In their eyes, the more money the corporations (and their CEOs) make, the better. Deregulation is great, and there should never be a raise of taxes on the rich. If the rest of us are carrying the burden of taxes, that's OK with them. Wall Street is never at fault. Ronald Reagan is their all-time hero. They believe we should cut spending but never raise taxes. And so the slashes on education and programs that help the middle class and poor, in their minds, are exactly the remedy the country needs. So what if poor children starve? Hey, they should never have been born in the first place! What are the poor thinking of, having unprotected sex?! (But these same voters insist on cutting funds for Planned Parenthood, sex education and birth control--and their leading candidate, Herman Cain, has said abortions should never be allowed, even when impregnation has taken place through incest or rape). They would love to bring the country back to the "good old days" when children worked in factories and the poor and elderly starved on the streets because there was no public assistance. They think the "churches and neighbors" will step in to help those who are suffering, out of jobs, in poor health, and dying. In their world, everything was perfect when blacks were slaves -- and women weren't allowed to vote. And homosexuals--well, those "sinners" should just turn themselves around and become heterosexual "like the rest of us." Oh--and on the subject of guns, hey, Everyone should have a gun! Good grief, where do you start to even have a dialogue with thinking like this?
On the political right in this country, there seems to be complete blindness/denial of the fact that capitalism, like communism, has gone too far in rewarding the rich while penalizing everyone else. All systems of government are susceptible to mismanagement, greed, and power lust among the "leaders." Earth humanity has not yet evolved to where Christ was pointing us. So, no matter how lofty the vision when they are begun, until mankind changes, all forms of earth government will eventually fail and fall, victims of unregulated, unbridled avarice -- and ignorance.
History has shown over and over that whenever greed of the few takes over, a revolution of the many is sure to follow. We watched the Soviet empire dissolve in our time--and now we are watching the dissolution of the American empire. This latest decline and fall of an empire began its final downslide when "Reaganomics" deregulated and lowered taxes on corporations. Unfortunately, this time no Teddy Roosevelt showed up as a "trustbuster." And it's been downhill ever since, as the rich ran with that freedom from any restriction or accountability, further increasing their wealth on the backs of the middle class, buying elections and their own representatives (servants) who do the will of their masters.
The naive right-wing voters who believe that, when they champion Wall Street, they are promoting capitalism and "freedom" for themselves, are unwilling to recognize that they are actually courting their own disaster. They vote for candidates who are bought and paid for by Wall Street -- and who send innocent sons of the poor off to do the unnecessary wars of their bidding, in order to further enrich themselves. The rich and powerful of today don't realize they are bringing about their own downfall. The Tea Party far right wingers don't seem to realize that judging and condemning others for the color of their skin or for their sexual orientation comes with a price. There is a cosmic order in the universe that exacts payment for misdeeds ("every jot and tittle" as the Bible instructs. Matt 5:18 "For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.") Individual karma and national karma do exist...and are playing out as we all watch. Those who have acquired wealth and power at the expense of others' lives are certain to reap the harvest they have sown -- and probably not the one they were expecting. "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity"... and what is it worth in the end? The Cheneys and Bushes have come and gone throughout the centuries, and what have they really gained in all their grasping and acquiring? As the poet William Wordsworth so perfectly put it, "The world is too much with us, late and soon. Getting and spending, we lay waste our power...we have given our hearts away, a sordid boon...for everything, we are out of tune." The real power and the real peace we all seek are in what Christ spoke of, and what Paul later reiterated in Corinthians:
1 Corinthians 13
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
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