. . . for my hard night of work

[bigtree]

Last edited Thu Oct 17, 2013, 09:40 AM - Edit history (1)

I gotta say, I imagine I'm like a lot of folks here who put their workday aside and try and find some connection here between our politics and the things we hope/need to accomplish in our own lives.

It's never been easy for me, economically. It's paycheck to paycheck, and if I stretched out my budget and matched it to my income, I'd fall way short. It's more like gambling against the future, and my work hours are far from guaranteed. As arbitrary as they are to the economy and budget of my workplace, they are even more vulnerable to a poor, uncertain, and threatened economy.

Lots of federal workers where I live and most of the rest of us are in service industries and other businesses which support that federal workforce. Needless to say, we took a big hit over this manufactured economic crisis; still are.

I don't have anything real in my life that I can actually hang on this 'victory' for Democrats against republicans and find solace enough to celebrate. I'm a bit shellshocked right now and I'm just wondering where we go next to stop this republican assault on our economy and where we go next to get us to the point where we're actually doing something politically which will translate into economic stability for my community and for the nation.

I imagine that's what this assault was all about; just to rattle our cages out here and remind us that we're always going to be in a different class of folks; always going to be beholden to someone out there for just keeping our heads above water, no matter how hard we work.

And, you get folks who must be just fine and dandy in their own economic experiences who see fit to ridicule you when you can't find much to 'celebrate' out of barely holding onto this status quo; this economic siege meant to keep the majority of us in the work market grateful for whatever splatters of meal we can scrounge from the edges and outside of the pig's trough.

It's all just a fucking game, and I'm certainly a loser. There'll be no celebrating here tonight. Just hanging on, trying to keep myself healthy enough to keep laboring for whatever hours they see fit to throw my way.

I understand the disconnect some folks have from the point I'm trying to make here. These days I'm thinking it's always going to be like this for my family. Goodness knows, we're trying as hard as we're able to make a living and survive. Just one trumped-up crisis after another, though. What the fuck is next?

[leftstreet]

1. DURec

Politicians play games, while people try to keep their heads above water

[orpupilofnature57]

2. Enslavement for the 97% unless we Expose

what the Political Society has done to us, there are no Republicans or Democrats, it's All-Star Wrestling while they both sell us down the river .

[aristocles]

3. No party lost, no party won

The Democrats, the Repuplicans, the Tea party...all various flavors of one party: The Beltway Party.

The only solution I can propose is term limits. Four years for the House, four years for the Senate, six years for President. And one can only serve once in a lifetime.

Let's get ordinary citizens back into the governing process.

[Mnemosyne]

4. K&R nt

[bigtree]

5. .

off to work . . .

[bigtree]

6. and I'm back

. . . one more time for some understanding.

I just need one more person to tell me that I'm violating the spirit of today's victory by being cynical so I can add it to my hair shirt.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. As a (now-formerly) furloughed fed

I think each person will see it in reference to their own circumstances and in terms of their own expectations and future goals. I am happy to be off "furlough" (and LWOP) - at least for the time being and am somewhat hopeful that this past week's insanity will serve as a deterrent for some (emphasis "some&quot of the GOP who chose to lockstep with the loons after claiming they were independent thinkers - and that might at least be considered a "victory". But I think we should all keep in mind that these folks are all "politicians" and there appears to be a certain personality type for those who choose elected office as a career, AND who intend on staying in that career for the long-term. Politics is, my nature, pretty ugly, and unfortunately, many innocent people get thrown under the bus for the politician's aspirations.

Unfortunately, we are going through a rough period in this nations history having a small but vocal group of politicians who were not elected to govern, but were elected to disrupt, and I am hoping that we can get past this and at least try to start bringing civility back into the political process. During a recent conversation with my Mom (who is in her 80s) - she suddenly revealed that for the first time in her life, she really didn't like how this country has evolved. This is someone who (like many her age and older) have basically "seen it all" (or at least seen alot and have lived through disruptive cycles). I told her that I think that in this case, because of the proliferation of many different types of media that run 24/7, issues large and small are magnified beyond what should be their norm, and this only serves to intensify the divisions. Although censorship should never be the answer, I think a careful self-calibration of the discourse, really needs to be emphasized.

[bigtree]

8. good thoughts on politics, BRDS

I can't be alone in thinking that these politicians have gone so far this time that they can only be seen as nuisances and dilettantes. Just step back from the perspective that we share in following these folks almost everyday and view them as most of the necessarily distracted public must. Our fragile lives have just been toyed with for what was nothing more than a face-saving exercise for republicans who campaigned on the improbable promise of overturning the already decided will of the majority of their peers.

In that cynical and transparently self-serving effort, our work-a-day lives out here were treated as abstractions; or, worse, we were subjected to a type of coercion designed as punishment of sorts for the majority who support and accept the change that this administration and Congress has managed to advance over republicans' constant objections and obstinacy.

I'd like to think that we could now fire the whole bunch, but most will persist and prevail, despite the overwhelming opposition; despite the resounding defeat of their plans to ransom Americans to their cynical minority agenda.

I'm happy that you'll have the opportunity to go back to work and that you'll be getting back pay. I have heard that there are may folks who get paid by the hour who may not recover all that they lost.

For my part, the local downturn in business, and the effect on my shifting and uncertain work hours can't be measured or quantified like the calculations of deferred government wages. Nor can they be recompensed to me.

It's like that with each and every instance where these politicians' dithering or manipulation has either effected wages, prices, investments, housing opportunities, the cost of wellness, etc.. It seems to be a deliberate and continuing pattern for republicans to meddle with or negatively affect every opportunity that exists out here for folks to find a hold in this shifting and sliding economy.

I realize those words are just an abstraction for some, but, I can't stress enough just how real and prescient each and every economic hiccup is to my own ability to just hold on. I know I'm not alone in that.

I know I'm not alone in wondering just what to expect to happen next. And, I think it's a goddamn shame that many folks here can't see beyond the politics to recognize what a blow this episode has already been to many folks out here already shellshocked from this miserable economy.

[bigtree]

9. .