So, the Republican Party decided it needed to spend some money to "promote" the trending topic #areyoubetteroff" on Twitter heading into the opening of the Democratic Convention. This is a move that, to me, seems either fraught with one of the worst cases of amnesia known to man, or makes me wonder if whomever is pulling the strings for the Repubs has suffered some sort of forceable rape of imagination.
Why?
Well, on a larger scale we were heading into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. One that shook just about everything we know to its core. Unless you were one of the folks on Wall St or in the finanical sector that brought this thing down on our heads I can't imagine that the chaos four years ago didn't affect you or someone you know.
On a personal level what happened four years ago came very close to killing the not-for-profit business I run. It's called a theatre. Ticket sales had already been slowing as the economy had already started slowing (remember we wouldn't find it out that we'd been in a recession officially since 2007 until much later). Fundraising was non-existant. Major pledges that had been made to pay for a much needed renovation on our facility did not come through worsening our debt situation. Don't get me wrong, we know in this business that when times are tough our business suffers. So, I can't blame folks who were themselves hurting. I can and do blame the bastards who brought this down on all of us, and the folks who were supposed to be on the watch for the theivery they perpetrated. And let's remember that all happened in the run up to four years ago.
Even more personal, my mother was still alive. She had yet to be diagnosed with the cancer that woud take her life. The hell she went through in 2010 brought about by her disease was going on while the debate over health care was taking place. As I lived through that with her, I watched really good people in the health care industry find ways to skirt through the rules of the game set forth by the insurance companies. Talk about a system rigged absolutely against those who need it and those who work to help those in need. I to this day wonder why the Democrats were stupid enough to let the Republicans walk away using the term Death Panels. I dealt with a few Insurance Company Death Panels for my Mom. Talk about vampires. But neither the Democrats or the Republicans have have locked in the market on idiocy. They seem to share enough of that to go around. But then there's that hashtag that makes me wonder about that currently.
So, there's two moments from my life that answer the ridiculous question that the Republcans want us to ask. Hell, yes, I'm better off than I was four years ago. Here's my question to the Republicans, #areyouguysreallythisstupid? Get a clue.
