A slow news day

This has been a slow news day so far, so I thought I'd regale you with the story of the catastrophic terror I've lived with daily since the Republican Revolution of the '90s.

Over a decade ago, I was a university student who had what was by today's standards a pretty good job, especially for a student. I had run-ins for years with the school system (and the idiot bullies that it mollycoddles), but this had become a relatively minor obstacle to the bright future I seemed to have. I worked hard and felt as if I was entitled to a future thanks to my relentless toil.

Without warning, it came crashing down following 1994. Sixty years of progress to improve the lives of the people was reduced to a pile of dust. I didn't consent to this destruction, and I knew very few who did. (This was in suburban Cincinnati, the heart of the conservative experiment, no less!) My family, my personal acquaintances, and I were left scratching their heads in shock over this political event. (It's hard to claim the Republicans were the party of reform, because they'd held the presidency for 12 of the previous 14 years and impeded progress the whole time.) I knew the election results were phony. This was confirmed in 1995 when a Democratic candidate for statewide office in Kentucky reportedly received zero votes in one precinct in Highland Heights. I was told this was my precinct - so it would have been impossible for him to get zero votes, because I voted for him! Officials breezily dismissed this, saying elections were supposed to be just a sample and not an exact count. Seriously, they said that.

My livelihood and college career were subsequently destroyed by the conservative revolution. I begged, I pleaded, I knelt on my sore knees for anyone, anywhere to help me get back where I was - but I was told time and time again my misfortunes were my fault and my fault alone. I was told the system wasn't here to help me - even after it hurt me. It was just here to help the big corporations who drove the little people out of business and slashed workforces. I got called lazy for daring to expect to get what I had worked so hard for.

I for one have never viewed the government after this time as legitimate, because elections were just so obviously fixed (more so by media bias than by outright rigging), but that's not the point. Almost daily since then, a deep rage has bubbled up that causes me to completely lose control of my thoughts and faculties for up to an hour at a time. I set aside this boiling anger from time to time, but even when I'm doing my favorite activities it surfaces.

During the 2000 campaign, I learned the hard way (from the activities of his thuggish followers) what life would be like if Bush was allowed to seize power. I knew it would be really bad - and I was proven right. As for myself, in the early part of the current decade, there were days when I literally could not get out of bed. Everything I touched turned to shit. Now people encourage me to bike around town and post more photos of highway features, but I don't do it more than about 10 times a year because I know of my own rage that looms.

These days I keep my head just above water, but it's not without a lot of frustration and shame. But one of these days I know I will be S-C-R-E-W-E-D! I live daily in fear of the actions of the U.S. government. At the very least, I won't be able to get help when I need it the most - even though I think I've worked for it. And then I will be laughed at and called lazy again. They call that "compassionate conservatism." It's an ideology that destroyed my life.

But there's hope! Today's sad political climate is kind of like a grade school bully. You know, the types who shut up for good once somebody clocked them squarely in the nose. For years, the Far Right's bullying has generally worsened. What has to happen to the Republicans is the figurative equivalent of getting clocked in the nose. I'm not saying to literally walk up to a Republican and bop them in the snoot. What I mean by that is that the opposition has to have a political leader or commentator who has the ability to just tell it like it is and tell it succinctly in words everyone can understand, and who has a big enough audience that people will hear them. Their message has to be this: Today's conservative leaders are simply not good people. Look at their policies and their results. If you don't believe this, look at the facts.

I think if someone on our side with a large audience lays it on the line and puts the facts forward in clear language, I don't think we'll have nearly as many problems from the right-wing elite for quite some time. Not only that, but I think you'll see some of their loopier policies of recent years start to come undone. All of this can happen within a democratic framework.

The bottom has to drop out eventually. A warped ideology just can't stay in power forever. Every bad dynasty has always had its day. Sometimes it takes a long time coming, but it always happens. And there will be tears of joy when it does.