"American Intellectuals"

I was going to write something about the politics of the Supreme Court decision on Thursday, but, quite frankly, I am sick of politics in this country and all the players who are involved with it.

Most of us who know how America really works, and how the political parties function, understand that it doesn't matter who is in the White House or who controls the halls of congress. We know that real power in America comes from lobbyist and the people who can afford to pay them. Politicians who go to Washington need money to get elected and John Q. Public cannot afford to write a big enough check.

The sad truth of the matter is that most of our fellow citizens are extremely naive and are not in the least intellectually curious.  As a result, what we get are dimwitted sound bite politicians who are elected every year by dim witted intellectually lazy citizens. (The republican Governor of Louisiana says that he will ignore a federal law and not implement Obamacare in his state.)

Just think, playmates are now getting "Genius visas" to come to our country. Nothing against playmates, I am sure that some of them are really smart people, but think about that for a minute.

The right keeps screaming that if Obama wins November it will be the end of the world as we all know it. But with all due respect to Sarah Palin, Rush Limpboy and the FOX NEWS crowd, nothing will change. America will pretty much be the same sound bite celebrity driven place with a few wealthy people controlling our lives, and the rest of us wishing that we were them.

The beautiful thing about this American experiment is that every one of those folks in the 99% believes that with just a little hard work they too will be in that 1% some day. And they believe that only if certain people are in power will they have a chance of getting there. "Mitt Romney has a better chance of making me rich because he is rich." 

Finally, I know I said I wouldn't write about it, but I can't resist one aspect of this Obamacare decision by the supremes: the reaction of [right] wingnuts to the ruling. (Did you see representative Jean Schmidt's orgasmic reaction to the wrong news about Obamacare?)  

"On his radio show Thursday, conservative talk radio firebrand Michael Savage wondered whether Roberts’ epilepsy medication affected the chief justice’s cognition. “I’m going to tell you something that you’re not going to hear anywhere else, that you must pay attention to,” Savage said. “It’s well known that Roberts, unfortunately for him, has suffered from epileptic seizures. Therefore he has been on medication. Therefore neurologists will tell you that medication used for seizure disorders, such as epilepsy, can introduce mental slowing, forgetfulness and other cognitive problems. And if you look at Roberts’ writings you can see the cognitive dissociation in what he is saying,”
In a closed door meeting with House Republicans, Rep. Mike Pence likened the health care ruling to Sept. 11, Politico reported

Geraldo Rivera didn’t criticize Roberts as much as call him a mad genius. On Fox and Friends Friday morning, Geraldo said: “(Roberts) has gifted President Obama a poison pill. Republicans now can remember, unless something is done, that the Bush tax cuts also lapse at the end of the year. So here you have the largest tax increase and the increase coming from the expiration of the Bush tax cuts - he taxed us, he said he wouldn’t tax us, he taxed us. I think the Obama presidency hangs by a thread right now.”

Saying the Supreme Court decision “destroys Bush’s legacy,” dimmed conservative star Glenn Beck put his rhetoric where his online store is. He is selling screen-printed Roberts “coward” t-shirts for $30 a pop." [Source]

What's amazing is that our republic has managed to survive this long.