The Protective Father

When my dad was growing up, his grandfather, who had prospered after the depression by having faith in some stock he held on to, paid for all the college educations of all his grandchildren. Was generous whenever my dad went to visit, possibly to all the cousins as well, always giving my dad a $20, back in the 1950's and early 1960's.

He did well, and shared his prosperity, to the benefit of future generations.

Unfortunately, my grandparents squandered their inheritance, spending it instead on ridiculous indulgences, like a custom yacht (which they called a houseboat), and ending up having little left at the end, for themselves or the future.

They were hardcore Republicans, resenting Roosevelt forever for creating social security when it was only by being born into some money that they made a life for themselves pre and post retirement.

Listening to the debate last night I couldn't help summarizing the proceedings as the same old Republican, Father-Knows-Best, Protective Patriarch, meanwhile ignoring the dire economic fact that the consumptive lifestyles mandated as a patriotic and God-given right create policies that actually rob from our great grandchildren.

That seems not like good daddy, strong father reality - that seems like bad grand dad.

Or grand dad who was unable to let go of a mathematics that no longer applies, as the Roman Catholic Church took until the 20th century to officially and canonically accept Copernicus (and the astronomers of other times and places who understood essentially the same) as no longer being heathen.

The radical idea that the marketplace is no longer serving the interests of the vast majority of the planet is becoming clearer in this economic crisis, the fundamental basis of which was predatory lending propped up by another era of treasury pilfering by the military industrial complex, to provide a way for people to invest excess, and often, as was the case with Enron, many Internet startups, creating fabricated wealth.

If we generate wealth in today's society, it needs to be done in a way that measures the true cost of attaining that wealth, that does not hide the risk in a permanent war, hiding the environmental and fiduciary impact under layers of national security.

Nevertheless, I have no doubt that McCain win will this election.

Were Rove on the other side of the aisle on this one, he would undoubtedly have a well funded independent campaign going raising questions about whether or not John McCain was a war prisoner or gay-lover of the prison warden, deliberately allowing his capture and detention to avoid the war. POW's for Truth, the name, undoubtedly.

However, the power of the internet to disseminate information and at least make propaganda of any type more blurred is catching up with the powerful enclaves of isolation created within large swathes of an increasingly out of touch and scared public. If some of the online work actually equates to on the ground work, we may make it.

Comments

I guess you were wrong on your McCain prediction

[Ben Jones]

Written before the radical right f'ed things up by rejecting Lieberman for VP.

I don't think the U.S. electorate has had a change of heart - in fact, I think many folks are expecting Obama to wave hi wand.