"The system literally hates them."

Very powerful stuff here via James Wolcott.

There is no better country than America in the whole world to be rich. It is probably the only country in the world where the rich are loved. Conversely there is no worse country in the world to be poor. Of course these people are paranoid, the system literally hates them.

Then Digby digs up some stuff on Fred Thompson's stalker admirer, Margaret Carlson, who actually gets it, but is overwhelmed by visions of lobster ravioli dancing in her tiny head:

No, Carlson spends little time on Bush’s policies, though it’s clear who she thinks they favor. For example, she briefly mentions Bush’s legislative approach after the 2002 elections. “After his big win in the midterm elections in 2002,” she writes, “Bush lurched further in the direction of protecting those who have against those who don’t.” But she spends much more time discussing the way Bush provided better food on his plane. Mmmm! “There were Dove bars and designer water on demand,” she recalls, “and a bathroom stocked like Martha Stewart’s guest suite. Dinner at seven featured lobster ravioli.” Apparently, Bush’s policies reflect the tastes of “those that have” even when dinner bells chime.

And yesterday, in discussing the Bushville tent city that's sprung up outside L.A. for people who are out of their homes due in part to the mortgage meltdown, Atrios wrote:

There's a narrow window in the period just after people slip through the cracks when they are seen sympathetically, as "people like us" who had bad luck. As time goes by, they fast cease to be "like us" and sympathy fades.

I'm so sick of people equating success with virtue. I'm sick of the lack of sympathy. I'm sick of protecting those who have from those who don't. I'm sick of the meanness and hardness that comes from living in a culture where all of this is accepted as the norm.

Go back to David Seaton via Wolcott. This is what Huckabee's tapping into. It's what John Edwards is tapping into (although he's not allowed to tap into it because he spent $400 on a haircut, but I digress ...). It's what the Margaret Carlson's of the world would rather avoid by scarfing down Dove bars and lobster ravioli. And it's what millions of people would shout "Fuck yeah!' in respose to if only they weren't terrified that they'd lose their house/health insurance/paycheck for doing so."

At Wolcott, Seaton writes:

The entire American economy is based on making people feel bad about themselves, making them feel poor, ugly, sick, helpless, stupid, inadequate and then offering to sell them something to relieve the pain of rejection and failure.

It's based on making them afraid, too. Of losing the aforementioned house/health insurance/paycheck and of the myriad of boogymen under our collective beds. You think we don't have national health care because we can't do it or can't afford it? We don't have national health care because if we did, quitting your job and moving on to something better or even to the unknown wouldn't be so fucking terrifying. Some American dream, huh?

Sorry this is so disjointed. Wolcott got me all riled up.