http://billmoyers.com/...
This conversation highlights another example of the many words Robert Royal and others like him either made up and redefined, or simply made up, or simply redefined, as a true-blue red-to-the-bone GOPer will do.
I mean seriously, 'prudential'? Subsidiarity? Is he discussing poverty or shilling for an insurance company? Actually, he could be doing both. Maybe he is a 'paid company spokesman'? Fella's gotta eat, after all.
I'm sure he was trying to come off as as a super-brainy egghead, trying to be the reasonable one, trying to be the intellectual equal to Bill Moyers. He's not even on the same playground. He comes across as a pretentious, bumptious crank, twisting in the hot air of his own prevarications.
His 'market fenced around with institutions' remark really irked me as well. What institutions might he be referring to, that acted so beautifully and responsibly on said market? Oh, wait, social responsibility is one of the more onerous burdens on the free market, as it might affect its 'freedom' and 'dynamism'. Could hold it back. Alas, we can't take that chance. As if his sacred free market isn't in essence a raging casino now.
Also, it seems to me that whatever 'fencing' Royal is referring to around the markets is acting to obscure or even obliterate any transparency, and he is absolutely ok with that. Really? This latest experiment of practically unregulated markets has taught him nothing? Also, whose 'intelligence' was he referring to? Bernie Madoff's?
I noticed that Royal actually agreed with Sister Simone every time she brought up any of the egregious and outrageous Wall Street craziness or blatant tax code unfairness, but, and there was always a 'but', somehow he either got all vague and 'policy wonk', or it became about personal responsibility. Bottom up personal responsibility, of course. Then it becomes a problem that is, somehow, up to the most powerless to fix. When fixes are proposed by those who actually could perform a fix, they are killed by the likes of Paul Ryan, so we know where Ryan's priorities are, but I guess that's how he redefines his 'version' of Christianity, too. Christianity crashes into politics, guess what loses.
(By the way, those aren't 'cans' you're kicking down the road, those are humans, Messeurs Romney/Ryan/Royal. But I guess it's ok as long as you just keep it metaphoric, shall we say. They aren't people, they're metaphors. Stop calling them children, they're CANS, goddammit! Louder! LOUDER!! If the left insists on personalizing them, ok we'll personalize them. Now demonize the recipients, that's right. See how easy that was?)
Just a slight tweaking of the words will convince the other side. Like the word 'lie'. As in 'untruth'. Even the most important ones aren't lies. The MSM has come out not to be in favor of using such a harsh term. So indelicate. Offensive, even. They're discrepancies, if you please. Or misstatements. Or misunderstandings. Or perhaps the other side is blowing something out of proportion, blah blah blah. (Quick, find something the Democrats did to 'balance' it out. Got one. SolyndraSolyndraSolyndra...)
Whoever wants to control the system, begins by controlling the semantics. Get control of the language and the people will follow; I saw that with Sister Simone actually using some of Royal's nonsense words, parroting him after he used them in the discussion often enough. He got control of the conversation, even though it was pure unadulterated crap he was spewing.
And so it goes. Royal controlled the conversation, and in this single bit he showed how the Republicans control both the ongoing conversation about poverty in this country, and thus they control the system where the money goes or more importantly doesn't go. And the power follows and so goes the money and so continues the spiral.
I'd like to take a quick peek at Paul Ryan. Well, not really, but I will anyway. He comes across as real clean-cut, but when the churchy clothes come off, so does do the gloves along with the Christianity, right, Mister Catholic Ryan? This is not a New Testament Christianity he's espousing at all. He's not the one cheering Jesus on when he overthrows the tables of the moneychangers in the temple, is he? Ryan's table is the third from the left, and he's off to the Pharisees, telling them to go fetch a Roman guard to get this maniac out of here.
Honesty isn't important when lies are just sooooo very effective, right, Mister Catholic Ryan? Even if you get caught? Even if they're really, really stupid lies?
How about you, Mister Bishop Super-Tither Romney? How important is honesty to you as a person? As a member of your 'church'? As an American? As a politician? (HAHAHA!!!) As an American politician? As a businessman? (...strokes out...)
Which is the most important to you? Which would come first to you if you were elected? What will guide you if you're elected, your church or OUR Constitution?
Didn't your Jesus say something to the effect that the poor you will always have with you? Well, if you and Romney have your way, and let's face it, Paul Ryan is the stuffing for Mitt Romney's suit, the poor are going to be here, and then some. Thanks to the George W. years, and the Obama years of GOP intransigence, we have what is essentially a permanent underclass, as well as an indentured servant class of people tied to unforgivable student loans. Better and better for the rich, able to pick and choose from among those desperately trying to escape their situations. Kind of like when the moneyed types go into the ritzy restaurant wherever and just point to the fish, or slab of beef, or maybe a live animal to be slaughtered at their bidding for their meal. Nice life. I guess.
By the way, you know we can hear you, right? When you trash the poor, when you talk about welfare recipients as lazy, and the unemployed as slackers, when you smear people on SSI or Social Security or other programs into which they have PAID PART OF THEIR EARNED PAYCHECKS THEIR WHOLE WORKING LIVES (not voluntarily, I may add), and which are maybe, hopefully, keeping them in their homes, or barely above the poverty line as a direct result of your own policies; we, the unemployed and unemployable, and the indigent others who are struggling to hold our heads up and our families together while you incite your crazy-ass base with your sneering, coded reelection campaigns; to slander us as losers and whiners while you self-righteous, arrogant 'public SERVANTS' (do try to keep that word in mind, I'll come back to it) are taking a major dump all over us for nothing more than a few votes, WE CAN HEAR what you congressional jerks and grifters who are actually the ones on the public AND PRIVATE dole are saying about us.
At this point many of us can still vote. And we will. You haven't disenfranchised all of us. Helluva try, though.