It's a destructive cult. Via Joe Romm I come across this National Journal piece pointing out what we already know if we have been paying attention -- "Republicans in this country are coalescing around a uniquely dismissive position on climate change. The GOP is stampeding toward an absolutist rejection of climate science that appears unmatched among major political parties around the globe, even conservative ones."
Of the 20 Republican challengers for Senate seats surveyed by NJ, only one believes that anthropogenic global warming is happening. (At least that's what they say. Who knows what they really believe, but all the Koch money talks.)
You already know that Republicans in general do not believe in evolution, do believe that if very wealthy people have to pay 35% in top marginal tax rates instead of 32% they will stop doing whatever it is they do that supposedly makes the economy hum, believe that unemployment is caused by unemployment insurance, believe that Barack Obama is a Muslim socialist who was born in Kenya, and think that providing health insurance to people in their 50s means the government will murder people in their 70s. I could go on.
I can't imagine why anybody would vote for these lunatics. If enough people do, we're totally, irredeemably screwed. This country faces huge problems that require aggressive, rational action by government. We cannot afford to hand it over to a cult of malignant clowns.
Discussion of public health and health care policy, from a public health perspective. The U.S. spends more on medical services than any other country, but we get less for it. Major reasons include lack of universal access, unequal treatment, and underinvestment in public health and social welfare. We will critically examine the economics, politics and sociology of health and illness in the U.S. and the world.
Did you see Chris Hedges' piece in Truthout yesterday? A very good and alarming read. I'm not even sure that any acts of civil disobedience can stop this train we're on.
ReplyDeleteHedges is right of course. Regarding Aristophanes, he was a satirist; a modern equivalent would be Stephen Colbert. People laugh at the truth they reveal, but don't generally do anything about it.
ReplyDeleteAnd people who don't already understand what's going on don't get the joke. I read about a poll that shows that conservatives think Colbert really is conservative, and that his true intent is to mock liberals.
BTW, while Aristophanes definitely skewered the powerful, much of his humor was basically personal. The politics isn't always easy to discern.
lunatics vote for lunatics. or...misery loves company.
ReplyDeletethat poll is some sort of indication of someone's lack of intelligence.