By Brian McKay
This week progressive groups are coming together in Washington to protest the loss of voter rights and demand campaign finance reform. They are mad and willing to block entrances to Congress and spend a little bit of time in jail for it. The progressives gathered there this week are taking a position against the political culture of ME, that is destroying American democracy.
Meanwhile, Republican dominated states continue to push so-called religious freedom laws (at least until large companies threaten to pull out) and further voter restrictions. The nomination processes on both the Republican and Democrat sides, have shown more this year than ever that they are a total sham.
Let's also not forget that it was revealed this week that Ted Cruz once argued against dildos by saying that the government has a genuine interest in “discouraging...autonomous sex” while serving as Solicitor General of Texas and arguing for a state law that banned sex toys. His brief went even further by stating, "There is no substantive-due-process right to stimulate one's genitals for non-medical purposes unrelated to procreation or outside of an interpersonal relationship." Too funny that Ted’s roommate confirmed that he had no problem stimulating himself in college.
So what all does this equal up too? Well… There is voter suppression, plutocracy, theocracy, non-democratic nomination processes and total hypocrisy, all at play. Lovely. It all comes from a political culture of ME above all.
Maybe the greatest problem is that the theme here shows the American political process represents those who want it to be all about them. In fact, they want it so bad that they are willing to jeopardize democracy and reveal their own hypocrisy in order to get it.
Voter ID laws have been put into place under the guise of preventing voter fraud, yet no substantive proof of such fraud has even been found. The laws are simply a way to disenfranchise poor, black voters by the Republican Party.
New restrictions on early voting and absentee ballots are also serving the same purpose. These laws prevent democracy in order to maintain one party's place in the power structure. In Florida, Sunday early voting was eliminated as it was the common practice for black congregations to be bussed to polling places in order to vote together after church. The law was solely aimed at one segment and it just so happened to be a minority population that routinely votes Democrat.
To say that both voter ID laws and restrictions on voting times and days, are ME laws might even be an understatement. They are justifications for one group to vote while another is denied with the worst part being that the laws are inherently racist in their intent and implementation.
Campaign finance reform needs implementation to really combat the political culture of ME, with me being the billionaires that now own the system. Their reaffirmation of the ego isn't just in what they can, buy but in who they own to further stack the game in favor of their companies, shareholders and friends they see at charity / be seen events. They might be the biggest ME’s around until we start giving more and more rights to corporations under laws that allow them to be ME’s too.
Religious freedom laws have nothing to do with freedom unless denying it to others is your definition of it. These reaffirm the culture of ME inherent in the political process by allowing groups to say, “My Christianity is above whatever you've got going on over there.” They are essentially the attempt to create a de facto state religion in a country implemented with the intent of never having such a thing.
So what about this whole nomination thing? Well it is a bunch of mini delegate ME’s that somehow portray for a while that they are a part of the democratic process and then revert back to ME as they wish. Apparently, some are called Super Delegates (Super ME’s?) and are as ME as they can be. Yes, it is all ME and no you in this whole thing. You might think your vote or participation actually matters in the nomination process, but as we watch two parties having very tight and hard fought nomination races, we see more and more than the only people that matter are the ME’s in the process.
And Ted Cruz? Well he just reeks of ME. Sanctimony usually does. The fact that he feels God has inspired him to run is ME enough already. Add in the hypocrisy of archaic sexual positions often associated with the Inquisition, and it is off the charts ME. It is usually the sanctimonious religious person that has the most repressed sexuality and is most likely to violate the tenants they believe in. Is it just me or does that D.C. Madam list that isn't being released, probably have a link to Mr. Cruz? I wouldn't doubt it from a super ME.
Of course, we all know about the other super ME in this race. No further discussion is warranted as his MEness is on display daily.
This isn’t to say the other party doesn’t have ME’s too. They do. That they currently have a candidate for president that isn’t a ME and is instead about the WE’s, is almost unprecedented in modern politics regardless of party.
The whole of Congress has been for the ME’s for decades now. Why bother actually doing something for WE’s, when the goal is to raise money, get re-elected and someday move on to an extremely lucrative lobbyist job. Shit, why do anything at all if that is your whole ME purpose? ME’s explain the fact that the only thing Congress is good at producing is Obamacare repeal votes.
The ME party has done any better in the statehouses it controls. There is no greater complete ME stupidity than refusing to accept Medicare money from the Federal Government to offer medical coverage to your poorest residents. That is about as assholish ME as is possible.
ME’s are destroying us. Somehow many of us came into this theory that anything that is about YOU is bad and that about ME creates value. If we just deregulate, lower taxes for the rich ME’s, let the corporations be ME’s, everything will just be perfect. It is only the ME’s that create value right?
Hmm… it seems that philosophy works really well if you are already a ME. Asking the non-ME’s might produce a different story. It seems us WE’s have seen our wages drop, retirements compromised and cost of living increased. WE’s have seen our work hours go up, our expected productivity increase, quality of life go down and massive increases in our health care and education costs. If the ME’s are supposed to benefit the WE’s, well where is it? It seems it hasn’t shown up in 35 years.
I hope the Democracy Spring group protesting in Washington D.C. this week make an impact. So far it seems that they have mostly been ignored. The media ME’s have Donald Trump to focus on instead.
Democracy is a WE concept. That some perverted it to an extreme ME system, is a travesty. Well guess what? The WE’s are finally fucking mad and we are dangerous while swinging those dildos around.
Brian McKay is a co-founder of zenruption. He a has few degrees and some other shit, but more importantly, he is a pissed off WE. It is time to take it back for the many. His passion level is occasionally known to spike after a few good IPA’s. This might explain why he is still single.
Feature photo courtesy of Vovatia, under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license