to work. But working towards a goal you doubt you can achieve is not gonna result in happiness and joy.

Leadership is born from the movement...so get moving and new leadership will manifest. Or did you think the Dems adored Clinton before the primaries in'92?

Red Hog...
You're welcome.

Maureen...
I agree! Something is shifting here in the middle...

Thanks y'all for commenting!

Anonymous said...

BRAVO

Travis Reems said...

Jeem you are absolutely right!

LHC said...

I hear ya ABB, could the tide finally be turning?

Jonzee said...

Wow...

I think my nearly completely straight behind has her first "blogger crush".

You are my ideological heroine!

indianabob said...

Yet another BRILLIANT post Shark.

Before this nightmare started in 2000 (or was it 1994), I really thought we were on the verge of something great.

The persistence of racism was allowing us to finally, in a environmnet of Peace and Prosperity (at least for most white folks) to have a real dialog about Race. The NYTimes in the late nineties devoted a week-long series to this question. Well meaning folks on all sides were sitting at the table, talking about Afirmative Action, Education, and Insttutional Racism.

We were having very good debates about on challenging subjects from tax policy to health care.

We recognized that immigrants do help, but that exporting middle-class jobs and important low-wage jobs was going to be unsustainable, and there were real good discussions on how our borders could be better managed, without the extremes of "build a wall and deport 'em all" and "Let 'em all in so Big Agriculture can milk the low-wage labor pool and anti-labor orgainzing".

We understood (most of us, anyway) that a woman has a right to privatly discuss her health concerns with her doctor, no matter what those concerns were. Mississippi had numerous family planning clinics (Now they have one, about to go to 0).

Can any conservative really say that we are better off (with that hand on the Bible)? And don't give me that "911 changed everything". If we can maintain our civil liberties, our good relations with our allies, and our respect for the UN with a shitload of nukes pointed at all of our major cities, then are you really going to tell me that amorphous groups of former goat herders requires that we give an imbacile president unfettered powers?

Please.

While the neocons most useful idiot was still gassing as many Black people as possible in Texas (and one notable born-again white lady - who he thougtlessly mocked in his best "poor white trash" accent), author Octavia Butler (may she rest in peace), wrote the following in "Parable of the Sower" (conservatives, please pay attention):

Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought.
To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears.
To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool.
To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen.
To be led by a liar is to ask to be lied to.


On a side note, Shark, I am still lobbying on the other blogs I participate in to get you on their blogroll.

MGW said...

Glad to see all the positive comments from Missouri / midwest on your post. And really glad to read your post. Keep preaching (even to the choir). M.

Anonymous said...

“When they talk of an ownership society free of federal intrusion and then attempt to seize our bodies through anti-choice laws...that's bullshit. When you let them get away with it because you like their wives...that's insane.”

Thank you for saying that. Somebody needed to. Anyone else hearing the '[Dubya] can't be such a bad human being. Laura married him!' shit? As though the wife is automatically evidence of the character of the husband. Does the public really know her so well?

The things people will say to explain a way a reality their minds cannot accept. Ugh.

Anonymous said...

Sigh. I'd hoped this might be a place for me. Alas, not. Is no one out there as deeply cynical as I am? Defeatism is a Democratic Party that supported a war and a Patriot Act to avoid looking like wimpy traitors. I left the Dems three years ago and have never looked back. The RNC has nothing for me. But I know this, the Dems didn't do jack in 2000 or 2004 when black people's voting rights were infringed upon. I don't reward someone who betrays me by blindly supporting them. Hillary can kiss this black bitch's backside two times in 2008.

The RNC is committed to winning and having it their way. The Dems are committed, to...what was that again? I don't want anything to do with either.

Defeatism? That's what I call the Dems "act" since 9-11. Whatever game the RNC has going on, it's working, isn't it? They keep winning and Dems keep wondering why. I wouldn't get too excited about what happened in Conn. since it is hardly representative of mainstream America.

Dems should be begging us for our vote and delivering some goods in the process. What happened in the 2000 and 2004 elections was an abomination and the Dems sat back and shrugged their shoulders. Not only did blacks lose their votes, the country has paid an astronomical price for the Dems need to expediantly resolve the Florida fiasco. Screw the lot of them.

Really pissed and fed up in Oakland

Anonymous said...

Great arguments ABB.

Many of your points were spoken during our last election up here in the cold north.

The Conservatives, who were trying to oust the Liberals, made those same points.

Funny how that works, isn’t it? Eh?

Anonymous said...

Another prime example of Bitchitude!

Time to start getting old folks their state IDs....in case the poll tax requirement doesn't get enjoined this Nov. ... ACLU-EM, or someone, is actively in pursuit.

One of these days, I will have to meet you (if I haven't already at least seen you at lgbt events, since I am from St.Louis)

NancyP

Anonymous said...

I sense allot of anger here. I read these comments and in some parts I agree but the fact of the mater is that until you are in a position of power you will never understand what the right decision is for you will never please every one but you sure will be disliked by many(I refrain from using the word hate as I find it to be to strong).
Bush and his cabinet have definitely not made the wisest decisions and I do look forward to a competent candidate rising and getting the votes to make things better..little by little as change does not happen over night..peace.

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