Choking on Cake
AJ Robinson

You can’t eat your cake and have it, too. Well, it seems the GOP has been trying to do just that lately and, in some cases, choking on it. It truly amazes me how they can play both sides of an issue over and over again. I fault the public for not holding their politicians accountable, and the media for letting GOP Tea Baggers and other political figures for getting away with it. These days, the media doesn’t dare ask tough questions of right wing nut job politicians. They’ve traded integrity for access, and we all suffer for it. The way politicians can talk out of both sides of their mouth during a speech, sometimes in the same sentence, is truly remarkable.

The two areas that really bug me are teachers and science.

With teachers, I’ve heard them called every name in the book. They’re “union thugs” that have no interest in helping anyone. All they want is their comfortable tenured positions, the summer off, and their fat retirement packages.

I have to wonder: has anyone ever bothered to investigate just how much, how little, our teachers are paid? They don’t make much, people! The summer off; yeah, they get that and a long Christmas Break, Easter and so forth, but did you know they aren’t paid for that time? I once interviewed for a teaching position at a local Vo-Tech. I learned the hourly rate of pay, which flabbergasted me. It sounded very nice.

Doing the math.

Then, I learned I the pay for the actual hours I worked. When I “did the math” and calculated just what that would be for an annual salary, I found that it was quite the cut in pay. I couldn’t take the position.

Guess I wouldn’t have made a good thug. Ah, but then there are the heroic teachers. Let a teacher save some children from harm: a tornado, hurricane, or a crazed gunman, which, unfortunately, is getting more and more common; oh, then we hold teachers up as the gold standard for civil servants.

Then there’s science. The Tea Baggers, conservative politicians and pundits, and the rest of the GOP hate any science that disagrees with their worldview. Technology that makes computers, cars, and any new medicine they need; oh, that’s fine. Science or facts that contradict their views – oh, that’s a liberal conspiracy intent on destroying America, motherhood and apple pie. That means rejecting anything to do with Global Climate Change. Ah, but now public opinion is starting to shift against them – as more and more people are seeing the effects first hand! So, how do they react?

Well, first they claim that they’re willing to debate the subject, but that the other side is inflexible. Boy, talk about a reversal! This is exactly how they’ve acted for decades, and now they want to claim to be reasonable? Of course, this is just a delaying tactic. They speak of being willing to debate the issue. Well, here’s the thing: you don’t debate in science.

Those are the facts.

You draw a logical conclusion and then you move on. I guess that’s the problem, science deals with two things Tea Baggers and other conservatives aren’t used to facts or logic!

Finally, they play their trump card. There are a few Republicans willing to admit the climate is changing, but their response is very simplistic. They just say, “That’s okay, science will find an answer. After all, science developed fertilizer to improve crop yield and thus prevent hunger. So, scientists will solve the problem.”

Is this the same science you don’t believe in, I wonder. The same scientists you call left-wing liberal conspirators bent on creating a new world order under their domination.

How in the world these people can be so two-faced is completely beyond me.