Before I begin, let me preface by acknowledging that I am not very good at sharing. While opinion may be as easily had from me as a dime for the bus, and while some may insist that that opinion is certainly worth no more than that, yet I insist. I am not very good at sharing.
You will not find me lounging in some commune, ruminating on how best to either solve the current geopolitical crisis of the day nor escape the hours necessity of labor. I am just not that comfortable among the company of many, where the pride and possession of one may be had by all.
That is not who I am.
I come from a land that has, for well over a century, been governed by hardship; where the principle of American Exceptionalism is not some cheap bauble thrown to the mass of humanity out in the square, and so temper the growling in their stomach by heroic visions that will not feed their children. No I do not. Where I come from, American Exceptionalism has been nothing short of a necessity of survival.
While the whole of this nation quivered like some school girl giddy with anticipation as Manifest Destiny laid waste American homes, and American culture, of a people who were themselves, Exceptional, my people tightened their belts and made do, laughed at our selves and our plight, stoic and sanguine with the livelihood of what export we were allowed, that of rock, and of ice, and of men. The return on such investment is not easy to measure.
If such an assessment is to begin, then it must begin with the insight such experience must bring.
None of us are our brothers keeper, no more than our brother keeps us.
This is the wisdom of hardship and of survival.
And so I say that both the conservative ideology of today, and the party that holds it forth as a virtue, must vanish. They do not contribute to the survival of their neighbor any more than they do to the interests of this land, this nation, this people of Exception.
On the contrary, they do it great harm. What is more, this can be shown to be true throughout history.
An Gorta Mor - the Great Hunger that swept Ireland and reduced the Irish population by over one third, turned from a dire calamity into outright disaster, and it did so on the basis of conservative ideology.
As the Irish potato crop failed, English landed gentry realized tremendous profit. Rather than accept the reality that the fruit of their field was insufficient to sustain the people of Ireland, they engaged in protectionist legislation on imports from America and so preserved their harvest of excess. This in turn nearly brought about revolution, and an end of the crown.
Over one million Irish, men, women, and children, died, from starvation and disease. This was the cost of conservative ideology in Britain, circa 1850. This is conservative excess, drenched in the blood of their neighbor.
The modern conservative of today is little different, and completely unable to grasp the necessities before us, nor truly understand where their own self interest does lie. They bring as much peril upon their own heads as they do any of the rest of us, and would have us believe that indeed, no such peril even exists.
While the forces of al Qaeda arrayed against us, and drew blood, a cost of American lives, their chief obsession remained with steadfast and obstinate insistence, upon the issue of a single blue dress. These men are not patriots.
We have lost two precious decades as the ice caps retreat. Only now do they begin to curb the flow of wealth propping up their delusion.
The conservative ideologue and repelican psycophants are most clearly finished in America. I await their sudden and clamorous epiphany with eager anticipation.
D. Winter
September 3, 2012
IF you haven't heard, the conservatives have already begun their internal feeding frenzy. QUOTE: You know that the conservative movement has gone over edge when even a conservative guru like Grover Norquist isn’t safe.
Pull up a chair I say. Grab some popcorn.
This is going to get interesting.
David Winter is a poet, political hacktivist, and supporter of the 99%; currently engaged in a vicious occupation of the political center.