Neo-Con Fasci-Nation

I'm constantly amazed at how different our country is from the one I learned about in school. Everything I was raised to believe about the Good 'Ole USA has been turned on its head.

• I was raised to believe that if you worked hard and obeyed the rules, you would never be homeless or hungry in America.
  
• I was raised to believe that a "pension fund" was a binding contractual obligation created to help a dedicated and loyal employee retire after years of hard work.
  
• I was raised to believe in "overtime" and the 40-hour work week- and remember the courageous working-class Americans who fought and sacrificed to secure those rights for us.
  
• I was raised to believe that taxes were meant to "promote the general welfare" as well as provide for the uncommonly huge defense budget.
  
• I was raised to believe you should pay your bills on time and avoid burying yourself in mountains of debt.
  
• I was raised to believe that the U.S. was good and righteous and promoted equality and fair play both here and abroad.
  
• I was raised to believe that the tyranny of the majority couldn't happen in America because the built-in checks and balances in our constitutional democracy wouldn't allow it.
  
• I was raised to believe in the Bill Of Rights.
  
• I was raised to believe that science was apolitical.
  
• I was raised to believe there were good reasons our founders emphasized the seperation of church and state.
  
• I was raised to believe a "free and unfettered press" was an integral part of keeping a constitutional democracy healthy.
  
• I was raised to belive that our government was created "of the people, by the people and for the people".
  
• I was raised to believe no American was above or beyond the law, not even The President of The United States.
  
• I was raised to believe cheaters could never be winners.
  
  

Thanks to the shameless governance of extremist neo-cons who have been ruining the U.S. for the past six and a half years, I now realize my elementary and naive illusions about America were completely and utterly false.

I hold this truth to be self-evident: that it's every man, woman and child for himself in America - the rules be damned.