End of Year Politics

I’m still typing without the use of my pinky finger. If you’ve been following events here you’ll recall that I sliced the tip of my finger instead of the potato and the injury has made typing difficult. I learned to type on a typewriter by the traditional methods requiring pinky fingers.

But I am thankful that my F-A-C-U-L-T-I-E-S still function, thank you. I wish I could say with confidence the same for others. I read in the papers that Nebraska Democrat, Ben Nelson, will retire from the Senate next year, and his exit from this august body threatens the slim hold on the Senate that the Democrats still hold. The Republicans already control the House of Representatives.

Isn’t anybody paying attention? What are they thinking? The Republican array of candidates for President reflects the frightening shallowness of the party itself. Hell, the Republican array of candidates reflects the appalling stupidity of the party itself. Somewhere in The Nation this week someone said something about Rick Perry opening his mouth and his brains falling out . . . well, this description of such consequences applies to each one of the Republican candidates. Every day one of them outdoes the others in saying something senseless. Newt advocates child labor; Bachman and Perry don’t know very much about history or geopolitics. Mitt Romney—who the hell knows what he knows! Herman Cain has dropped out of the race after his sexual peccadilloes became front page news, and his economic plan sounded nothing so much as a pizza special. And Newt (him again!) took millions of dollars from the very company whose officers he claimed should be jailed, and was shtupping who knows who while he condemned Bill Clinton for shtupping you know who. Hypocrisy runs deep in the Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln, though I am ashamed to put the name of that great man in the same sentence as that venal party. Republican politics all over the country is undermining democracy—Wisconsin, Arizona, Indiana, Michigan and New Jersey are easy examples—only Ohio gives some evidence of sanity these days.

How could anyone from the 99% consider voting for any Republican in the next election? Isn’t anybody paying attention? Doesn’t anyone care?

It is time someone stand up to the Republicans, look straight into the camera and accuse, “Jane, you ignorant slut!” It could even be the President.