Chris Jepson: Down the rabbit hole we fall

I was in rural North Carolina recently, looking at land, and the first thing an aged good ol’ boy said to me was, “The Pope and Donald Trump were out in a boat and the Pope’s hat blew off. Trump offered to fetch it. He gingerly stepped out of the boat and — walking-on-water over to the hat — retrieved it. Know what the insufferable lying liberal media said?

The punch line, which I’ll momentarily share, is a good one. There’s much noise about how the “media” is unfairly treating Trump and his administration. I do not at all see that as the case. I consider the man as a damaged, small minded, mean-spirited, tawdry little carnival barker. I have little to no respect for his values. His obvious overriding priority is himself. It’s apparent to the most casual observer that he’s given little previous thought to our democracy or to how to provide for and/or improve the general welfare of the people. Historically Trump has only been a shill for his own self-enrichment.

Trump is the sideshow (a shiny, pulsating, narcissistic gas ball of inflated ego) who we can’t stop from watching while the Republican Party jackals go about deconstructing our government while “comforting the rich and afflicting the poor.”

“Oh,” you might say, “the Pubs are only pursuing their legitimate conservative vision for America. The ideal that rewards exceptional entrepreneurial creativity, discourages personal indolence while preserving all that is noble and good about the United States.”

To that I say, “Smoke some more.”

If I could identify but one recent act by Republicans that captures best whose interests the GOP are looking out for, well, consider the following.

Say you have a retirement nest egg of $500,000. You’ve scrimped and saved, going without in some cases to have arrived in your “golden” years with enough to see you comfortably through to the end. You seek out a financial adviser, one you can trust with your life’s earnings. One you assume who will put “your” interests paramount, one who won’t put you in investments whose fees enrich your “trusted” adviser more than your financial portfolio.

Well, you’d be the fool because Republicans tweaked the regulation, the rule requiring financial advisers to place client interests first in any investing scenario. That captures best exactly whose interests Republicans really care for.

Air and water quality? Surely the Pubs want to conserve, want to place the highest priority on preserving (protecting) the nation’s air and water quality? You’d again be sorely, sadly mistaken. In America’s coal country, mining corporations can once again blow the tops off mountains and push the toxic waste into nearby valleys polluting the streams, the water for generations to come. This is American crony capitalism at work. Need we wonder too hard as to who actually profits?

Healthcare. Why, in a democracy such as ours, should one’s relative wealth determine one’s quality of healthcare? Your health to be determined by the size of your checking account? Cut to the chase, that is exactly what any healthcare debate in America is about. The bigger your wallet, the better your access to healthcare. Consider the morality of that perspective. Again, you do not have to think too deeply as to exactly whose interests Republicans promote.

But, please don’t trouble yourself with such inconsequential issues. Back to the carnival sideshow. What were the headlines the lying liberal media proclaimed about Trump walking-on-water? “Trump can’t swim!”

And down the rabbit hole we fall.