Inside A Bubble

"Can't wait to watch and listen to Obama's "State of ILLUSION" speech tonight! I wonder if he will say that the rich should pay more in taxes (since that's only fair) while conveniently failing to mention that 47% of the population pays ZERO income tax?! LOL

"Mitt Romney made $21 million last year, paid $3 million in TAXES.....AND ....gave away $3 million to charity.....that no good,rich,greedy bastard doesn't do/pay his share!!!!;-
LOL"

 (Actual quotes by a working class Prison Guard that I know on Facebook!)

These two sarcastic quotes above were made by a white guy who happens to be a Facebook "friend" of mine.  I "friended" him only because we served in the same unit when I was in the United States Air Force...Outside of his reactionary right wing politics, he's actually not a bad guy.  Even when we were in the Air Force....In a unit that was predominately Black and Hispanic, this guy often and brazenly spouted his reactionary views....We took turns laughing and making fun of him then...

I'm not surprised at his views ..knowing this guy as I do...But what I don't understand is why this guy feels the way he does...Why he openly defends the richest American's priveledge of not paying any taxes.... You see, this guy I'm talking about is a prison guard.  He works in one of the state's larger maximum security prisons and he lives in upstate Pennsylvania....Where I'm sure the majority,if not all of his neighbors are white...While the majority of the people he locks up and guards are Black and Latino.  He once confided in me that prior to entering the military...He never knew any African-American men who were married and had children ...never personally knew any who had been to college and didn't have some type of criminal record...All of this was new to him he told me.

I was the Non-Commisioned Officer in charge of him at one time and he admitted that I had been fair and that it had been an "honor" to serve under me.. All of this was politics not withstanding of course. I just wonder if he and the people he lives around who think as he does lives in a bubble.

He's a working man, as I am...He pays taxes ,like I do....Probably more taxes than he should, yet he's okay with doing that and with the wealthy not paying their fair share....He believes that Republican lie that 47 percent...(which would be half the U.S. population)...doesn't pay any income tax.....Really?? Are you that stupid?..Do you think this nation could survive and run at all if that were true?? 

Comedian Bill Mahr has this skit he does where he has a man sitting inside a bubble and he and Keith Olbermann  shouted facts at this person...like "One plus one equals two"....but because the person was in a bubble , they didn't want to hear it...They couldn't hear it....They would cover their ears and cover their eyes.

This is how I feel these people...These working class people are who vote Republican time after time after time.  These people who vote against their class interests, who vote for the very people that are screwing them.   So blinded and walled away from the regular world by their racism and their fear and their self proclaimed ,self righteousness that they can't hear, they can't see, they won't understand a fact of life if it stares them in the face.

These are the people that voted in this reactionary and nutty tea party congress...These are the people who might vote for Rick Santorum, Bat shit crazy Ronny Paul and the big fraud, Newt Gingrich....Most sane people of the liberal and progressive bend say that these nutty candidates don't have a chance of winning the election in the fall.

I thought that too...Then I hear the rantings of this guy and know that there are many more like him  who would vote for them. What's more, they might outnumber people who look like me.  I get scared all of a sudden. Very, Very scared.

Do these people live in a bubble?  I'm afraid so.