The mechanisms of using the political system to do the people’s business have been irrevocably undermined. Things are getting slowly and irrevocably worse, without letup. And there is no way to fix it within the prescribed parameters of the system.

There is no two party government in power, except in name. There is power, and there is corruption. All else is an illusion.

And the advertised choice left to us, the serfs, is to fix it using the prescribed mechanisms, in twenty, fifty, or a hundred years.

If you choose to play in idiocy, you will be mired in idiocy. To date, you the taxpayer are funding thousands of nuclear weapons pointed at other countries in an expostulation of unmitigated terror and destructiveness that is described as everyday politics, and cannot be dealt with because of an unaddressable “political reality”.  And one could go on, and on, and on and on.  

And things will get bad. And things will get worse.

Mene Mene Tekel.  Upharshin.

For a hundred years hence, it will get worse. The current system is designed to work through issues on a timescale of twenty, fifty, or a hundred years.

It’s not getting better, no matter how you vote, who you vote for, or if they win in the short term.

In twenty years, our easily obtainable energy resources will be gone, no matter how much latitude you gave “American Energy Companies”. And Congress will dither, and its apologists will say change takes time.

In fifty years, your children will not know the name of Albert Einstein, and will think it equally likely the sun revolves around the Earth as the other way around, and will treat ancient science texts claiming the latter to be propaganda leaflets of the militant left, and the Democrats will claim to be agnostic on the subject.  You know I’m right.

And the Congress will dither, and your Democrats or their successors and those wise heads of the present day will talk about politics, and how that is important to solve problems.  And the Republicans will talk about burning witches.  And the Democrats will seem wise by saying maybe burning witches is a little extreme.

And in a hundred years, your childrens’ children will be fleeing the coastlines, as what remains of their cities are inexplicably flooded, and the corporations that had them building dams flee to the North Pole, leaving their serfs, your descendants, to die in the swamps.

And the Republicans, if they still exist at that time, or their ideological successors, and you know they will be there, will talk about sacrificing virgins to Quezocoatl or that god’s equivalent or some other god’s equivalent.  And the Democrats will talk about how that also is a little extreme, but perhaps now we can burn witches.

You can deny, but you know I’m right.

Everyday politics in any venue and by any name has but one legitimate purpose: To serve the people.

What has gone wrong, so terribly wrong, is politics in today’s American culture is politics being seen as an end unto itself.

What defines the American political system of the present day is the be all and end all of politics.  It’s not that politics is “bad” it is that our corporations and our nation have adopted a language of politics as an end unto itself.  

It simply does not matter if what you are talking about is sacrificing the genitals of every living child under 12 to a mythical gnome who lives in a hole in the ground in exchange for tasty alien cheese that falls from the sky.  All that matters is what the poll numbers on the question are!  And your talking heads will cheerfully discuss it without gagging and while wearing Christian Dior clothing and black pearls around their neck if the person who brought the mythical gnome up has sufficient political backing.

And Rachel Maddow will do it too.  Except, to mock it, while giving it airplay anyway.  And without the black pearls.  Whatever.

If anything it’s gotten worse.

If it fails to serve the people, what is left of politics is mechanism without meaning. What I mean is, people talk today about political reality without acknowledging that the barriers currently imposed by political reality are so abstract, insane and extreme they have no relationship with the realities of people’s lives.

Your politicians, and your government, have become disconnected with the people.  

I decry violence.  And I denounce the attack in Tucson.  And I am NOT a gun apologist.

But I do have something to say, that in no way advocates killing, violence, guns, revolution or anything of the sort.

Merely an observation that those in power have advocated policies that have killed, destroyed, committed violence upon, stolen from and destroyed the lives of millions of American citizens.  Policies advocated mostly by Republicans but aided and abetted by Democrats.

And that the sudden talk in the mainstream media about sudden and “senseless” violence has ignored and been abetted by class, economic and other violence committed upon American citizens by the powers in Washington for 30 years.  Up to and including the very thing that is one of the causes of the Tucson shooting: Kicking the mentally ill onto the street, a policy begun under Reagan and continued ever since.

Yes, these people have put their own murderers onto the street, and by forbidding their care from concerns about “taxes” have put self-guided weapons out there that, finally, drew blood, and continue to draw blood.

But we haven’t stopped.

People in Washington have killed millions.  But they do it bloodlessly.  And with invitations to Martha Stewarts’ Vinyard.

So let me get right into it.

“All I ask is a tall ship…and a star to steer her by…” You could feel the wind at your back, about you… the sounds of the sea beneath you. And even if you take away the wind and the water, it’s still the same. The ship is yours…you can feel her…and the stars are still there.”

I have spent the last seven years of my life building something.

And that something is about to be thrown away — for, essentially, false ideas of economic sensibility and stupidity.

I have been accused, by those who have never met me, of being self absorbed, self referential, and unempathetic.  Also, unengaged, politically — you know the type.  The person with big passions who never goes anywhere.  Never protests.  A keyboard kommando.

This despite the fact that I believe in things deeply, and as far as empathy goes, I am and have been the kind of person to spend my last dime on helping a friend.  I suppose my lack of empathy, my soullessness, as I have been accused of recently, has to do with not being interested in donating to this political candidate or that, or voting for this supposed Democrat or other because Republicans are worse.

In a general sense, I want to believe I care about my fellow man.  Politically I am a socialist.

I believe, generally, that people who work to make a better life for everyone, who care about their society and labor to make it better, deserve to have a leg up when times are hard.  And, in general, what liberals believe, myself among them is, you shouldn’t have to go to a church or a synagogue or a mosque to receive charity while professing faith in a god in which you don’t believe — or even a god in which you may believe, but that your belief or your faith isn’t the point.  That benefit is yours BY RIGHT — by living in a society in which everyone is in the same boat together.

As an atheist, I especially believe this.  Justice for a lifetime of societal contribution, when a person falls on hard times does not deserve as a response, spiritual warfare.  

That a LIFETIME of work, of dedication, of heartache, deserves some recompense when times get bad.

But, what I feel, too many people who espouse liberal views don’t understand — that feeling that everyone deserves the basics of health care, food and clothing, that general empathy — means nothing unless you actually EXHIBIT it in your own life.

Even if you demonstrate politically, even if you genuinely care about everyone, for example, people being able to go to the doctor when they’re sick — that belief translates into NOTHING if you don’t actually live the values you espouse when times are hard.

It translates into nothing because it doesn’t matter if you espouse it or believe in it, demonstrate it or even call your congressman about it.  It doesn’t matter if people see you believe in a thing, if you cannot or will not show that same spirit to the people around you, in your own life.

Anyway (and I apologize for being roundabout about this) I have worked for many years on a project into which I’ve poured my life, my heart and my soul.

And this is the nature of who I am, people being different.  

Bzelriad, you heard about the species we encountered on the third planet of Jagrazed Pluionis 3?

Yes, yes, the monkeys on the outer rim of the Saggitarius Arm.  What about them?

Well, we have been awaiting their entry into the Galactic Catalog of Civilizations for 500 zortys, but I just recently came from there, when they went silent.  And I saw what happened.

Who cares?  They’re MONKEYS.  We encounter four legged beasties with manipulative appendages all the time.  And in all cases, they operate the same.  And, when they reach the point of something other than bashing each others’ heads in with a rock, invariably a few hundred, thousand, or million zortys later, they use a bigger rock that explodes in their faces.  Monkeys are surly and unpredictable and ultimately blow themselves up, while laughing all the way.  You know this.  And you also know they’re very, very dangerous to be around, because the particular biomorph lends itself to sufaziality — at least, when carbon based.

Yes, yes, and these monkeys are no different.  But, what is interesting, in an exobiological sense, is these particular monkeys went so far, while fantasizing away their sufaziality.  You see, on this world, the monkeys evolved with similar, but less developed monkeys, who they decided to differentiate themselves as DIFFERENT, or more evolved, based on fantastical concepts which essentially denied their basic meatness.  You see, YOU say they are monkeys and that monkeys operate similarly, but they had the example of different, but slightly less developed monkeys.  But, though these similar monkeys had similar behavior patterns, THESE monkeys managed to rationalize away the similarities they had in their behavior, their basic sufaziality, with their less developed cousins.  Despite this, they managed to achieve an astonishing level of technological sophistication and they almost managed to become a threat.

Interesting.  How so?

This is my heart, this is my soul.  This is my reason.

Anyone can see the road that they walk on is painted in gold,

It’s always summer they’ll never get cold,

They’ll never get hungry they’ll never get old and grey,

Anyone can see their shadows wandering off somewhere

They won’t make it home but they really don’t care,

They wander the highway they’re happy they left today…

If I could have you look at me, a 46 year old slightly aging man, it would be the sunglass wearing drummer boy in the video above.

Watch the video.  See relaxed little drummer boy with the mirrored glasses and the shit eating grin.  Look at 1:25 in the video, exactly.

That’s me.  That’s me, my personality, everything about me, in a nutshell.  It may not be how I look, but that is me.  Although, I do look younger than my age, in most ways.  With the right clothes and the right haircut and the right smile and the right glasses, I could be him.  I could show you him, in me.

I was doing good.  With my haircut and black jean jacket, I looked a little like him, today.

Shit eating grin.  Smile of steel.  This is what a lifetime of hurt and pain has left me.  Stop.  I don’t want your sympathy.  

The shit eating grin.

“Till shade is gone, till water is gone, into the Shadow with teeth bared, screaming defiance with the last breath, to spit in Sightblinder’s eye on the last Day.”

My brother and I, we were latchkey kids.  My mother, she was a roaring mother bear, detested my homosexuality, asked me once whether I ever tried a woman (I did, and had), and died of cervical cancer at the age of 54.  I watched her die in 1997, from a curable disease that had caused her pain her whole life, at the age of 54.

I kissed her on the forehead with her last breath.  She was never even aware I had come to see her.  

The children woke up

And they couldn’t find ’em

Left before the sun came up that day

They just drove off and left it all behind ’em

Where were they going without ever knowing the way?

Don’t whine about a Republican election.

Rejoice that you do not have 9 plagues.

Barack Obama, Let My People Go.

I will go down with this ship

I won’t put my hands up, and surrender

There will be no white flag above my door

I’m in love and always will be

(But, what do you love?  Do you love compromise, pragmatism, working with Republicans, and election results where you fearmonger about “personhood amendments” which will never pass, while advocating for the Bennetts of the world who can’t give people health care because corporations won’t let them?)

WHO DO YOU LOVE?

And when we meet, which I’m sure we will,

all that was there, will be there still,

I’ll let it pass, and hold my tongue,

while you will think, that I’ve moved on!

But, I will NEVER MOVE ON, from my human rights, from the life and death of GLBT youth.  NEVER.  I will not put my hands up, and surrender.  There will no white flag above my door.

NOT EVEN FOR YOU.

You worship kabuki.  Nothing you say has any effect on the real world.  And that, is the problem, for your fearmongering.  

You worship fear, while saying they worship fear.  Your fear of fascists, while using their terrorist color list. Fear of Republicans, while failing to prosecute them.  Fear that they are going to make life a living hell.  FOR YOU.

But the GLBT community has lived with this for 100 years.  We have lived with lies.  We have lived with fear.  We have lived, with the very self same people we must vote out of office, according to you, lest the world turn into a fascist dictatorship.

WE HAVE LIVED WITH FASCISTS, THIS ENTIRE TIME.

You weren’t very concerned THEN, were you?  You couldn’t help us to turn back the tide, but now you want to scare us with the consequences.

But we have lived this entire time, with those very self same people, in power, the power, the kabuki, that you engender the vote out of fear.

And every election cycle you do the same thing.

I’ve got a tombstone hand and a graveyard mind,

Just 22 and I don’t mind dyin’,

Snakeskin shoes baby put’em on my feet,

Got the good music and the bo-billy beat,

Yeah WHO DO YOU LOVE,

YEAH WHO DO YOU LOVE?

You hear songs of GLBT teen suicide,

and you evince sympathy

without action

without caring

with only political fear

of the other

with whom we’ve lived, but worse

you try to scare us with

what we’ve lived with

for a hundred generations.

Each and every heart it seems

Is bounded by a world of dreams

Each and every rising sun

Is greeted by a lonely one,

YOU’RE ALREADY FALLING, IT’S CALLING YOU

BACK TO FACE THE MUSIC

AND THE SONG THAT IS COMING THROUGH

YOU’RE ALREADY FALLING

THE ONE THAT IS CALLING IS YOU

Understand

the voice within

And feel a change, already beginning

I know I left too much mess and destruction,

to come back again,

I cause nothing, but trouble,

I understand if you can’t talk to me again

And if you live by the rules of IT’S OVER,

I’m sure that that makes sense

(Something tells me you will be back again, talking to me about how ancient Ralph Nader’s ideological heirs sabotaged you, and how purity trolls cost you.  And how you were wonderful and leading and fearmongering and passing, and how your Republican policies were just shit on, and how because of that, Republicans got elected).

And when we meet,

which I’m sure we will,

All that was there,

WILL BE THERE STILL,

I’ll let it pass,

and hold my tongue,

And you will think,

THAT I’VE MOVED ON

(But, I won’t have).

I WILL GO DOWN WITH THIS SHIP

I WON’T PUT MY HANDS UP, AND SURRENDER

THERE WILL BE NO WHITE FLAG ABOVE MY DOOR

I’M IN LOVE, AND ALWAYS WILL BE

Will you?

But, a deeper question

Do you think you can talk about fascism,

And fear falsely for the gay man who has lived with it his whole life?

To use him, as a political knife?

Do you think you can talk about fascism,

And counter with pragmatism?

Do you think you can fearmonger about fascism,

And deny the people their rights who have lived with it,

out of fear for your own skin?

Do you hear the voice within?

Do you think unity is a game?  A cloak?  A deception?

Make a promise, take a vow, and trust your feelings, it’s easy now

Understand, the voice within

And feel a change, already beginning.

And how many words, have I got to say?

And HOW MANY TIMES WILL IT BE THIS WAY

WITH YOUR ARMS AROUND THE FUTURE

AND YOUR BACK UP AGAINST THE PAST?

Do you hate the right wing?

Do you want to live in sin?

Do you think you’re realistic,

when you cannot win elections?

Can you truly counter fascism

with do-nothing aristocracy?

Are you afraid that Ken Buck is going to succeed at outlawing birth control?

I’m not, but even if I were, I wouldn’t give a shit.

Because you are very sad that hundreds of LGBT youth die every year,

but not enough to be mad at people like Obama.

Maybe when he succeeds, I’ll be there for you, as you weren’t, even a liberal, for me?

You there — I don’t know what to call you, because if I call you anything, you’ll change the conversation to how unfair it all is and how put upon you all are by the people who really should be standing by your side, arm in arm, your inferior but ever loyal allies who just haven’t been beaten enough to understand how loyal they must be to you, to keep things from getting, well, you know, really rotten and stuff.

But, uh, you, President Obama, you, Barney Frank, even you, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow.  You, on the blogs, for whom life is all about being in a big tent except for all those snarkers demoralizing you, you know, and elections, and stuff.

Yeah, you there.  You know who you are.  Because it’s so unfair, and life is putting upon you, and you’re just, you know, working for the good of all us ungrateful bastards, left and right, I won’t unduly burden your delicate psyche’s by calling you a name.  But, you know who you are.

I might call you lily livered centrists, I might call you appeasers, or I might, as I said to my dad, being one of you all, in a burst, tonight, you who stand for standing still.  And that’s the most accurate thing of all.  You, who think that it works to play both ends against the middle, to say, well, yeah, you might not get your civil rights for a hundred years, but, you know, maybe you agree with me and still want to breath clean air, right, and that’s why you should be united with me, but, you know, with me leading, and you following, despite the fact that I don’t lead much of anywhere, except to nice laws and continuing decay?

And, really, when I burst out to my dad, “You who are ok with standing still,” it was the most accurate thing of all.  It was unfair, he said.

You.  You who call people unrealistic, say they’re dirty fucking hippies, want a pony, and are ungrateful.  It’s time for a little backtalk.

You.  You’re lazy.  Arrogant.  And shooting right wing fish in a barrel.  But, when it comes to debating the left, it’s all so unfair.  We just want a pony.  And, why are you being criticized?  It’s not like you’re not trying your best, after all — well, being lazy and shooting Christine O’Donnel over and over again, as if she’s not already dead — but, really trying your best, right?

Most of all, you just don’t listen, and that, I think, is your greatest weakness.  You listen, of course, to what you want to listen to — I mean, your world is a political world, so of course, you listen to the Rand Pauls of the world.  Or you’ll listen to Christine O’Donnell.  Not to really listen, and think about causes, or the idea of perhaps WHY the far right is so nasty and so crazy and to do some analysis — but just to see a weakness.  Because, you are all one big tent, right?

Even I, I am in your big tent, to be lectured to, whined at, told I’m whining and betraying.  Because, that’s what you’re used to.  Listening, not for hearing, but for sensing political weakness.  And I’m in your big tent — EVEN IF I DON’T WANT TO BE.  Even if I consider myself different and not part of your tribe.  Because all that exists is you, the sensible middle, and the wackadoodle far right.  It is your world.  No colors, no rainbow, and for heaven’s sake, no shades of gray.  So, it’s not like you’re kicking me out of the big tent — don’t have that delusion.  You wouldn’t have it any other way!

So, if I don’t talk about how I want to get rid of the minimum wage, and if I don’t talk about how I want children to work, or to dismantle Social Security — you just can’t process.  You can’t process ME.  I don’t exist in your world.  I am just a disgruntled member of your tribe.  To be laughed at, and at election time, browbeaten.

So, attacking Republicans, but not just any Republicans, crazy insane world Republicans.  But never the left — because that would be very hard, and the left — it just doesn’t exist, except when it’s convenient to exist!  But not when it comes time to talk to them.  Attacking Republicans.  It’s what you’re good at.  Laziness.  Shooting right wing monkey craziness in a barrel, that wouldn’t even be there, or discussed, but that it’s so good for you — not to mention the Republicans and the corporate media — them, too, but you, also.

So anyway, politically, pretty much, my dad is one of you.  It’s not like he’s rich, but, you know, he is set.  He has his medical care, he has his Social Security, his Medicare, and, you know, for him, life is pretty much steady state.  He’s not gonna be eating canape’s, but, he can wake up tomorrow not really worrying if he’ll be out on the street — know what I mean?

“So,” my dad said tonight, as I picked him up for bowling, “Obama’s really been making great speeches lately!  He’s going to unite the Democratic base and he’s, he’s gonna…”

“Uh, I wouldn’t know, Dad, I don’t care and haven’t been listening”.

“Hmph.”

(Conversation end).

we prevail in the end.