"In Spite Of"

Scrap "Hope and Change" the real slogan of the Obama administration should be "in spite of." In spite of everything, natural and man made obstacles and especially the quasi-terrorist behavior of the so-called "loyal opposition," This president has not been destroyed and neither has the republic. In spite of unprecedented hatred and the most shameless rhetoric, actions, and even violence President Obama has persevered. In spite of all the money, voter suppression, and outright sabotage Barack Obama is still president and has a renewed mandate to fight back. Time will tell if the Democratic Party has finally realized that cooperation, bipartisanship, reaching across the aisle is not only futile but harmful. It was infuriating to watch them bend over backwards during the health care debate, starting from the republican position on reform and caving right each time the party of selfish greed and divine right of business rule bit the outstretched hand. We, the non-right wing, only had one chance to get something good accomplished and basically wasted it. For all the good things in the Affordable Care Act, the core of the law was to leave private insurance companies in charge with no real plan to contain costs, i.e. greed, that is central to for-profit health insurance.

In spite of record filibusters and every delaying tactic known to man exuberantly employed by terrorists and the transfer of responsibility for every rotten economic development by the terrorist media, things are on the mend. In spite of holding the very government they took an oath to serve hostage to cut the already miserly amount of social spending and forcing a credit downgrade, investors are still eager to buy government debt. In spite of being wrong on everything, republicans double down on their radical agenda again and again.

Is it ironic that tea bag whacko candidates just could not help flapping their cockwashers about rape in this campaign season? For some reason the recent past just disappeared down the memory hole about how republicans enabled speculators and too-big-to-jail wall st. bankers to con, scam, and steal so much of the wealth of the American people. Rape is obviously not the right metaphor for the greedhead bankster ripoff leading up to the completely man made crash. But what happened, millions losing their jobs and homes through fraud, deception, and "market forces" beyond the average American's control was a violation that left the victim humiliated and blamed by so many self-righteous assholes. I will have to leave it to my colleague the lotus to judge, but is "you bought too big a house and have only yourself to blame" different in kind or only degree to "she was asking for it?" Especially when so many of the criminals simply walked away from the crime to strike again?

In spite of the magnitude of their crimes, teabaggers continue to get away with it. All of it.