I usually have to hide my radical leftist views. I’m certainly not attempting to be perceived as cool by making that declaration, I’m just stating fact. As I’ve written before I have to abstain from most political debates because the country has shifted from the right side arguing with the left side in a constructive, albeit frustrating manner to a bunch of embarrassing third grade poop. One side has rotted and is buried in the mud. There is just correct and incorrect now. And the right is just wrong.
That is too diplomatic of me. The honest reason is that I am a lunatic. Deep down, in my European roots, there is the DNA of leftist, nutball revolutionaries. Downtrodden, sickly firebrands whose passions always get them killed. Probably the Italian side. I’m guessing. Example? I don’t care that the rich are taxed more. I think they should have so many taxes laid upon them that they wish they were never rich and the idea of exorbitant wealth became disgusting to the world. Not socialism, not communism. But watchful capitalism; the type that lets anyone thrive and succeed as they desire, as long as they remember they are part of a country that directly or indirectly supports them through protection, taxes and citizenship. That is what beats in my swarthy heart.
You can see why rational political debate eludes me forever. I’m a kook.
So what can I possibly learn from these free market dipshits? Well, they are wrong about everything socially. That goes without saying. Internationally they are insensitive and stupid; that there is nothing there to play with. They are mistrusting of science and that is an affront to learning which makes me sick, so that’s out.
And, they are sickeningly patriotic.
Hold on.
I like being patriotic, too. I understand that nationalism is dangerous so I’m not advocating America Against the World. That’s one of the reasons we are where we are. There is one world and everyone is riding on the thin outer crust.
No, I mean honest, genuine warm feelings about the fifty states that comprise our country. All of it’s mixed up and misdirected glory. The advanced and the lagging behind, the rural and the urban, the deserts, the beaches, the mountains. All that happy stuff. I like all of that. We aren’t the best and we are far from the worst. We are who we are, and like it or not there are dozens of countries who wish they had our problems instead of their own. I don’t enjoy crapping on America, and I share that sentiment with all of those soulless misguided right wing doody-heads.
(For more on these feelings, read anything by Sarah Vowell.)
All that aside, this boils down to the simple pleasures of living here. I don’t feel bad when I go to the grocery store. That compassionate guilt, (the kind the Republicans loathe..Christ-like guilt), the feeling that we have so much and others have so little…it doesn’t get me down. I acknowledge it. I just am thankful and a little proud. I’m proud of a few extra choices in breakfast cereal and movie theater and shoe style. I like endless rows of books. I know, we went apeshit with all of the choices. We tend to do that. I’m kind of proud of that too in a weird way. It’s not the worst problem to have.
We use our wealth is wasteful ways. (Tongue twister) But we actually have wealth, and for that we should remember to be thankful. If we’re not enjoying what we have, we are exactly like those rich whiny bitches in Orange County, CA complaining about snippy waiters to the rest of humanity.
These thoughts cool me down when I catch snippets of congressional debate. I use my boyish, idyllic thoughts of America like aloe on a burn. It works.
Usually.
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