Free-market right-wingers say that short-term handouts create a culture of dependency, that what is needed is a long-term solution: lower taxes and regulations for business, which will create increased prosperity. In the long term, however, we are all dead.
Assuming That It Works
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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There are a very, very few people, like Whimsical, who will be voting for Obama. For that matter, there are a very, very few people who will be voting for Romney. About half the voters will be voting against Obama, and about half will be voting against Romney.
The New York Times says Obama will win the popular vote, but might lose the election. Rasmussen says Romney will win the popular vote, but might lose the election. Romney so annoyed many rightists and evangelicals that they’ll sit home rather than vote for him. Obama so annoyed many leftists that they’ll sit home rather than vote for him.
And those who are anti-war have to decide if it’s better to spend trillions sending ground troops in to violate harems and shoot goatherds, women, and children, or is it better to just use drones to kill off the goatherds and their wives and children for the bargain price of just a few billions?
Jesus said it was just as bad to lust after a woman as to rape her, and just as bad to hate someone as to kill him. But not everyone agrees. Maybe lusting after a woman and taking matters into one’s own hands isn’t really as bad as raping her, and maybe hating someone isn’t really as bad as actually killing him?
So maybe killing goatherds and their families as cheaply as possible isn’t as bad as squandering trillions of dollars and many US service-persons’ lives (after sending them in without armor) and trillions of dollars to achieve the same result?
Or maybe Jesus was right, and it’s just as wrong to kill goatherd families with drones as it is with infantry. But such a position would be ruled atheistic and in violation of the Constitution were it presented to the US President, Congress, or SCOTUS.
My favorite format!
When we start bombing Iran, every cartoon should be this format until we are out.
After all, There are more important things than originality.
These gave me a strong sense of deja vu. It took a couple days, but I figured it out.
It’s just like religion. The priests and bishops live in luxury and comfort, the peasants toil in the fields.
One group gets its reward now, the other group has to wait.
If I switch to the Republican Party, do I get tax-free status as a member of a religious order?
Any possible thread of truth to the existence of the reich wing’s “culture of dependency” obsession is directly caused by (and is employed to camouflage) its own culture of “humans are merely disposable operatives in our profit machine.”
@michael
A clarification- I am not voting “for” Obama. I am voting for what is best for the country, which is the responsibility of everyone with the right to vote.
Of the two choices that can win, Obama is clearly best for the country.
Whimsical,
I just don’t get it. We have to vote for Obama because he’s the better choice. But he can’t get anything done without the Reps and Senators. And they won’t support him. We’re back to religion again. Spontaneous remissions are credited to Jesus. Lingering terminal illnesses with great pain are also credited to Jesus, but only in the “the Good Lord relieved his pain” way. The religiously minded never append, “of course, you have to wonder what sort of a sick fuck of a sadist God would give an eight-year-old leukemia in the first place, or make her go through so much pain, just so she could die screaming in the end because the morphine couldn’t even take the edge off the agony at the end.”
In the same way, I wonder what the point is of prolonging the suffering. Let Romney run things. Ask a fat person. When, exactly, did you realize you were fat? How much over your preferred weight were you? It’s never “five pounds” or “ten pounds.” It’s always “60 pounds” or “I hit 250. I used to weight 150.” Gradual deteriorations are never noticed until it’s simply too far down the road to fix the problem easily.
Putting Romney in charge would be like gaining 80 pounds in a three-month period.
Funny thing… my right-wing boss resigns himself to a likely Obama victory with about the same logic- “maybe it will finally get so bad that people will wake up”- that some of you use to suggest that a Romney win would be good for us in the long run.
I doubt it. Americans are very good at muddling along, not much good at changing their minds. I’m not too impressed with Obama, but he’ll still get my vote.
@alex
No, putting Romney in charge would be like deciding to commit suicide by cop instead of doing chemo when the doctor tells you you have cancer; so you go to the mall and start shooting up the place until the cops take you down.
Not only do you NOT have the right to do that to others, it’s a lazy cowards way out- when with some had work, some fucking patience, and a little pain, you can turn your situation around and get back to health.
If you’re feeling suicidal, by all means take YOURSELF out of the picture. Don’t take the country with you.