Today is D-Day for the good old US of A. Debt Day.
It’s not on par with the original D-Day decades ago when the allies banded together, even uneasy ones who didn’t quite trust each other, to fight a common foe.
It isn’t on par with the original D-Day when ordinary people were expected to volunteer for their own sacrifice to fight this foe, in the hopes that their families and friends, their countries would be liberated from the scourge of Nazism.
It isn’t on par with the original D-Day when soldiers went off to the front lines and the British rationed food and hosted foreigners at home in the hopes that they, British and foreigners alike, would restore freedom in Europe and keep it from being destroyed in England and over here.
It isn’t on par with the original D-Day when political leaders understood who the enemy was and focused on the war, not on political points that would win them more elections and keep them in power forever. Power wasn’t the point; freedom from tyranny was. And they knew it.
It isn’t on par with the original D-Day when even the upper crust in England were expected to sacrifice, both their children’s lives as officers (British officers lead, not bring up the rear like some countries’ officers) and in handing over their estates in aid of the war.
But it is like the original D-Day when rapacious rich men plotted how to use the War to fill their own coffers more and more while posturing as the good men behind funding the war effort. Today rapacious American politicians mouth platitudes and strong-sounding words, while plotting how to keep in power in the next elections, the President in his seat, the Tea Party patsies in their seats. Their focus is not on the economy or the high unemployment rate or how obscene the US debt is -- Canada is one-tenth of the US in almost everything, except debt -- we’d have a collective heart attack if our debt was as high as $1.4 trillion or ten percent of the US debt. No, politicians down south focus on themselves and demand that ordinary men and women sacrifice more and more to the god of no-tax-hikes, not for their families and country -- oh no -- but solely for the benefit of the very well off, so that the politicians can stay in power while the comfortable über-rich sit quietly in their counting houses -- because you can never have too many billions -- unwilling to help their country get their fiscal house in order or to create jobs for the masses of poor and despairing -- their fellow citizens.
What a contrast to my country, the target of Americans who hold us up as an example of all that is wrong with socialism since we have publicly funded health care and apparently pay more taxes. Yet this socalist country is creating more private-sector jobs, has a more stable economy, and a much, much smaller deficit and debt, proportionally speaking, than the US. Canadians demand good government, and good government is the opposite to the ridiculousness from both sides of the partisan duality that we’ve been watching below us.
It’s not on par with the original D-Day decades ago when the allies banded together, even uneasy ones who didn’t quite trust each other, to fight a common foe.
It isn’t on par with the original D-Day when ordinary people were expected to volunteer for their own sacrifice to fight this foe, in the hopes that their families and friends, their countries would be liberated from the scourge of Nazism.
It isn’t on par with the original D-Day when soldiers went off to the front lines and the British rationed food and hosted foreigners at home in the hopes that they, British and foreigners alike, would restore freedom in Europe and keep it from being destroyed in England and over here.
It isn’t on par with the original D-Day when political leaders understood who the enemy was and focused on the war, not on political points that would win them more elections and keep them in power forever. Power wasn’t the point; freedom from tyranny was. And they knew it.
It isn’t on par with the original D-Day when even the upper crust in England were expected to sacrifice, both their children’s lives as officers (British officers lead, not bring up the rear like some countries’ officers) and in handing over their estates in aid of the war.
But it is like the original D-Day when rapacious rich men plotted how to use the War to fill their own coffers more and more while posturing as the good men behind funding the war effort. Today rapacious American politicians mouth platitudes and strong-sounding words, while plotting how to keep in power in the next elections, the President in his seat, the Tea Party patsies in their seats. Their focus is not on the economy or the high unemployment rate or how obscene the US debt is -- Canada is one-tenth of the US in almost everything, except debt -- we’d have a collective heart attack if our debt was as high as $1.4 trillion or ten percent of the US debt. No, politicians down south focus on themselves and demand that ordinary men and women sacrifice more and more to the god of no-tax-hikes, not for their families and country -- oh no -- but solely for the benefit of the very well off, so that the politicians can stay in power while the comfortable über-rich sit quietly in their counting houses -- because you can never have too many billions -- unwilling to help their country get their fiscal house in order or to create jobs for the masses of poor and despairing -- their fellow citizens.
What a contrast to my country, the target of Americans who hold us up as an example of all that is wrong with socialism since we have publicly funded health care and apparently pay more taxes. Yet this socalist country is creating more private-sector jobs, has a more stable economy, and a much, much smaller deficit and debt, proportionally speaking, than the US. Canadians demand good government, and good government is the opposite to the ridiculousness from both sides of the partisan duality that we’ve been watching below us.
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