by Mary Pitt

This was a dominant theme by some of the Republicans who appeared on the weekend "news" talk shows as they advocated early adjournment by the current Congressmen. Their argument? These people have already faced the voters and lost so they should just fold their tents and quietly go home, leaving the nation unattended and its citizens without even a fiscal budget until the Republicans can be sworn in and "take the helm."

(Is it not strange that Republicans always say that they are doing manly things like "steering the course" or "driving the train" after they have, according to the President, "driven the car into the ditch?') They are so utterly confident that they know best what the nation needs and what the people want even in the face of the great fiasco that their former president created. Now, they want the Democratic majority to simply throw up their hands and go home while the rest of us want them to roll up their sleeves and get as much done as possible in the short time remaining.

Not only the Progressives but the vaunted "Independents" will shortly regret their decision to "punish" President Obama by sitting on their hands and withholding their support in the Congressional elections. The Party of HELL, NO will revert to the Party of WHY NOT the instant that they take control of the House and have the Senate hobbled beyond any ability to act. Their campaign-trail protestationS of fealty to the Constitution will fade to a whisper as they pass measure after measure to continue their path of turning our nation from a beacon of freedom to one of primeval slavery as they continue to scrape every shred of pride from the "have-nots."

You lose your home? Live on the streets! You can't afford to feed your kids? Cook a stray cat! You are sick? Go ahead and die but just don't litter the streets! This will be the predominant attitude as they try to pass laws to revoke the new health care provisions, and end Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Unemployment, rather than being extended will be ended without ceremony so that the working class must "accept their fate." Food stamos and school feeding programs will end so that the corporate farmers will be able to get all the money that is appropriated for that purpose. Wages will fall into the ditch and the few jobs that remain will be at what is now no more than minimum wage. Those who lived prudently and now own their own homes will find themselves trying to sell them at a fraction of their real value.

This is truly a grim future but it is one that those with eyes have predicted all during the Bush regime and, if the Republicans continue their march to absolute control, the prediction will become reality in an amazingly few years. We seem to be on the slippery slope that leads to the miseries of the Great Depression and, if the American voters do not wake up to the fact that politics is no longer a game, but a very real war, it will not take long.

If one doubts that this could happen "in this country", one should read the history of the world and learn how it happened in the past in other places. With the advent of the Christmas season, perhaps one should again watch the beginning of the Dickens classic, "A Christmas Carol." See the man who worked from dawn to dusk for very little money to maintian a home and rear his children, one of whom was in dire need of medical care and in danger of dying. Note the sheer misery of their existence.

Don't bother to watch the last part, though, because there are no Ghosts of Christmas and the rich are not about to realize how miserly they are. They will not be able to see the suffering of their underpaid minions because they just don't care! Ponder this as you determine whether we would be better off with a Republican president in 2012 so that these ravening beasts would be free to continue their depredations.

This has happened to every other powerful nation in history until they become so enfeebled by conquest that they have nothing left with which to defend themselves. The United States of America is getting close to that point. If the Republicans continue to rule in the paths of George W. Bush, Newt Gingrich, Tom Delay, and Alan Simpson, you may find that it will be sooner than you think.

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This writer is eighty years old and has spent a half century working with handicapped and deprived people and advocating on their behalf while caring for her own working-class family. She spends her "Sunset Years" in writing and struggling with The System.