It has long been my intention to present an overview of our constitution and the people who conceived and ratified it. Indeed, I have started that particularly dry and scholarly column many times, each time abandoning the effort to my adrenal glands and their stimulation by the news of the day.

This month, the roadblocks to my project were a series of columns on healthcare that appeared in a variety of newspapers. This topic has, as readers of this column can attest, been one of my recurring evidences of the mendacity and callousness of the Right. The issue illustrates the difference between the priorities and policies of the two parties in such an obvious way, that I come back to it time and again. Last column, I accused the right of depraved indifference to human life. I am not speaking of life in the abstract, life in the test tube, life in the ravaged brain cells and neurons of the hopelessly brain-dead, but of life in the beating hearts and warm bodies of our friends, families, and fellow human beings.

There was a book recently published (I have not read it; I don’t like horror stories) entitled “ What’s The Matter with Kansas?” The author reportedly attempts to explain why ordinarily sane middle-class Americans continue to vote against their own self interests and elect conservative Republicans again and again. To me, this equates with handing someone a baseball bat and requesting that they hit you over the head with it.

Hard.

Repeatedly.

I’m not from Kansas, so far be it from me to judge. I do know that it ain’t only Kansas. The South has seemingly banded together in a new Confederacy to elect only Southern conservative Republicans and vote en bloc to defeat any candidate from the Northeast. The last president elected from the latter geographical area was John Kennedy, and before him one has to look all the way back to FDR.

Perhaps they have soured on the Democrats after LBJ sold Medicaid and Medicare to the South by explaining that the Yankees would wind up paying most of the costs of the programs (northerners, not the baseball team). I suppose things were working out fine until Newt et al explained that both programs were nothing but godless socialism, and as such unworthy of our Christian nation.

Excuse me, our Judeo-Christian nation.

The Republicans have figured out how to demonize certain social programs as immoral, unnecessary, and most important, unaffordable. They do this while spending tens of billions of dollars on silly, unworkable weapons systems, unnecessary and badly planned wars, and reckless and unneeded tax cuts for the wealthiest among us.

What then will cause these red-staters to wake the hell up and smell the shell game? Perhaps when the bruises from the beating they are taking start to hurt, when the faces of the victims of conservative economics become the faces of their own families and friends.

Take the case of Erainna Johnson of Hazelhurst, Mississippi. She was left blind by a stroke in 1997. Ms. Johnson is taking 19 medications (the current Medicaid limit is seven) for her various conditions. She relies on friends, family, and free samples from doctors to make up the difference. She says that sometimes she is forced to cut her pills in half to make it through the month.

Starting July 8, Erainna will be limited to five prescriptions at a time, with no appeals process. She has tried to do without some of her medications, working with her doctor to try and find some she can “get by” without. She has tried eating more fruits and vegetables, but says she only became “very ill, very sick.”

No problem huh? Perhaps when we stand up a new Iraqi army, eliminate the estate tax, flush a few hundred billion more down the sinkhole of Bush’s insane “Missile Defense Shield,” we can address Erainna’s problem.

Nauseous yet?

Ok, here’s another case:

Maxine Mahoney of Jackson, Mississippi is 82 years of age, and lives on $605 a month. She takes 12 prescriptions per month, and like Erainna must contend with the new statewide cuts. Guess she should pull herself up by her bootstraps and eat more legumes.

While this is happening throughout the entire sovereign state of Mississippi, there is something particularly disturbing about Maxine’s situation. When asked what she thought politicians ought to do about the situation, she seemed to gloss over the obvious and reach for the fantastic

She shrugged and replied: "The Bible tells us we must pray for those in authority," she said. "And I do pray for them. I'm 82 years old, what more can I do?"

Not much, I guess. Pray for Bush. Pray for Frist. Pray for Delay.

In Mississippi, one of the reddest of the red states, their emaciated chickens have begun to stagger home to their increasingly rickety roosts. If you vote heartless ideologues into office, they will enact heartless legislation that will benefit only their corporate contributors such as the insurance industry. You, your family and friends will have to fend for yourselves, as the two poor souls mentioned above are finding out.

As for me, I say raise taxes through the damned roof. We are one of the most under taxed nations in the developed world. I am perfectly willing to pay more if those in charge will use the funds to help the poor and elderly instead of their rich pals. Lest you think that these cuts in Medicaid affect only the poorer of the states, just wait. Coming to a theater near you… The Grapes of Wrath starring YOU instead of Henry Fonda or Jane Darwell.

By all means, pray all you want for our leaders, just as long as you pull the right, er, CORRECT lever come November.

• • • • • • • • •

It seems that The Outspeaker is not the only entity that sees a parallel between our ruling party and the National Socialists. Senator Dick Durbin, Democrat of Illinois has recently apologized for remarks comparing the methods used at Gitmo to those used by the SS. He has asked that anyone who was offended by his remarks accept his apology.

I say his remarks didn’t go far enough.

Certainly, there are parallels between the Nazis and the present administration (though I can’t recall Himmler or Goebbels telling anyone on the floor of the Reichstag to go Schtupp himself) but the similarity ends with their methods. If anything, the Nazis were better liars, so the question becomes merely one of competency. It’s a tossup as far as I’m concerned.

• • • • • • • • •

A good memory is sometimes a curse. I recall that the very first thing Clinton pushed for was the “Gays in the Military” issue, an issue soon shot down by the conservative-leaning Democrat chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sam Nunn. Chastened, Bubba withdrew the proposal and settled for the silly “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy we enjoy to this day.

Can anyone recall what George H.W. Bush’s first priority was? He felt it imperative that, even though mired in a recession, Congress work day and night to pass his Flag Protection amendment to the Constitution. I also recall, upon hearing of his project, staring out my office window and reflecting on how typical of the Far Right this idiocy was. How would it work? If I made my own flag and burned it, would I still be culpable? How about a flag with 49 stars or 12 stripes, would it be criminal to desecrate it?

As we speak, the selfsame amendment has passed the House and is now awaiting the attention of the Senate. Perhaps we can pass an amendment that provides free prescription drugs and medical services to the flag…

…That is if we can afford it.

Thank you once more for your indulgence, I welcome any and all comments.