I like her! She’s a breath of fresh air! She’s hope!
What’s not to like! Oh yes, OMG! She’s a democratic socialist! Boo! Hiiissss! Socialists are too much like Jesus when it comes to taking care of the poor. Jesus thought that the rich should give up their wealth to help those with less. That Jesus! He cray!
Yes, from what I can see she is 100% dedicated to taking care of people; putting people first! What madness is this?! It gets worse. In addition to being a woman…she’s smart! She’s articulate! She speaks her mind! In complete sentences! She’s not a corporate shill! She isn’t an empty shirt. She’s progressive! She believes in science! Get this. She thinks that affordable housing is a basic human right. What next? Health care for everyone? Madness! It’s little wonder that Republicans are afraid of her. She has the crazy idea of believing in, “an America that works for all of us, not just a wealthy few.” Really. Cray!
Did I mention that she’s young? (I’m not sure whether that’s good or not any more. This is no country for old people these days. The President along with Conservatives and Evangelicals in general have decided we’re expendable.) Anyway, AOC advocates for people of any age, any color, any race, any….you get the drift. I’m an old white guy and she doesn’t hold that against me. She hasn’t written me off as expendable either. She puts people first. What a concept. That might be a good principle to implement on a national level!
Comrades!
It’s funny that the Head of the Republican Party, President Trump, the guy that not only asked for help from the Russians during his campaign, met with Russians, received help from the Russians, has loans from the Bank of China, admires Vladimir Putin, launders money for Russian Oligarchs through his real estate dealings and after giving a couple of trillion dollars in tax breaks to his rich friends is calling others socialists. Oh yes, one more, Senator McConnell got the sobriquet “Moscow Mitch” by taking care of his Russian benefactors. Seriously, these people should start calling each other comrade. President Trump should ask Putin if that would be okay the next time they meet up or chat late at night. After all the President loves Kim Jong Un. Yes he said that. Really. He’s quite the jokester. Unless he isn’t. Love can be fickle. I wonder if that made Putin jealous?
Why do conservatives in general hate socialists so much? Well, in theory at least, for socialists the people come first. Gasp! That’s a dangerous thought for corporate hugging conservatives guided by the love of money. Even in the middle of a pandemic money comes first. Money before death because money is more important than death. The Evangelical Party is on board that agenda train as well. The average citizens of this nation are so much cannon fodder to them.
Why provide rent and mortgage relief when trillions can be given to the wealthy?
Fortunately we’re a supposedly freedom loving Republic and democratic socialists can run for office! Cray! I know, amiright? What next? A philandering lawsuit loving cheating multiple married lying TV reality star as President? Oh yeah. Well, at least he isn’t a socialist. Ask any of his rich friends.
Free to live. Free to die. Free to be poor.
Why don’t the poor participate more in the political process? The simple answer is that it hasn’t worked for them. Capitalism has NOT worked for them. With each passing year the difference between the haves and the have nots grows greater.
I’ve mentioned this before but it bears repeating. We have 40 million people in this country living in poverty. Year after year. Decade after decade. Generational poverty. Occasionally the poverty line or how poverty is determined changes but the number of people living in poverty continues. Tens of millions more live just above the poverty demarcation line. The homeless population grows larger with each passing year. Getting sick and dying is a way of life. Subsistence living is a way of life.
A lot of us, not just AOC, believe that all Americans should have health care NOT just the wealthy. Why are we the only major industrialized nation that doesn’t have health care for everyone? Now the right wing Evangelical Conservative Republican Jesters that have health care don’t believe that all Americans should have health care. Trump was just joking when he said that he had something even better to replace the Affordable Care Act. That jokester!
Whether we have Republicans or Democrats in charge the numbers stay relatively unchanged; their status just changed by degrees that are barely noticeable in the day to day grind of life. Perhaps Democrats should consider being best by being more than just a little different in objectives. Their compromises keep making the wealthy more powerful.
With each passing year life becomes harder for what’s left of what we call the middle class. It gets harder to make ends meet. Both members of a household usually have to work. Single citizens have a harder time living on one income. Two people making minimum wage jobs struggle just to pay for a place to live.
Back in the day.
I come from a time when the head of the household was often the only wage earner. My mom did take in laundry to do for other people. In later years Dad worked a part time job too for extra cash and to get ahead. That changed when he had one heart attack too many and could no longer work in the factory.
Dad had worked all his life. He started out in the coal fields. He had to do something. So he and mom took what little money they could scrape together and bought a small laundry. Dad was a mechanic and learned how to work on all the machines in there. He could work at his own speed and when his heart would act up he would stop until it passed and then go back to work. I would open up the place when I delivered papers at around four in the morning. We would also help clean the place. Eventually I got a better job working in a factory. Like AOC I pitched in and helped support my mom and dad until I joined the Army. Having your parents cry simply because you give them money is a truly humbling experience.
Their way of life slowly went away. Too many working people started living long enough to retire so the suits running government raised the retirement age. People spend their lives paying into Social Security and then die either before they retire or shortly thereafter. When I retired the average number of retirement checks paid out by the company that I worked for was 18. On average people only lived 18 months after they retired. Now companies don’t even offer pensions. Pensions cut into profits.
Entitled rich.
The government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich has become the new company store. They control the jobs. They control the market. They pay off both sides of the government. They own the expensive lawyers. They are the banks. They are the health care industry. They are the insurance companies. They are the owners. Their wealth entitles them.
If you’ve listened to AOC she disagrees with their world view that the rich come first. She has the outrageous idea that working people and the poor should come first. It’s almost as if socialist ideas are Christian.
We the wealthy of the United States…
In theory we live in a Republic NOT a democracy. Or rather vestiges of democracy remain. Democracy is an element of our Republic. The President isn’t elected by a popular vote of the people by Constitutional design. The President is elected by the Electoral College. This is how 2 Republicans have become President in spite of the popular vote. See a pattern?
The rich won.
In practicality what we have now more closely resembles an Oligarchy. We have a President that made millions servicing Russian Oligarchs.
Ω The majority of wealth is concentrated in the top few percentage points of the nation’s population.
Ω Half of Congress are millionaires or multi-millionaires. Half.
Ω The President is a Billionaire.
Ω Another billionaire is on his cabinet or is it two?
Millionaires, multi-millionaires and billionaires are doing great! Well, I have to amend that statement. They were doing great right up until the pandemic. Pandemics cut into profit. Pandemics cut into everything. Pandemics make people die. Who’s dying? Predominantly old people followed by people of color and then a statistical spread from there. There will be additional numbers and breakdowns after this is finally over in a year or so. Could be even longer. The rich never stopped being rich. They may be less rich but they’ll still be rich. They’ll have access to tests. They have health insurance. They have people to test others to ensure that they can be catered to safely.
Take one for the rich.
They need the poor. They need the working class. They need the service industry. That’s why it’s real important for them to get us back to work whether it’s safe or not. Instead of giving trillions to the rich Congress could have made sure that the poor and working class had food and relief from rent and mortgage payments. Republicans were outraged at that thought. They want people desperate for money. They want people with no choice other than to go back to work.
The number of people living in poverty will increase. That’s right. There is no cushion for them. Millions more will find themselves closer to the financial precipice. A lot of working people won’t recover from this.
When there gets to be too much wealth disparity; too great a difference between the haves and the have nots revolution becomes an all too real possibility. The Republican Russians would like that as long as they end up being the ones in charge. Silly Russian Republicans.
Make a difference.
Those who are supposed to represent us could make a difference. A real difference.
Let’s try and get back to making this a government of the people.
Living is better than being dead. If a person goes back to work and dies is their family better off? Dead people don’t pay rent, buy gas or buy anything.
There’s hope. In this life. In this time.
There’s hope for the living.