extension of a conversation with a friend.

Among all those wandering around in a daze, we must include all those Republicans who somehow think they are the ones entitled to be angry, or "mad as hell" as they often say (unable to stretch themselves to something more original), or "pissed off" as they often say, trying to sound hip in a world they don't understand.

You couldn't be farther from the truth.

No one is more pissed off than the liberals of this country who have watched their former political party roll over and spread its legs for interests that are completely inimical to the programs and reforms that they supposedly stand for. This is the party of Wall Street bailouts without a jobs program, of human equality platforms without gay marriage laws, of "the party of the common man" without a law to deal one way or another with the illegal immigrants. This is the former "democratic" Democratic Party that couldn't pass a health care reform act that didn't provide fabulously for the pharmaceutical and insurance industries. This is the Democratic Party that complains about Republican campaign finance shenanigans, but which wouldn't dream of using its congressional majorities to correct these clear abuses.

The generation now entrenched in power is not able to correct these problems, because they are too rich. Like the Congress they tolerate, they have sold out their politics to their pocketbooks. Unlike the protesters and anti-war placard wavers they once were, they are now complacent in the repose of their TV rooms, enjoying the benefits of a comfortable lifestyle that unions and the Democratic Party gave them.

So it will be up to the next generation to give this country it's figurative (or maybe even literal) Reichstag fire house cleaning. Where we might go from there, I cannot imagine.