I've always thought that saying about "lifting oneself up by one's own bootstraps" is a perfect example of the failings of the Republican worldview.
Disclaimer: This isn't really much of a diary. Move along if it's too short for you.
In a society where government-coddled corporate giants lord over every aspect of our lives and every sector of the economy, where progress and betterment of one's life are tightly controlled by entities that exist solely to inject themselves in and take a chunk of profit (or pound of flesh) out of every single transaction or interaction between people, the idea that one can "will oneself to succeed" to simply decide to "get moving and do better" (as if that's not what everyone on earth wakes up trying to do every day anyway) in such a society is as anachronistic as, well, bootstraps themselves.
It speaks of that imaginary past that each successive generation of Republicans fantasizes about; the one (usually 2-3 generations back, at the moment it's the 1940-50's) where everything was better and cleaner and whiter and "more American" and people had "pride" and all that shit. Back then it was great, they insist, and we just need to get back to that, and everything will magically be OK. The reason their policy doesn't reflect the real world is that they're not LIVING in the real world, they're back in a 1953 that never really existed.
Meanwhile, the only people wearing actual bootstraps anymore are: Hippies hiking the Appalachian Trail, punk rock kids in Doc Martens, and the millions of migrant workers who put food on our tables. The incredible irony of the fact that all three of these groups are despised by Republicans is all I can think about when I hear some politician start yammering on and on about "bootstraps."