When the United States was Great!

The same people running around screaming about how the U.S. is the greatest country on Earth also think the country has been ruined and needs to return to its former glory. You can come from a place of logic to support both stances at the same time, but I still find the dichotomy humorous. We are one of the most free peoples, with more opportunity to shape our path forward than any other citizenry in the world. That alone makes the U.S. one of, if not the greatest nation(s) on Earth. Meanwhile, we’re in debt, class inequality is at its peak, and our government has devolved into a body full of nitwits and grifters. I place most of those nitwits and grifters on the right, but not all, and we would not have reached this place without at least some level of complicity from the left.

Anyway, back to the chuckleheads screaming about returning the U.S. to its former glory. My favorite part of their drooling caterwauling is the reality of this nation’s former “glory.” Most of us who live in reality recognize the painful history of this nation for anyone who isn’t Caucasian. But, let’s pretend for a moment that the “return to glory” folks aren’t really just screaming for total white supremacy. Let’s pretend they’re simply talking about plenty of jobs with fair wages, good schools, a healthy middle class, and a country that wasn’t trillions of dollars in debt. Let’s pretend they want all of these things for all people, not just the whites. Let’s pretend racism and bigotry are removed from the “Great Again” equation. Agreed? Good.

So here’s the punchline: These dipshits keep voting for politicians that have zero intention of returning this country to its former glory. We need to tax the rich, but these dipshits hate taxes. We need universal healthcare but these dipshits vote for capitalist grifters who want to privatize everything. We need better public schools, but instead, again, these knuckleheads vote for people trying to privatize education as well. Every time they scream about returning the U.S. to its former glory, they are screaming for a bygone era that can only be recreated with policies that only the Democrats would try to enact (in this current era of politics), while going to the polls and voting for Republicans. They are screaming for an era where anti-trust laws prevented companies like Amazon from undercutting manufacturers, the wealthiest in the nation were aggressively taxed so we could afford healthy public services like schools, and CEOs weren’t making 500 times the amount of money that workers were. I digress.

This country is insane. Humanity is insane.

Tax the rich. Repeal Citizens United. Institute Universal Healthcare.

Never mind. None of those things will help climate change.

Mother Nature is coming for us, and she is one righteous bitch.