The God Awful Truth
Conservative christian cold-hearted capitalists are opposed to it.
There are many opinions online about the origins of the use of the term “god-awful” and its actual meaning.
Some want to say since god is awesome, awe-inspiring and can fill you with awe that is where the expression comes from. I think this version is crap.
Some say it is short for goddamn awful which clearly indicates something else.
Merriam and Urban dictionaries use words like “unbearably bad”, “abominable” and “lousy”.
I don’t know where or how it made its way into my lexicon but, when I use it, I use it as a superlative. I want to highlight something I feel is particularly onerous.
Or something really needs to be addressed, underlined or called out.
The other day one of my siblings texted that we have reached this point in American history because one narrative has been beaten into our psyche over the past half century. That narrative is “Government is bad.”
He pointed out that if the persuadables in our society could be persuaded one way, they can be persuaded to believe just the opposite. (I should point out. This is the least curmudgeonly of my siblings. Glass half full sort of guy.)
I’ve been trying to do just that - for the most part - with my somewhat regularly scheduled screeds. Change the narrative.
I mean, even if you don’t think government is one hundred per cent bad, chances are you are suspicious of government. Even if you think taxes are a good thing, paying taxes sucks. Even if you believe there can be good government, you know that there can be bad government.
Our government was working well after World War II and after the stimulus provided by the New Deal and all of the work projects and the emphasis on infrastructure. There was resistance then as well. It was not a socialist utopia, by any stretch of the imagination.
Tax rates were high and people believed in government programs.
Two things happened simultaneously during the Sixties. Vietnam shattered our nation’s shiny image and the Civil Rights movement scared the bejesus out of conservative white folks. They were not ready then, and they are not ready now, to share America’s largesse with people who did not look like them. People they considered their inferiors for, well, all eternity.
Reagan opened the door for people to rag on minorities with his comment about “welfare queens with Cadillacs”. He also started chopping down tax rates for the ubër rich.
H.W. used race-baiting Willie Horton ads to their fullest effect during his campaign to get elected president.
Bill Clinton said the era of “big government is over” playing right into their hands.
W. sent us down a path of never-ending war which meant never-ending profits for defense contractors, private armies and oil magnates. Which meant the American treasury got drained enough that Republicans could always cry penury and demand cuts in social programs and conveniently ignore all of the money spent on senseless conflicts.
Obama inherited a financial mess and was fortunate to be able to push one once-in-a-lifetime bill through Congress.
The former guy weaponized white angst and made it more than okay to come out of the closet with or without your hood. The former guy even made it okay to want to physically dismantle your government. And say so in public.
Here’s the goddawful truth to all of this.
Conservative (I’m going to refer to them as small “c”) christian cold-hearted capitalists are the core reason we are at this precipice. Small “c” christian because I am convinced most of them, like Ronald Reagan, had nary a Christian bone in their body. They used Christianity like a cudgel, sometimes like a scalpel.
Just as effectively as televangelists do.
I said “used”. It, of course, is still going on.
Gun reform? Conservative christian cold-hearted capitalists are opposed.
Universal health care? Conservative christian cold-hearted capitalists are opposed.
Remove the racist tool that has kept Black people in check for decades - the filibuster? Conservative christian cold-hearted capitalists are opposed.
Planned Parenthood clinics? Even though abortions are less likely when women are fully informed of their options? Conservative christian cold-hearted capitalists are opposed.
Preserve our public spaces? Preserve our free flowing rivers? Set aside bioregions for endangered species? Conservative christian cold-hearted capitalists are opposed.
Conservatism - as a political entity - no longer exists. Their “platform” in the last election was “whatever the former guy deemed worthy”. There was no platform. That’s why I wrote earlier that Republicans no longer believe in democracy. They’ve been pushing for government of the rich, for the rich and by the rich for quite some time. It’s their only tune. Slash taxes for the wealthy and demean government that helps people.
We have the means to lift all boats on a rising tide. But we’ve gone too far in the direction of assuming that private enterprise can accomplish this for us via the invisible hand of Adam Smith or the mumbo jumbo of the fictional Ayn Rand universe or the sorcery of the trickle down theory.
America’s New World Puritans will never get on board.
We’re just going to have to tell better stories.
For example, I think about Obamacare versus the Affordable Care Act. There is no versus, you know.
The ACA was relabeled Obamacare because the Conservative christian cold-hearted capitalists were opposed to it. They wanted to tie it around Obama’s neck like an albatross. But the funny thing was - people would say they liked the ACA - because of the pre-existing condition clause, and their kids under 26 years of age could be carried on their policies and the tax breaks were huge, but they were skeptical of Obamacare.
There’s no accounting for stupidity, but the good news was that it was a pretty popular government program. That’s what we need more of and, in addition, we need to control the narrative.
Great video on How America Invented Race set to a Hamilton-like tune.
Also, I’ve been turned on to the tunes of Harry Styles. In particular, his new album titled Fine Line. You most certainly should give it a listen. It has become one of those collection of songs I can listen to over and over. Each one feels like it’s from a slightly different genre of music.
This is the title song.
Spring has sprung. I’m double vaccinated! It’s a brave new, brand new world. - JLM