11:03:46 am on
Tuesday 19 Mar 2024

The Hard Truth
AJ Robinson

First off, let me say that I don't like to be insulting; it's just not my nature. I'm usually easygoing. I don’t suffer fools easily, especially when the truth is so obvious.


Sometimes the truth hurts.

Thus, to all you GOP voters who are upset with the party establishment, I have to say: you're idiots. I truly am sorry for having to be so blunt, but sometimes the truth hurts. I mean, let's run down the facts facing us right now, shall we?

You're angry with the GOP for failing to deliver on their campaign promises. You sent to Washington a bunch of Tea Baggers that promised to repeal Obamacare. Did you really think for one second that they were actually going to do that, really?

Anyone who believed that was possible is a complete and total idiot or doesn’t know how our government works. If you're the latter, I would suggest you go to YouTube and watch the Schoolhouse Rock episode that explains how a bill becomes a law.

As for the rest of you, did you honestly think Obama would sign a bill repealing his signature piece of legislation? That's ridiculous! Never going to happen and you knew it.

Next, let's consider their other promises. They were going to cut taxes, cut spending, refuse to compromise and say, “No to anything Obama suggested.” Again, does any of that seem even remotely possible?


Politics is a practical job.

In the film, “Spartacus,” the Roman Senator Gracchus explains to a young Julius Caesar that politics is a "practical business." As he puts it, if a pirate has what you want, you do business with him. That falls right in line with another saying: politics makes strange bedfellows. Being extreme in politics only really works in a parliamentary form of government and even then only when you have a majority, sometimes a supra majority.

Again, you should such basic ideas, as an American citizen. If you don't, I suggest going back to school for a refresher in civics. A "no compromise" attitude is going to go over like the proverbial lead salami.

Cutting spending is fine, go right ahead, but don't then complain about terrible roads, school closings and poor responses following a natural disaster. What's that you say? “Just cut foreign aid.” Please, don't insult me. You know, full well, that it makes up only one per cent of the budget. If you don't know, you should google it. I did; took me all of thirty seconds.

Cutting funds to Planned Parenthood is fine, but be prepared to deal with the unwanted pregnancies due to women having no access to contraceptives.

Get rid of those annoying government regulations and agencies, such as the EPA and FDA? Fine, but don't then complain about lead in your water and drugs that don't work.

Are you okay with the republicans cutting programs that help veterans? You must be, because that's what they've been doing in your name. So ignore the homeless vets on the streets and the appalling suicide rate among those same vets. After all, you're good at doing that, you've been doing it for years.


Don't complain where you kids, the college graduates, move back in with you.

When your kids can't afford college or graduate with a mountain of debt, you can’t whine. Ditto when they move back in because they can't find a decent paying job.

You say they haven't cut spending. Actually, they have, they've slashed pretty much everything except defense and subsidies to big corporations. Granted, they haven’t cut things to the bone, such as they promised, but then they couldn’t.

A certain spending level is necessary. Again, you know this, it’s impossible to cut all government spending. They've also cut taxes on the rich and promised that jobs and more money flowing into the public trough would follow.

Granted, they've been saying that since the 1980's and it still hasn't happened. That hasn’t kept you from swallowing the lie, completely. Why is that?

I'm confused. You say you're angry with the party establishment for not doing what they promised. Considering what they promised was largely impossible, and you knew that going in, what’s the big deal?

 

Combining the gimlet-eye of Philip Roth with the precisive mind of Lionel Trilling, AJ Robinson writes about what goes bump in the mind, of 21st century adults. Raised in Boston, with summers on Martha's Vineyard, AJ now lives in Florida. Working, again, as an engineeer, after years out of the field due to 2009 recession and slow recovery, Robinson finds time to write. His liberal, note the small "l," sensibilities often lead to bouts of righteous indignation, well focused and true. His teen vampire adventure novel, "Vampire Vendetta," will publish in 2020. Robinson continues to write books, screenplays and teleplays and keeps hoping for that big break.

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