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THE COWARDICE OF THE CONSERVATIVE ELITE by Tony Trupiano Posted on December 9, 2012
December 7, 2012, at least in Michigan, is a day that will live in infamy.
In the almost two decades I have been a talk radio show host there are certain days that are permanently etched in my memory. Obviously September 11, 2001 has profound remembrance and significance for all of us. I was also in West Palm Beach Florida when Bush v Gore took us on a journey that will forever mark the change in the democratic and electoral process and was the beginning of a profound and highly partisan Supreme Court decision to hand the presidency to someone who clearly did not win it.
And now for those of us who live in Michigan, December 7, 2012 will forever be imprinted as a day that political insanity marked itself forever in an indelible way that few will not only never be able to forget but it will also mark a new era in political absurdities.
The amazingly sad truth is, the cowards of the conservative elite won a battle that is disrespectful to democracy and an assault on logic and reason. What this Right to Work battle underscores in profound ways is the manifestation of the egregious Citizens United Supreme Court case that is eroding the democratic process and ruining and barring access to truth and rightful rule of the people. What happened on Friday, December 7, 2012 is a hideous reminder that the people’s voice is no longer a tool used to measure what is right and just for a society of so-called equals. Clearly and starkly, the machinery that we call democracy is now built with only dollars by those who have such disgusting wealth that in their pursuit to win, at any cost, they selflessly and sinfully have bought control and power for their own good and to increase not only their wealth but their influence over those who have taken an oath of office to serve and protect our Constitution who have done anything but. The cowardly conservative elite this morning are salivating and gleefully celebrating the destruction of the middle class and all at once stood for. They have broken their oath and should be relieved of their duties for usurping their Constitutional obligations to serve only those who can purchase their loyalty. Am I wrong? Prove it!
I have built a career on being honest and to try to put some happy spin on what is clearly a very dark day in Michigan’s history would be disingenuous and an absolute lie; I owe you the truth, or at least my take on the truth, and here it is:
Over the last 23 months the mainstream media in a wholly unprofessional and unorthodox way have painted Rick Snyder as some kind of moderate, political novice, whose business acumen and ideology were somehow a magical elixir that when coupled with the proper ingredients and with his outsider’s perspective of what state government have anointed him as some kind of wunderkind whose vision and administrative prowess was some kind of brilliance that would lift us from a decade of difficulties and put us on a righteous path to success that would be both uncommon and profound. The promises of legislation, combined with an all Republican House and Senate, mixed with a Republican Secretary of State, a Republican Atty. Gen., and a Republican leaning Supreme Court, was set to right every wrong that was ever committed by every other governor whoever served this great state. It certainly doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the media not only got this absolutely wrong but because of their insistence on changing the rules of journalism by using opinion as fact they backed themselves into a corner that they cannot get out of and save face. May they burn in hell for the injustice that they held up as progress. As many of us already know, what this current legislature has done to us, to all of us, is a miscarriage of democracy and is immoral at its core.
I could fill dozens of pages of analysis of legislation that has shown nothing but disrespect to public sector employees, to the very tenants of common rule, and to the fine men and women, both white-collar and blue-collar and no collar, who have done nothing but show up for work every day, practice excellence workmanship, show loyalty and pride in their accomplishments, only to be treated with disrespect and disgust. It is clear that the coward conservative elite serve only one master and that one master writes a check of any size to solve whatever the problems they believe will remove every layer or obstruction that gets in the way of the wealthiest getting wealthier. Am I wrong? Prove it!
Recent studies prove that the wealthy get wealthier, the middle class is shrinking and those living in poverty are growing at disgustingly large numbers. The only safety net that we have had, not only in Michigan but in most of the country, has been organized labor and their courage and fortitude to lead. Even organize labor, in spite of the myths perpetuated by the coward conservative elite, have understood and accepted the realities of our financial meltdown that was created by the minds and hands of George W. Bush and the cowardly conservative elite that surrounded him both inside and outside the Beltway. To pretend anything else to be true is to ignore fact and the reality that since Ronald Reagan this country has been on a downwards spiral that is so out of control that the only way out is to fight through civil disobedience with every ounce of energy we possess from this day moving forward. If you believe that this is some kind of dramatic overreaction to one simple law not only have you not been paying attention but you are ignorant to the realities of what happens when the citizenry stops paying attention, becomes apathetic, and believes that there is some common good among politicos who only serve their corporate masters and the power they crave. It would be wrong of me to say that it’s only Republicans that exhibit this behavior as that would be a lie as well. It’s just that the Republicans are far less concerned about how they are perceived because their money buys them name recognition and annihilates fine men and women who challenge them in elections but do not have the financial wherewithal to wear them down. This is a sad truth of our political system which is why our voices, raising up, must be a tool that cannot be exhausted.
It as much as I believe in you, and in is much as I know that if we were to mount a massively sustained set of demonstrations that the collective voices that must now come together must understand that there cannot and will not be any rest until we have exhausted every opportunity and accomplished every goal we have set out to win. But we need to be mindful that we are not trying to win just for winnings sake but we are fighting for our rights and to reestablish our constitutional position as equals under the law and to empower the next generation of leaders to begin to think, act, and fight for the human rights and for dignity of all people in a society that is still marked with racism, homophobic attitudes, and misogynistic beliefs that continue to drag us by our hair back too many decades. It is our collective voices that will finally and firmly draw that proverbial line in the sand and our message should be clear, loud, and definitive: we want our country back!
On Tuesday there will be thousands of fine men and women from around the country that will gather in protest to draconian Right to Work legislation that is clearly not the will of the vast majority of voters in the state of Michigan. Our Republican-led legislature, bought and paid for by the Koch brothers the DeVos family and many other wealthy businessmen and women, will not be swayed by the same people who elected them and to represent what they want. The Republican legislators in Michigan have nothing but disdain and disrespect for the very people who elected them. I’m still wondering why, with great interest, when the disgusted people who voted for these asshats will finally allow reality to infiltrate the minds of the majority who continue to believe that their one voice does not matter. I guess at some level then, the Republicans have won in that regard, and they have convinced all too many people that one voice is too small to matter. By the way, that’s bullshit.
So where we go from here is really very much about not giving up for giving in. If you believe what is being written, Right to Work will pass on Tuesday and the governor will sign it some time soon after that. There are many battles ahead and this is a war that will take many months to win. What is absolutely mandatory is that we do not concede to the bastards who believe that they have won and that by turning back the hands of time six decades that it is somehow what is best and right for the state. As we all clearly know, unless and until we completely commit ourselves to showing up everywhere they do; every coffee hour, every town hall meeting, every legislative session, anywhere we need to be, to remind them each and every time we open our mouths that by their own deed they have mandated that as a result of their actions they are insulting and the degradation of the very people they serve that their actions have severe consequences and whether through recall or election their days are numbered and they MUST not know peace.
We must be committed to this and we must not rest until we have undone the sins that the coward conservative elite have perpetrated upon the good people of Michigan. Please stand with me, learn with me, speak with me, and fight with me, so that our children our grandchildren and their children will remember this generation as one that relentlessly pursued the rule of democracy in re-enshrine in history the idea that all people were created equal and that we actually found a way to win that fight.
Who’s with me?