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The Chickens Always
Come Home
March 14,
2001
by Jerry Fees
The only benefit that readily comes to mind resulting from
the tentative control the GOP has over all three branches
of government is the reality that the conservatives are now
forced to try and actually govern. No longer is it possible
for them to simply talk the talk. Now they must also walk
the walk. For those of us who have spent the last twenty years
listening to the conservatives preach their "do as I say not
as I do" philosophy, there is a silver lining to the black
clouds of frustration and despair that hang over our heads.
The conservatives, much to my personal joy, have to put their
money where their collective mouths have been. It's no longer
enough for them to hide behind vague patriotic slogans and
buzz words. The time has come when they must enact their own
agenda, their vision of government, and in so doing open themselves
up to inspection and critique. Their actions, not just words,
will speak for them now. As my Granny Rohrscheib taught me
when I was just a youngster, every action has its consequence,
or as she put it "the chickens always come home to roost."
His Fraudulency is not the least bit bashful about ramming
his pro-business agenda down our throats, as if he actually
had a mandate to do so, and his Republican toadies are walking
lockstep with him in his effort. Anti-worker, anti-choice,
anti-common sense measures are the order of the day in these
first months of the occupation. The Bushies are on a roll
and are most gleeful in their early successes. It's my observation
that they're in one of those "we can do no wrong" mindsets
and that all is possible for them.
With that in mind, I was reading op-ed pieces the other day
and I came across a piece by David Limbaugh entitled "The
GOP and race revisited." Normally anything that has the name
Limbaugh attached to it sends me running to the nearest vomitorium
but David was a name I was not familiar with and anything
that has to do with the GOP and race relations is good for
some entertainment so I gave it a read.
Suffice to say that Mr. Limbaugh, the lesser known, did not
let me down. He concludes that because the GOP is pushing
vouchers and His Fraudulency has paid lip service to the notion
that racial profiling is a "bad thing" that there exists hope
for the Republicans and the African-American vote in the future.
Let me start by saying that it's possible he's right. I'm
German-Irish and would not presume to be able to speak for
the African-American community concerning what they will or
won't do. They are clearly able to speak for themselves as
we've seen with the Congressional Black Caucus voicing their
rage over the election of 2000. I would think from my observations
that African-Americans would have plenty of reason to be pissed
at the Democrats for our lack of support in standing up with
them in Congress as they attempted to stop their votes from
being stolen. In this time of gutless inaction in Congress,
the CBC has been an outpost of sanity and confrontation. My
hope is that eventually the leadership and members of the
entire Democratic Caucus will get out from under the desks
they've been cowering under and fight back alongside the CBC.
I can, however, observe the ludicrous nature of Mr. Limbaugh's
rationale that vouchers and lip service by The Usurper are
enough to override the effects that the actual legislation
the GOP passes will have on "the average Joe" and minorities
in particular.
I won't even go into the election. The outrage the CBC has
voiced over it speaks for itself. How Mr. Limbaugh and the
GOP figure to get around that one is beyond me. I would guess
that in their current delusional state they must figure that
either the majority of African-Americans don't agree with
their leadership that what happened in Florida was a travesty
of historical proportions or that come election time in 2002
and 2004 it will all be water under the bridge. Either way,
I say good luck to you and yours Mr. Limbaugh. I'm pretty
sure that you'll need it.
One need not go any further than the tax cut (although you
know I will) to find plenty of reason for the average voter,
and minorities in particular, to run fleeing from the GOP
at the next election. The numbers have been beaten to death
and there is no sense in my rehashing them here, other than
to return to my original point and say that when all is said
and done and our taxes are figured in the upcoming years,
the proof will be in our returns. The little guy, for all
the Republican talk, is going to take a beating in this deal
as we did twenty years ago when we tried this half-baked scheme
the first time. We are going to end up with nickels in tax
relief and the fat cats are going to chortle all the way to
the bank. African-Americans are just as smart and observant
as the rest of us and they'll be able to see the inequity
in Bush's scheme to pay back his rich supporters. You would
think we'd get used to this and perhaps we have. I find it
hardest to believe the support the GOP gets from the average
man that voted for Bush in the first place. I will never understand
the "why" of that vote. It's like standing on a street corner
and smiling while a clumsy thief picks your pocket.
The Usurper says that racial profiling is a "bad thing".
That's good Georgie. I've always said he has a real knack
for grasping the obvious. The next thing you know he's going
to tell us he's for "good government". He's directed his legions
in Congress to look into it and at last they will. Is the
incarceration rate plaguing young black men a good or bad
thing Mr. Obvious? Shouldn't we look into that as well? This
is the same Republican Congress that's been in power for the
last six years and sat on their hands when it came to racial
profiling and inequitable incarceration, or am I missing something?
I ask you, is racial profiling the result of a liberal mindset
or that of a conservative mindset? The "War on Drugs", is
it liberal or conservative? Mandatory sentencing, liberal
or conservative? I sometimes wonder if anybody ever explained
to these guys that they shouldn't take their own press too
seriously. They've gone around for far too long, beating their
chests, telling everyone that would listen what a moral, caring
bunch they are and now it appears they've actually begun to
believe it.
African-Americans, Republican polling would tell us, support
vouchers. If I and my family were trapped in the inner city
with no way out, I'd support anything that offered my children
a better education and a chance to succeed. Many of the schools
that minority children attend are pitiful and taking away
tax money from them to support private schools is not going
to improve them. Ask the parents of the children who attend
these schools if they'd rather have well paid local teachers
working in well funded, well equipped neighborhood schools
that are safe and secure institutions of learning, as opposed
to vouchers, and see what answer you get.
I think that Mr. Obvious and the conservatives can say whatever
they want and for the time being they can even wallow in their
delusions of glory and inclusion, but in the long run they
won't be able to hide who they are and what they believe.
The GOP is the party of the wealthy, the party of business
first and the little man last, if at all. So please, all my
conservative friends, call me a "class warrior" if you like,
for this is a title I will wear with great pride. Someone
has to stand up for the little guy, no matter what color he
is, and I'll bet you a nice lunch it won't be the Republicans.
Their beliefs, policies and the resulting legislation will
inevitably unmask them. They can't hide who they are no matter
how they spin it. Just give them some time and enough rope
and they'll eventually figure out what to do with it.
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