Why Do they Do It?

When the United States lost the Olympics Games final, a whole batch of right-wing types started cheering because as one so inelegantly put it: "The ego had landed. In Flames."

Now anybody who thinks that the first time the United States sends a head of state/government was going to make a lot of difference truly needs to get an update on the process. But you can't blame the Rabid Right. They don't pay much attention to anything that doesn't involve steroids or cars that corner only one direction. As one ESPN talking head said the other day, "The Olympics is a great opportunity for me. I can let my wife watch all those weird sports and I can get caught up on NFL archive videos."

So, one can understand the Republic Party leaders (Steele, Limbaugh, Beck, et al.) cheering when the United States loses (or when anything else goes badly for us) because it gives them a chance to dream up more "interesting speculation" about why their President deserves to have everything (the country, the economy, national security, that sort of trivia) in ruins about him so he will learn his place. But why they see fit to disparage him when he is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize borders on the incomprehensible.

The neo-con attack dogs got in first, demonstrating their lack of knowledge about the Prize and equating it with the kind of quid-pro-quo system used to run the previous Administration/Congress -- please a lobbyist, get a cash prize. Then somebody noticed that the presumed leadership of the Republic Party were sounding like whiners. So those who have hopes for a longer career and realize that the Dittoheads and the Beckians do not constitute a winning number outside of the Old Confederacy have taken their grandmothers' advice, and are saying nothing at all.

The numbers of voices from the Right who are able to swallow the truth of the matter -- that this Prize not only reflects credit upon the President, it reflects credit upon the entire nation -- and have tendered their congratulations (to a varying level of civility) should have been higher. But at least it makes the negatives and the "present, not commenting" inputs look nearly as childish as they are.

These people claim to love America. They should be cheering. For the third time, the sitting President has been awarded what is, arguably, one of the highest honors in the world. So why is it that they are, at best, grudging, and, in the main, negative?

I truly wish their obvious ignorance of the criteria and process of this Prize could be an excuse. It is not. Possibly their pique over the absence of Ronald Reagan, Dick Cheney, or Sarah Palin from the list of honorees could excuse some of the vitriol. But the Republic Party does not honor the idea of world peace, or even reducing the level of warfare and crisis in the world. So that's not it.

I come to the reluctant conclusion that (paraphrasing one of my favorite films) that these people do NOT love this country. How could they, when they clearly hate the majority of their fellow citizens? How could they, when they treat the phrase "The United States of America" as a plural? ("The United States are going to ....) We settled that in the 19th Century (The United States is going to ........).

Apparently, the politics of fear and division cannot thrive in a truly united nation, so they must divide us, and seek to destroy anything that unites us. It puts them in power every time the nation gets scared enough to want to want to turn everything over to "the best people" and avoid the work and sacrifice that demonstrate the values we claim to possess. So keeping the Republic on the edge of disaster while the ruling classes line their off-shore bank accounts is in their interests, even it is clearly NOT in the interests of the people. But who cares about the people? Take their taxes, send them off to wars, keep a decent education just out of their children's reach, and tell them who to blame for everything they think they are being denied. Keep the taxes low for "the Best People", let their families avoid all but token participation in the defense of the nation, give their children the best education money can buy.

In 20 of the past 28 years, the gap between rich and poor has increased. Education has declined to the point where the 1980 7th grade reading level is not the 12th grade level. Not one area of the economy that has been "deregulated" operates as well as it did when there were regulations to protect consumers and workers. A decreasing percentage of the population holds an increasing percentage of the nation's wealth. How can any political entity claim to love the country and support its destruction?