Entitlements. The truth and the heart of the election.

A lot of readers may get very angry at what I am about to discuss. Others will be confused by my ramblings. Mostly I think people will have the uncomfortable feeling that I'm right and I shouldn't be and it mustn't be true but is.

So here it is. Republicans believe entitlements are a scurge on our economy. A detriment to our work ethic. A budget-busting frivolity and a deficit-boosting evil.

A republican will say that entitlements drag us all down. They don't inspire us. They drain us as a society. They diminish the incentive to work hard and prosper. We must reduce, if not eliminate them for our Nation to once again rise to the top.



But for me entitlements are far more insidious in the Republican universe. And there's one entitlement they aren't discussing. The elephant in the room if you will. The entitlement that lies at the very heart of the anti-Obama sentiment. That pure, unadulterated hatred that we see across our nation for a man who clearly, by all the poll indicators, is considered a good man. A caring man. One who has all good intentions for our Country.

I call it the me-first entitlement.

Some of us remember it from the sixties. The reaction to Martin Luther King and a movement to provide basic equal rights for all. You'd think it's something that fundamentally makes so much sense who could disagree? Yet plenty of people did. Violently.

Deep down, look at the faces of those who display this raw hatred for Obama. They mask the emotion with distorted facts. These angry monotonous voices tell us Obama's plan is ruining our economy. He's a socialist they say. He's, OMG, a foreigner... he's not even American. He's not just Anti-American, he's Kenyan! Call out the National Guard! Scream it from the rooftops!

And when our President speaks they smirk and have nasty whispering contests in the hallowed halls of congress.

Entitlement. There's that elephant again. The root of all this visciousness.
That fundamental sense of Entitlement that is the very foundation of the American Dream. A dream that in reality is shared by all Americans. But as is the nature of humanity, it is a dream that is perversely albeit secretly considered the sole property of only a portion of our society. To be clear, this isn't about race, though it's part of it. It's about a society clearly delineated by money, ethnicity, religion and more. And the Entitlements due those who see themselves as more deserving than others.

Me-first.

President Barack Hussein Obama has dared to achieve the highest post in our land. He's dared to become a successful Husband and Father and Professor. He's educated. He's comfortable economically.  He has a beautiful smart wife and two beautiful little girls. He's achieved the pinnacle of the American Dream.

But our President isn't the stereotypical American is he. Therefore, he isn't entitled to the American Dream. At least not yet.

Entitlement. Mitt Romney proclaimed just the other day that "Noone has ever asked to see his birth certificate." Why not? Because he's a rich white American man entitled to run for President without being interrogated about his birth. Even though his father, like Obama's, was born elsewhere. Not to sound flippant, but you'd think that having a Mexican father would be a strike against Romney in this scenario. Except his father, they'll tell you, may have been born in Mexico but that doesn't make him Mexican. So does that mean Romney being born in the US doesn't make him American?

When the birth certificate proving Obama's birth in Hawaii was released, the first reaction by the Obama haters was quite simple. Proof that he wasn't American. Because of course he was born in Hawaii, not America. If there was any further need to argue for increased funding for education I would say this is a good one.

So it was revealed then that yes, Hawaii is a State and he is American. But hold on! Not so fast. While Hawaii is a State, it wasn't always. And perhaps those Islanders don't know how to keep proper records. I'm starting to sound like an idiot aren't I. But I'm just repeating what they say on Fox News... Only somehow when it's dressed up in a suit and tie and broadcast nationwide it starts to sound legitimate to those who are prone to believe.

So all you Obama haters proclaiming he caused the drought, the spike in unemployment, the deficit, and of course the lung cancer that killed your coal-mining grandfather... here's a few items to consider.

Remember in high school? Resenting the popular kids, but hanging around them anyway? And harboring a serious distaste for them if they were different? If they didn't represent all those things you wanted to be and realistically could be?

If Obama looked like Romney, would you question his birth?
Would you hate him with such venom?

You don't seem to hate Romney for having all those privileges you never did. You don't resent his wealth. You don't harbor any reservations about the fact that he stands on both sides of every issue.

You don't fault Paul Ryan for using entitlements to go to college. For creating a budget and having the House vote for it without EVER crunching the numbers to see what the impact would actually be. You don't criticize him for cosponsoring legislation that assigns degrees of severity to Rape. And then condemning his cosponsor for doing so.

And you certainly don't blame George Bush for two wars and a recession.

Entitlement. In the eyes of some Americans, Obama simply isn't entitled to be President. And the Romney Ryan twins are. Because when these particular Americans look at Romney and Ryan, their eyes play tricks on them. They see themselves. And that makes it ok.

So yes, I think this election is about entitlements. The me-first cause I'm a real American kind. And that, my friends, is the kind of entitlement we DO need to eliminate.






Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The evolving Brownie.

Funny thing about Funny Bones