One big political party -- call them Republicrats -- is tearing us apart

If I were 26 years old, I would become an emigrant.

If I were 36, I would become a revolutionary.

But I am 66 years old and very tired, so all I can really do is keep writing and hope my words can influence at least one or two people to look at our system and see the rot behind the facade.

You can't have a functioning republic if 65 percent of the people never read books.

You can't have a functioning economy when 40 percent of the people are too illiterate to hold down shift leader jobs at fast food restaurants.

You can't have a functioning country of 308 million people when a major political movement is about not trusting the government to do anything, or when most politicians of both parties are so deep in corporate pockets that they rarely even see the people they're supposed to represent.


Better than 60 percent of the people polled say the country is going in the wrong direction, and that has been the same whether George W. Bush was president or Barack Obama was in the White House.

Things that started as jokes -- "Greed is good" or "He who dies with the most toys, wins" -- have become personal philosophies.

We text $10 to Haitian relief and then we go back to watching our big screen televisions with theater sound.

Name one thing that we as Americans really give a shit about.

Millions of people are losing their homes, and millions of others are sinking into personal bankruptcy. There are an awful lot of people in this country who -- and pardon my imagery here -- if their boss said get on your knees and satisfy me, they would be afraid to even ask for knee pads. They'd close their eyes, think patriotic thoughts and be glad they still had a job.

We've probably had this coming for a long, long time. We've been worshipping wealth, making heroes out of idiots like Donald Trump, and believing all the garbage we hear about how we too can be rich.

Well, folks in the Weimar Republic in the 1920s were pretty rich -- many of them were billionaires -- but when it costs 2 million marks for a loaf of bread, well, relativity's a bitch.

At this point, It's difficult to care much whether the Democrats or the Republicans are running things. Republicans are meaner, Democrats are sleazier. One party has no heart, the other has no spine.

If I could push a button tomorrow and every politician in the country would be transported to the moon, I'd call that a good start.

Then the CEOs.

Then the lawyers.

Then the insurance companies.

Well, the problem is it never ends, and you can't get rid of all the people who'll talk till they're out of breath about why their side is better than the other side.

Screw both sides, unless they're willing actually to be on opposite sides.

The No. 1 principle Republicans have is electing more Republicans and holding onto power. The No. 1 principle Democrats have is electing more Democrats and holding onto power.

What will Republicans go to the wall for?

Keeping taxes on the wealthy as low as possible.

And Democrats?

Sadly, I think they generally give in on taxes and tend to fight the good fight, such as it is, only on social issues.

The thought that the two parties could work together for the good of the country the way they did until about 30 years just doesn't seem possible anymore.

These people are killing our country.