So Why Shouldn't I Tell My Congressman He's an Ass?

I have been doing a lot of thinking about this unruly bad manners at Town Hall meetings. At first I wanted to go punch them out, talk them down or stand next to them in a clown suit. But the more I thought about it the more I am cheering on the yelling and screaming. I have decided it is a good thing these insulated politicians are finally having to face the people they represent while traveling first class or in private jets from one hoi paloy event to another, living in a rarefied atmosphere of privilege about on a level with the Wall Street Oligarchs or Louis XVI.....far far above the tiny meaningless lives down below.

The nerve of those guys trying to sneak through three $65 Million Gulfstreams the Pentagon said they didn't want or need, when many citizens weren't even sure they were going to have a job to drive to tomorrow, much less a jet. All because during last years Christmas holidays there weren't enough Gulfstreams to go around and Pelosi threw a hissy fit because all the big guys got to got to the really cool planes first. Make 'em ride on military transports or Greyhound is my idea. They'd at least meet some real people that way.

I think a good thing is happening. This is symptomatic of the sense of alienation people have from their government. The masters and the servants have gotten a bit mixed up in recent years and some adjustments need to be made. The people are frustrated and confused. All this money being spent, no understanding of why or where. And nobody really trying to explain to why Wall Street got the big bucks instead of Main Street in what I am just now beginning to understand was one of the most brilliant chess moves in the history of money.

I am not kidding. I think one of the luckiest things to ever happen to this undeserving country was to have not only a brilliant quiet Fed Chairman who spent the last 40 years studying the mistakes of the Great Depression teamed with a brilliant 6'4"ex-football hero tough-as-nails-mean-as-a-snake-SOB Secty of Treasury who helped invent half the crooked tricks on Wall Street. Secretary Paulson, with Bernankes Big Guns at his back, wasn't shy about blackmailing , bluffing or breaking some really big knee caps, forcing Financial moguls to bend over for a $700 Billion smoke and mirrors enema. It really cost us nothing but paper promises to put some spine back in the economy and some major Juevos de Oligarch in Uncle Sams watch pocket. The only mistake they made in this whole confusing Tango of Uncertainty was losing Lehman Brothers. They walking into a meeting with big UK Bank who finally said no to Paulson. Plan A disintegrated, there was no Plan B an Paulson lost one of the biggest deals of his big deal career.

Anyway, back to the peasants, uh err, citizens being treated like cattle whose only function is to work hard to make money, and borrow more, to pump into the big money machine. $32 Billion last year in bank overdraft fees? Give me a break! You can't change a telephone or any other service without punching numbers and waiting for 20 minutes. And then it is either impossible or you have to pay money to do it. Yes, American companies are more efficient. Because the citizens have to do more and settle for less from their companies.

You can't call a cop out for being a jerk for fear of getting arrested or worse. Out of one war and into another with no clear understanding of what is happening or why our boys continue to die after we were promised it was over. People are losing their houses, their jobs and their pride. Politicians are buying new Gulfstreams, have unlimited health care and expense accounts greater than most peoples salaries.

Republicans and Democrats are operating without any clear adult supervision, talking nonsense in stupid partisan prattling, putting off decisions about Medicare, Social Security and Immigration that should have been dealt with decades ago when they actually may have been tamable. These same politicians, unwilling to learn from previous mistakes are hell bent on making an sticky mess of Health Insurance, providing a nonsense mishmash without addressing the bigger issues of efficiency, cost and competition.

The hooligans will win. They will cover another 50 - 60 Million citizens with only minimal changes in business as usual, my hands in your pocket fashion. Politicians will deliver an insurance system bought and paid for by the central villian in the show. It won't work. Some day this will all come back, not to haunt us, but to rip out our economic jugulars and tread on us.

I know there is a lot of craziness in the air. People on Medicare saying they don't want government run health care. I especially loved the sign I saw somewhere today that showed an old couple on a sofa, "Will the government spend millions of dollars on my grandparents when they get sick like they do for a rich, overweight, alcoholics with brain cancer?" Of course the obvious answer is "Yeah, so who will take care of Gramps without Obamacare?" But they do have a teachable point. Why do all these guys get all the neat perks and toys; All we get is the privilege of paying for it and a stupid T-shirt.

Did you see the AARP meeting where the AARP representative got mad and closed the meeting because the old farts wouldn't sit quietly and listen to her prepared remarks about what AARP was doing on their behalf. They had the umbrage to ask why they had never once been asked what they wanted done on their behalf. She looked mighty foolish, after already ending the meeting, walking for her microphone after the crowd took over the meeting trying to sort out Health Care, without her. This really is Democracy at its best and at its ugliest. We may actually start listening to each other...or not.

Speaking of nonsense waddaya think of Sarah Palins Death Panel comments? What exactly does everybody think is happening now with the insurance companies? You Betcha!

Yeah, the insurance companies and Republicans are responsible for sowing the seeds of discontent, but the seeds are falling on very very fertile ground. Yeah, it's a loud rude minority who doesn't fully understand the issues, but so are the kids on the street in Iran and Burma, so was I in the late 60's and so were our founding fathers. I still feel we may have a revolt, of some sort, peaceful or not, before this is over. But this really isn't much about insurance anymore than Gettysburg was about the grass. This about the creeping plague of bad governance that has slowly been creeping up on us since we first started letting it.

Maybe there is hope. Americans may actually wake up and start expecting their politicians to represent them. Politicians may actually start identifying with their citizens and that Bridge in Brooklyn may actually change hands. Its not a Republican or Democratic thing. The Democrats are in power so they get the heat. But, whoever started it, they may have trouble getting it to lay down quietly and sleep.

I am glad to see people standing up and saying "I'm mad as hell and not going to take it any more!" Even if they have their facts and their logic upside down. At least they understand they have a right to be mad as hell. Of course it would help if the Democrats actually had a firm proposal on the table instead vague bundle of confusing Senate, House and White House concepts, ill defined and conflicting.

And what the hell was this deal with Big Pharma and the Hospitals? Is this what we voted for? Explain to me how this is Change we can live with? Unless we get some leadership soon we are are going to end up with a big sloppy expensive mess of goo that won't help much and will break our backs.

Haven't quite integrated my thoughts on Obama winning the election and being black and throwing that whole thing into the stew. Not sure how much that has to do with anything except it gives everybody something to focus on when they really haven't figured out yet what they are so pissed about.

Obama and the Democrats must start showing firm leadership if they are going to walk away with anything useful or even survive the next election.

Well, that's my evening cup of cheer. Better publish this before I think better of it.