Country First

Someone once said (I think it was Mark Crispin Miller) that the right wing always accuses progressives of the very thing that they themselves are doing, or fronts with a talking point that essentially decries the very consequences of the policies that their anointed seek to put into place. It is tempting to just declare the Republican party completely bankrupt and move on from there, but you have to just love how they plastered this two word "silly"-gism all over their mutual admiration society in Minnesota.

COUNTRY FIRST

"What exactly do you mean by this?" you might wish to ask any of the attendees at the RNC. How ironic that their meeting place is a stone's throw away from the collapsed highway bridge that exemplifies the complete deficit of attention paid to our national infrastructure over the past 8 years.

Or maybe its the full frontal attack on our nation's constitution that has been a hallmark of the Bush-Cheney administration, turning our justice department into the a highly partisan vehicle for furthering a radical, extremist agenda.

Instead, how about the filling of government positions with cronies possessing nothing in the way of service experience or knowledge of the area of service ("Heckuva job, Brownie"), handing out no-bid government contracts to corporate friends, drafting national policies written by lobbyists and corporate shills.

COUNTRY FIRST
Or maybe its about union-busting and "free"-trade policies that cause the hemorrhaging of domestic jobs. Or dismantling regulation of the financial industry, so that creditors can sweet-talk the naive public into taking on risky loans that eventually cause the implosion of the housing market.


Could it be about handing big oil companies massive tax credits concurrent with their largest profits in history, while the price of gasoline reaches stratospheric levels? What about quashing efforts (and tax incentives) for developing new, clean, and renewable sources of energy? Is that it?

Maybe its just all about

SOCIALIZE THE RISKS, PRIVATIZE THE PROFITS (- Thomas Franks, "What's the Matter with Kansas")

Country first?

No, its all about CRONIES FIRST!