Back in March of 1985 during the second semester of my sophomore year at Morehouse College in Atlanta GA, instead of spending Spring Break home in New York like I'd done the previous year I decided, for reasons since forgotten, to spend it with my older brother in Washington DC. Well when I got there I noticed these very large protests taking place in front of the White House and the US Capitol by farmers from the Midwest over something then President Ronald Reagan had done to them (cutting their subsidies?).
Anyway I found the whole scene to be rather surreal because I knew most, if not all, of these very same protesters had voted for President Reagan in overwhelming numbers when he'd won reelection in a landslide the previous November. So I wasn't all that sympathetic to their plight because as far as I was concerned they had all screwed themselves by having voted for him; a sentiment echoed by a disk jockey on some radio show I was listening to as I was driven around DC one of the nights I was there.
I remember this fellow saying "Well America really wanted to elect John Wayne for president but John Wayne wasn't available (he'd died in 1979) so they chose instead Ronald Wilson Reagan!" After doing a piece on the farmers protests taking place this DJ then addressed them directly and said: "Well you (the farmers) wanted Ronnie Baby and now you've got him!" I don't recall what this DJ said afterwards because all of us in that car immediately busted out laughing.
Now I know it's unseemly to laugh about anyone else's misfortune but I can't help but chuckle a bit over the consternation now being felt by those who's unemployment benefits expired today and who had their food stamp subsidies greatly cut earlier by those very Republican members of Congress they themselves voted for. I mean I just don't feel all that sympathetic to those folks. Nor do I feel any real sympathy for the fools who stayed home and chose not to vote during the 2010 Midterm elections either because President Obama was not on the ballot or because they were mad at him for whatever rhyme or reason.
What's happened to these 1.3 million Americans who's unemployment benefits expired today and who's SNAP benefits were earlier cut back is a direct result of people who either vote for those who do not have their best interests at heart or who chose not to vote at all as a form of political protest. To be blunt the people who did either of the above have gotten exactly what they deserved. They are entitled to no sympathy whatsoever from anyone and as such if they want to blame anyone for their current plight they have no reason to blame those Republican politicians in Washington they either voted for or failed to vote against and every reason to blame themselves since it is primarily because of them that these Republican politicians who have screwed them over so royally are in Washington and did what they did.
So if you hear a Republican/Conservative complain about not being able to pay his/her mortgage, car note, utility, food bill, etc; just respond as that DJ in Washington DC did to those farmers way back in March of 1985: "Well you all wanted Boehner Baby (the Republicans) and now you've got em!"
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