Several years ago, I heard news of a man who had been witnessed stabbing his dog and throwing it into the Houston ship channel. But the dog did not die. Instead, it swam back to shore and, wagging its tail, returned to its master. Whereupon, the master stabbed the dog again--this time fatally--and threw it again into the channel. The newsman concluded that it was as if the dog had returned to the master, saying "I forgive you. I know you didn't mean what you did. I'll give you another chance."
Memories of this incident came back to me as I tried to justify Republican supporters in present-day American politics, and to assess the Republican Party's opinion and betrayal of average American voters,
During the eight years of the George W. Bush presidency, middle-class Americans and the working poor of all political persuasions were stabbed with frozen incomes, despite incomes rising for wealthy and well-to-do Americans. Before Obama even thought about being president, unfortunate Americans were being victimized by rising unemployment. The economic injuries inflicted by Bush's Great Recession took its toll on American workers, and Republicans had--and still have--no reasonable remedy to treat the wounds. Their solution is always not do whatever President Obama did or would like to do.
Americans of all political persuasions are hurting because of Republican wounds inflicted during those years. Still, many of these wounded Americans believe Republicans just made mistakes, that they are sorry for their deeds and will do not do it again. But Tigers don't shed their stripes, and they don't lose their appetite for deer, just because they failed to catch more than one during the last chase. The beast waits for another election day, the master, another chance to kill.
Enters, though, an intelligent young man who talked about the need for a united America, and a need for change to address the injuries an unregulated Wall Street had inflicted on America's workers. A Republican regulated Wall Street had stabbed the American economy and thrown it into the channel. Convincing themselves that Republicans and Wall Street, which they failed to regulate, were really not bad people, and that they did not mean to do any harm, the American people bailed out the banks and saved other businesses primed for collapse.
But Wall Street stabbed the American economy and American workers again by not hiring and not lending to businesses that would, thus throwing consumers into the channel of hopelessness.
Last November, the American consumer, of whom were already unemployed said with their votes or with the ballots they did not cast, we know you Republican did not mean to freeze our salaries during the Bush presidency. We forgive you for not knowing that the housing bubble would eventually burst, causing the values of our homes to decline. We forgive you for not knowing that if jobs were be lost at an accelerated rate, that eventually the unemployed would include people who needed a check or tow to finance their standard of living. We forgive you for not realizing that stagnant salaries and reduced incomes would render families unable to both save and to keep up with expenses. But we forgive you because we know you did not really mean us any harm.
Well, the forgiven party has shown its appreciation for the trust the American people have placed in them by stabbing them again by blocking every effort Democrats make to rescue them and treat their economic wounds.
Republicans are asking, again, for a chance to finish the kill, and many Americans still can't believe that Republicans would mistreat them. Not all Republicans are misguided. But most Republicans who are running and winning in recent elections seem to be of a different breed, motivated and financed by a kind of American that are alien to the promises of America.
Most people don't change in terms of how they vote. That loyalty has been mostly because the economic status of most people's did not change, no matter who represented them in government. And they were certain that the people in business and government were honest people who were busy looking after their best interests, not using unsavory ways to look out for their own.
But these times are different. The past ten years have affected Americans as never before. The 2000 election of George W. Bush could go down in history as ushering in the demise of the greatest, most compassionate and most influential military, financial and creative giant the world has ever known.
The pope reportedly issued a recent warning to the German people. Quoting the article: "The Pope spoke for 20 minutes in the Reichstag, which was torched in 1933 in an incident used by Hitler to strengthen his grip on power. 'We Germans know from our own experience' what happens when power is corrupted, Benedict said, desecrating Nazis as a highly organized band of robbers, capable of threatening the whole world and driving it to the edge of the abyss'. " The American people are in need of such a speech by the Pope. We think people who desire to be dictators are only in Germany or other countries, never are such people in the United States.
The Pope's scary words should remind Americans of the reasons they vote--or should vote. Serious thought must be given to which party members deserve a second chance.
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