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Flying on one Wing

We have two political parties.
You might think one would be on the left
and the other on the right, as such things are measured.
One liberal, one conservative.

That isn't the case.

The Republicans are on the far right,
with their Tea Party members pulling them
out to where the right becomes divine right.

The Democrats have been pulled right, too.
We have only one socialist member of Congress--
Bernie Sanders of Vermont.  The most liberal
Democrat is over there where the Republicans used to be,
and some of them are righter than rain and the Pope.

We can't even call socialized medicine, "socialized medicine".
We have to call it, "a single payer system".
We dare not admit that public education is socialistic,
that police and fire and military are governmental.
We say they are "public", as in "vs. private".
We aren't even sure we ought to have public education.
There are efforts to "privatize" schools, social security,
retirement plans, fire departments (If you don't pay for
the insurance, let the house burn down!).

Republican love to talk about meeting Democrats
"in the middle", by which they mean halfway between
Mitch McConnell and their Tea Party members.

The major reason for this skew to the far right,
in recent decades, seems to be a leftover fear of communism.
We have one socialist.  The last communist was sighted
rowing an inner tube out to Cuba, in 1959.

Add to that ludicrous fear a distrust of government,
a distant memory of the lawless west, with posses and
Wells Fargo stages and Marshal Dillon and John Wayne,
and you have a country that will not be able to talk sensibly
about a public school system, or universal health care,
about providing a safe and secure retirement, and that is not
even sure that a public freeway system is better than
a privately owned toll road.  And who needs a postal system?

Taxes become something to hate, not a way of doing things.
Public parks become a burden.  Mercenaries replace
a military draft.  Blackwater becomes our army.

And the aim becomes to cripple our own government. 

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