The Ballad of John and Joe The Plumber (or was it Joe Six-Pack?)

The Obama campaign, the media and soft-in-the-head lefties such as me should lay-off John McCain on this one. (That one?) So Joe isn't really a plumber. So he isn't really buying the company he works for. So the company isn't for sale. So Joe made $40 some odd thousand last year. So the company didn't last year and won't this year make $250,000. So what?

Joe the Plumber and Joe Six-Pack have taken it on the chin and in the gut for so long that they are delusional about the reasons for their pain. They have seen hard work, blood, sweat and tears fail them as they get jerked around by credit card companies, mortgage brokers, banks, brokers, international corporations, big oil, the Supreme Court, and on and on ad nauseum. They must blame someone. For we white guys, the culprit is not the face in the mirror of self-delusion, it's not the broken promises of trickle-down economics, it's not what we refuse to acknowledge that is true (that we have been sucker-punched time and again by the GOP, their corporate allies and the sell-out by Bill Clinton). No, we blame Americans with different skin color, different names, different religions, different social experiences. We blame them for all the ills that the real culprits have brought upon us. We'd rather believe the lie that Barack Obama is an Arab terrorist who consorted with the Weather Underground than accept the fact that Todd Palin did consort with an anti-American fringe group and that Sarah Palin addressed the same group with the words "...keep up the good work and God bless you..."

Why? We love being ignorant of the facts because this excuses our belief in the phantasmagorical? We'd rather believe a talking snake or a burning bush than recorded data?

Just today I heard an interview with former MA Governor Jane Swift, a Republican, who is an education advisor to the McNasty campaign. Pell Grants will not be funded in the austerity economics program of a John McCain administration. No school for you unless you agree to borrow money from John's banker friends (Keating 5?). It costs too much. Well John, so does ignorance. Being ignorant is part and parcel of why we stupidly attacked Iraq. Not being trained to think for ourselves is part and parcel as to why we believe the lunatic ravings of Pat Robertson, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh.

No, let's shout for sanity, thoughtfulness, fair play, education, the Bill of Rights (all of them, not just #2), justice.

And by the way...what the hell is wrong with being an Arab? Or anyone named Joe?