Cynical Politics of "Life"

All the high-minded rhetoric about poor Terri Schiavo in the mouths of Republican legislators would be heartwarming if those ideas found their way into other issues. The reason that the Republican Machine has jumped on this issue is revealed in an eyes-only memo for GOP senators that described it as a "great political issue" because it played to the Christian conservative movement, which makes up much of the Republican base.

The GOP Bulldozer sees an opportunity to unseat Senator Nelson, a Democrat from Florida who has stood by the courts and due process in this tragedy rather than going apocalyptic about it. The GOP Bulldozer has such good control over its members that all, even the President, can be called in to play their part in the machinery. One more seat means that much more leeway in dismantling the Middle Class.

And once they have dismantled the Middle Class, there will be only Workers and Rulers, a cozy arrangement that has worked for millennia, except for that pesky 20th Century anomaly. In the 20th Century, the arrival of labor unions signaled a rise from Working Poor to Middle Class. The unions didn't come about because of liberal politicians. The unions came about because working conditions were unfit for animals, let alone humans, and pay was often not enough to live without debt. Listen to Johnny Cash's old songs. If trickle-down had worked at even a trickle, the unions would never have been born. But the rich don't believe in sharing the wealth.

The Middle Class, however, demanded the same quality of life as the Ruling Class. Having risen from the Working Poor, they also expected the same chance for others to move up as they have. For a few years, the distance between the richest and the poorest in America was such that a person could imagine we were all one people. Yet since Reagan, wages have dropped for wage earners, dropping many back down from Middle Class to Working Poor, while the wealthiest Americans have seen their income multiply a hundred-fold.

How can this be? Because the Ruling Class understood that the once-Working-Poor still felt more comfortable with the old ways and pandered to it. Somewhere in their hearts, the Poor accept their second-class socio-econominc status so long as they can have first-class spiritual status. This is why Bush can lie to the public but Clinton couldn't. The Bushes can pander to his rich buddies and chum with the Saudis so long as they foist the prole moral code on the rest of us.

Which brings us back to Schiavo. Righteous indignation, the tool of these Modern Pharisees, galvanizes forces even as is blinds them. They are shouting morality all the way to the bank.