Bill Michtom:

I know you’re having a tantrum, Michael, but I’m calling you on some of it anyway.

Some of us have been consciously working against what the Joni Ernsts and James Inhofes of the country represent our entire lives. My parents and grandparents (at least on my mother’s side) were doing it also.

Many of those who drank the Kool Aid have been inculcated their entire lives with the Big Lie that makes authoritarian followers out of them.

Then there are the folks, like the residents of Ferguson, who have been oppressed by the racism that was built into this country from its inception–that have had their work and wealth stolen from them for generations.

And there are all those folks who are doing their best to get by under the horrific conditions that the two wings of the capitalist party have imposed on them Many of them don’t have the time, the energy or the education to keep track of who is screwing them and how

Should all of these people be punished? And what good will it do? And how long until that good gets done. And will it be before climate change floods our cities and destroys our ability to grow food?

The immiseration of the working class is what you’re talking about, Michael. And, though Marx believed that that would lead to a socialist revolution, the historical evidence is, unfortunately, weak. Russia was an agrarian country that ended up giving its people Stalin and the terror famine, though that’s not to deny the incredible turn to industrialization that also happened.

Think of what the people of the rest of the Americas have gone through before Venezuela, Equador, Paraguay and even Argetina and Brazil got to where they are today. Think of the very mixed success of Cuba.

But, moving away from histoical narrative and political suppositions, let me also re-emphasize the inadvisability of tantrums.

Finally, let’s–all of us who can see the tantrum happening and know how dangerous it is–figure out ways to undermine it and bring more people together to retake our country from the ugly, dangerous people you righteously rail against and raise ourselves up together.

I’m open to suggestions. 🙂

Junior's Ghost:

All of these tragedies will happen, and more. And people will still place the blame squarely upon the brown shoulders of Barrack Hussein Obama. See, that’s the thing about Americans. We’re a nation obsessed with thoughts and feelings about race. Whether those sentiments are good or ill. They dominate the way we view this country. We praise our diversity, they curse the colored ones. Either way it holds our focus, more than reason, more than ethics, certainly more than politics. Besides, most Americans don’t know at any given moment what party controls congress, nor are they able to pick their own representative out of a lineup. But everybody knows just who is in the White House. And everybody knows he ain’t white. Even a blind man can see that.

Woody McBreairty:

As usual the deep ignorance of the deep south rules. The most uneducated poverty stricken people in the country always vote for politicians who loathe them. They vote against themselves & wonder why their lives never improve. They drag the whole country down with them. How hopeless is our country’s future, wonder?

Midge:

Angry? I’m angry beyond words. I’ve lost a young daughter who was turned down for health insurance for a pre-existing condition just before the ACA became law and I will not sit still and see something I fought for taken away. My fear is that so many on Face Book and Twitter prefer to talk instead of putting themselves out there and walking the walk which is what it will take to create change. I’m as tired as the next person fighting this fight but I’ll be damned if I will stand by and watch the GOP undermine all that this country has accomplished. It’s time to stand up or shut up. Great article, thanks for sharing it.

James Vickers:

If I believed in God, and were I to pray, I think it would go something like this.

Let us pray.

Lord, this week you chose to somehow put these horrible people in office. My prayer to you is this.

Lord, take from those who receive benefits instituted by Democrats, who voted for Republicans, the benefits they now draw, as they are too blind to see the good, even when they are experiencing it. They think somehow that only they deserve it, not understanding others do too.

Let all of the people who voted Republican, who gerrymandered and manipulated elections to their favor, be the ones who suffer the ill they’ll cause.

Let the smarmy goop from unregulated oil was up on their beaches. Let them eat the oil tainted shrimp and oysters pulled from the Gulf, let the poison from the fracking waters inflict its damage on them. Let their spigots be set aflame.

God bring the brunt of the Fertilizer Plant explosions, as in Texas to the homes of the most rabid right-wing voters, the watchers of FOX, listeners of Rush Limbaugh.

Oh great Deity in the Sky, suffer the bank accounts, winnow the fortunes of those who support the evil ones, the greed driven, toward their defenestration through the windows of their tall buildings.

And for the poor, those driven to vote Republican because of hatreds of blacks, or Hispanics, let their daughters fall for and marry a minority. Let their children turn out gay, so they may too realize, it’s not a choice, but something intrinsic to their souls.

God, let the gun-worshipers be the victims of the bullets fired by onerous, nefarious, or just plain crazy nuts, who have managed to get dangerous weapons, and caches of munitions easily over the Internet, or at unregulated stores and gun shows. Let the criminals who buy weapons without background checks, find the families of those who support guns. Let the gun fights transpire by those who brandish death those who don’t understand “turn the other cheek,” or “thou shalt not kill.”

All I ask of you God, is to bring home to those who vote for greed, and insanity, to suffer the effects of the same.

Let the wages drop, and the jobs leave, of those who vote red, let their accounts winnow. Make those who see homelessness as a pesky blight to the neighborhood, instead of a problem to be solved, lose everything, and become homeless themselves.

Most of all, God, please bring the biggest misfortune to the Koch brothers’ ilk, those who’d buy and use our government agents to make more money, to take money and benefits, and a decent life from the rest of us, for they deserve the punishment far more than any of the rest. They have everything, more than generations of their families will ever need. But they can’t see past it, toward using their cash for good works, only for further corrupting the system, and hurting Americans, and people of the world.

Amen

Ray:

You forgot to mention the right’s willingness to throw the military people, who by in large support Republicans, under the bus when they are no longer needed.

Andrew Markoff:

They hate democracy. It terrifies them. The very thought of allowing all kinds of people from big cities to far off towns and of every color and creed voting and deciding, perhaps, for everyone else is just untenable to such people, so they clamor to the polls to vote for the most authoritarian sorts who continually assure them that Rush is right, and they are the deserving of the spoils while the others are not.