The more I hear from this man, the more I realize that I hope he runs for president, or the senate some day. I'm talking about Alan Grayson. I am old enough to be his father, and I can say, I would be proud to be such. We are both on the same page, as they say over there in corporate lackyland
This email I received from him is related to my last post, which didn't really garner the outrage I thought it would, but WTF.
Dear William, (That's me...don't ask about the J thingy)
Cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security? Let’s think about this.
Medicare helps to heal people who are old and sick. Medicaid helps to heal people who are poor and sick. And for most people, without Social Security, they would have to work until the day they die.
These are not things that I want to cut. But some people do.
Who are these people who want to cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security? I know some of them. For two years, I sat with them in a room – the Floor of the House – for several hours a day.
I got to know some of them quite well. I can summarize their views in six short words: “Let the Devil Take the Hindmost.”
“Let the Devil Take the Hindmost” refers to a situation where the Devil is chasing us. Some of us – the young, the fit, the healthy -- are able to run away from the Devil. And those others – the old, the children, the sick and, frankly, the scared – they can’t run as fast. They’re the hindmost. They’re the ones that the Devil catches, and destroys.
So what should the ones who run faster do? Should they grab hold of the hindmost, lift them up, and help them to run to safety? Or should they just let the Devil take the hindmost, while they escape?
You know what Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity would do in that situation. And Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin. They would let the Devil take the hindmost.
But you wouldn’t. And I wouldn’t.
The phrase “Let the Devil Take the Hindmost” is a venerable phrase; it just celebrated its 400th birthday. It comes from a 1610 play called “Love Lies a-Bleeding.” (All you Elton John fans now know where the song “Love Lies Bleeding” comes from.) Shakespeare didn’t write the play, but it was performed by Shakespeare’s theatre troop, The King’s Men.
In Act V of “Love Lies a-Bleeding,” the people rise in rebellion against a bad government. The character Thrasiline questions whether the people can remain united, however. Thrasiline says that even when a mere “toy” clicks at the people’s heels, “they run all away, and cry, ‘the devil take the hindmost.’
Dion responds to Thrasiline this way: “Then the same devil take the foremost too, and souse him for his breakfast! If they all prove cowards, my curses fly amongst them, and be speeding!”
(“Sousing” is cooking a cut of meat until it is well done, pulling the meat off the bones, and then mashing it.)
And that’s the point – the 400-year-old point. If the Devil is chasing us, there is no reason to think that he’ll ever be satisfied just taking the hindmost. The Devil will take the foremost, too. Mash them up, and eat them for breakfast.
The Devil in America today is poverty, unemployment, malnutrition, bigotry, selfishness, ignorance, disease and death. When the Right Wing says that we have to cut Social Security, cut Medicare, cut Medicaid, cut unemployment insurance, cut education, cut food stamps, what they’re really saying is “let the Devil take the hindmost.”
I think that we’d all be a lot better off if we stopped running, we all turned on the Devil, and we fought back together. At least we would have a chance.
I’d rather fight, not run away.
What about you?
Courage,
Alan Grayson
19 comments:
I am going to keep an eye on this dude..I like him.
Can't figure for the life of me how Mr. Grayson was not re-elected. I suppose it's because he's in the heart of knee-jerk regressive Florida.
The devil is unbridled greed.
Grayson put a bullseye on his back when he took the well of the House and started telling the truth about the conservatives. They singled him out, along with Russ Feingold, and got their scalps in the last election.
He'll be back, and we'll be better off with him in Congress.
YD G---He'll be back.
Mr. C---Having lived in Central Florida for 4 years, I can say you nailed it. When he got elected I was actually shocked.
squatlo---Well, I've contributed to his re-election campaign, albeit a piddling amount, and I don't even live in Florida.
About the only one speaking truth to power in Congress anymore is Bernie Sanders. We need more like him and Grayson.
Kulkuri---Amen brother.
I forgot about Grayson. I've been so cynical about anyone in public office that I forget that there may be a few with actual principles. I guess I'm scared that it will interfere with my now comfortable world view that they all suck.
In a way, cutting Medicare and SS would be the breath of life. It would awaken a sleeping giant. Everyone pays a fortune into SS and they want that when they retire. People who live on both programs will certainly vote. People who have parents on Medicare will certainly vote. Heck, people who work and get all grilled when they see FICA will vote. We may actually have a turnout. And that always means that the so-called small government types(government stays big for their interests) get their ass whooped.
What do I know? I didn't even know that Murdock owned Fox News.
"The Devil take the hindmost" segues neatly into that Nazi Germany poem about "when they came for the Jews I said nothing because I wasn't a Jew...then when they came for me..."
Susan---I am so fucking tired of Social Security and Medicare being called entitlement programs that I want to throttle someone. Medicare is paid into. Social Security is also paid into. When the U.S. Government borrows money, it borrows from...you guessed it...the Social Security Trust by issuing Treasury Bonds to the Trust. And of course, borrows from China. But...listen to this, taken from
http://bestpossiblelife.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/the-most-interesting-thing-you-dont-know-about-the-deficit/
"...Another argument made by Social Security opponents to raise fear about the national debt is how much our government has borrowed from China. They never mention how much our government has borrowed from Social Security. In fact, the government has borrowed more from the Social Security surplus than it has from any other source in the world, including China. As a result, Social Security now “owns” nearly 18 percent of the federal debt, making it the largest single holder of US debt. The government owes almost twice as much to Social Security as it does to China and Hong Kong."
Basically, cutting back on Social Security is thievery...reneging on a promised pay-back loan in the form of Tresury Bonds. And the Repugs apparently are correct...we are too Goddamned stupid to see it.
Sorry for the rant, but I am one pissed off individual.
Btw, Murduckfuck along with China owns about half the Western World.
Tom---Absolutely! Good one!
The Democratic Party and the Republican Party are like good cops and bad cops. They are both the same (cops) with one agenda (screw the middle class and poor), but one makes believe they are on our side.
Good cop Obama threatens that seniors and the disabled will not receive their Social Security checks on August 3rd if the bad cop Republicans don't increase the debt limit. The Republicans won't give in unless Obama cuts something from Social Security and Medicare.
Eventually, Obama will cut some Social Security and Medicare benefits and still come out smelling like a rose claiming that he had to do it so seniors get their checks in August.
He cuts Social Security but he is a hero because "he saved" Social Security. Yeah, Obama!
Obama, the Democrats and the Republicans in Congress all work for the same 'person': the ONEPERCENTER. The billionaires and millionaires of our country and the world.
Little by little, Obama and our congress is returning the American people to a time just before 1776, a time of only rich and poor, a time of only royalty and peasants.
Chimp---OK, now I'm depressed. Are you saying it don't mean sheeeeit?
The expression was known colloquially. The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations lists "Every man for himself and the Devil take the hindmost" as an 'early 16th century' proverb.
It's a way of saying, "Don't be slow, because no one is going to stay behind and save you!" The expression dates from at least 1611.
From recollection, I think it may have been a common way of expressing the military order to run away. A 'retreat' is supposed to be a repositioning rearwards in good order, whereas the expression 'every man for himself' gives permission for the unit under command to run away as best they can - a 'rout' - a command that would be most likely given when faced with overwhelmingly superior forces, e.g. lightly-armed infantry facing cavalry (prior to the use of a square, unable to form square or without the weapons needed to defend a square).
Punch---What the fuck are you talking about? The man already explained it. The man in YOUR STATE that YOU should be supporting and rallying around.
We don't want to be hearing about a bunch of coward slackers running from the Hun hoardes and fornicators in the halls of America's hallowness.
As that great American patriot Winston Churchill said, "We have nothing to fear except those who have given so little for so many...the one percent"...or some shit like that there.
Pay attention, pal!
BTW, as an old...no, ex, not old, Army man, it is never RETREAT, it is a retro-active maneuver.
Alass, I am not the one that titled the blog: "Let the devil take the hindmost"
As stated earlier it is not a retro-active maneuver, it is 'EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF'. God help the Broads!!
Bro.!
I can't believe you would attack Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin - After all they are all Job Creators.
the Ol'Buzzard
Punch---This is like talking to a cockatoo.
Ol'Buzzard---Yeah...their own multi-million dollar jobs.
Don't be sorry for the rant. Only recently did I realize that Republicans called SS and Medicare entitlement. Well, then what about the interest on the loans to bailout the banks? Shouldn't that go to us as well as the taxpayers footed the bill?
They are lying and they know they're lying. However, they cater to a demographic that aren't too bright and believe that it is their unalienable right to stay that way. Maybe the Republicans aren't as stupid as I thought.
What the hell do people think FICA stands for? I don't like how much goes out of my check, but I figure I will see it later. And I had better see it later. Now I see why you are so pissed off. I didn't know people were saying that SS and Medicare were entitlement programs. Geez, they probably believe the sky is orange.
PS I got to agree with Chimp.Both sides are playing us for suckers.
Susan---You think? Nah ;-)
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