The "Greed is Good" Generation goes to the Polls

Remember when US Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell said shortly after Obama was elected that it was their priority above all else to make the Obama Presidency a one-term administration?  We also heard much the same from Rush, Sara, and many others as if reading from the same script.  They really mean it; that is their priority above and instead of anything else suggesting that they would rather see America go down the tube than to lose any power in Washington.

What about the American People?  Well, I have a theory:  Basically, for Republicans, winning, no matter how, is all that matters.  But before you say "duh" hear me out as to why I think the very appearance of this blatant shift to "guerrilla" partisanship portends a much more perilous path for American politics not unlike the free-wheeling 2000's would lead to the near collapse of the US economy.

"Winning" at any costs is not only Charlie Sheen's mantra, it is what the one-percenters and their wannabe's talk about around cigars and brandy at the country club, in reverential tones.  Just so long as it is a score, there is respect.  Like the Wall Street folks who cross over into any gray area of the laws and regulations just so long as they "make a killing" is all that is important.  And, illegal and immoral activities are clearly "gray areas" so long as they don't get caught.

We have a generation of young people who grew up on movies like the Sting, Wall Street, and many others where not only the con was on, but the thieves became handsome or gorgeous characters that the new generation could fantasize about.  For my generation, crime could not pay.  For my son's generation, it is all about winning.

OK, we have seen what "Greed is Good" ethos did for Wall Street, but now that it has metastasized to politics, what's the harm?  Winning in politics is what it is all about.  But the problem for America is that we could be heading for an uprising or violence and unrest.  Smoldering below the surface, learning to do without, waiting for a little prosperity to trickle down their way, is a growing number of newly disenfranchised Americans.  Republican elected officials across the country are using voter ID tactics to disenfranchise large numbers of mostly Democratic votes.  They admit it!  It is a blatant win at any cost political tactic; that is the point.  But, again, as with the financial crisis of four years ago, there are consequences, there is a cost. 

God help us all.