Just some kid from the Chicago suburbs that moved to the southwest, went to law school, and ended up confronted with shifting ideals. My thoughts...boring and unedited.

Friday, February 25, 2011

midwestern pride and the government turns around a failed business...

I've been away for a decade now...and maybe that is why I can finally appreciate it in a way that might have been impossible in my younger days...either way, I've been pretty damn proud of certain midwestern segments in the last week. following the events unfolding in Wisconsin, it is difficult not to beam a little at the corn-fed masses occupying the state capital with a simple message to republican brotherhood of insanity - "Step Off My Dick!" I know that in the future, when the republicans are inevitably tossed out of office for treating public service like their own personal ATM and declaring "let them eat cake" they will use the door opened by midwestern democrats and run for the hills anytime any sensible legislation comes up (after all, they showed a severe lack of shame in abusing the filibuster without even having the balls to actually stand up and talk for days on end), but damn it is nice that for once in my lifetime the democrats put their money where their mouth was rather than roll over at the use of "deficit." it was the right thing to do and I hope they enjoy their stay in my home state, knowing that they are welcome as long as it takes.

and it is nice to see good sensible hard-working people stand up for themselves and what is right. because let's face it, if we are being honest with ourselves we have to admit a simple truth, no matter how much we joke about government workers, those jobs suck...and they pay shit for a job none of you want anyways. but they are absolutely necessary for us to have any semblence of the life we have, so we need someone to do them, we need to get some poor saps into those jobs. and how did we do it? we told them "ok, you aren't ever going to get rich because we aren't going to pay you enough for what you do and your importance to our society, and we are going to completely shit on you whenever we get a chance because you are such an easy target...but in return, we promise a few simple things - health care and a retirement." that is basically it. that is all they get. health care and a retirement. only we handed their health care and their retirements to a few big whigs on wall street...who then took whatever they could and are laughing at them from overhead in their corporate jets. so we failed on our end of the bargain, and now we want them to bend over for us? if I were in their shoes I'd be in the capital telling the legislators and governor to go fuck themselves too.

another thing, I was getting pretty damn sick of our collective historical amnesia of how unionism built this country and took it from the dark ages through the most universally prosperous decades the world may ever see. how did unions become a bad thing? got kids? like that they aren't working in a sweat shop sticking their tiny fingers into dangerous machinery? thank a union. like that you actually have weekends off? thank a union. enjoy getting a short break every few hours and some time to eat lunch? thank a union. like the idea of retiring someday without being homeless and hungry? thank a union. like social security? thank a union. employer supported healthcare? thank a union. medicare and medicaid? thank a union. the 40 hour work week? thank a union. vacations and holidays with your family? thank a union. your neighborhood? thank a union. your house? thank a union. your car? thank a union. not living in third world conditions? thank a union. like america? thank a union.

on a somewhat related note (i.e. bullshit conservative mantras proven wrong), GM made a lot of money last year...first time in quite a while. as a result, regular old factory joes and janes will get profit sharing checks worth a month or more of regular pay. republican leadership just asks that you please ignore the fact that this amazing tournaround happened while (gasp) the federal government has a 61% stake in the company. because we all know the federal government can't do anything right, that it is totally incapable of running anything and that high paid CEOs inevitably will do better on their own. except those same high paid CEOs ran GM into the ground. it was a failed company. the private sector blew it. under the guidance of the federal government, GM has returned to a global auto powerhouse. but yea, ignore the man behind the curtain.

just punch the clock...

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