Hey, Young Republican by Eric Fackrell

I wonder
Were you there for Brown v. Board
With your picket signs
Or at the ratification of the 15th Amendment
Foretelling of a socialist demise
Did you stand at Gettysburg
And tell the government to keep its hands off your slaves

Social conservatism preaches:
“Let’s turn the clock back to 1950”
To a time when
Women were subordinate
Gays were forced into the closet
Blacks were beaten in the streets
And stripped naked by fire hoses
I wonder
Were you there holding the hose?
Are you proud?

“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”
But is life only for the rich
The white
The righteous?
A blind and wounded elephant
Stampedes
On the cusp of legislation
That may literally save your life
You protest on Capitol Hill
Screaming, “Nigger” at a civil rights hero
Crying, “Faggot” at a gay rights champion
Spit in their faces
That is your legacy
Are you proud?

I was nine years old
When my young Republican friends
Decried Clinton and his dialobical plot of year-round school
I spent months explaining
That year-round school did not mean
School on weekends
Or no summer break
Fourteen years later
It’s the same argument
Fact versus fiction
Reality versus fantasy

Tried to give your enemy his Waterloo
At any cost
What do you gain, young Republican
From trampling on the sick and poor
With your heavy hoof
Don't you see
There's nothing radical about this
Don't you see
That single-payer care was your idea
Forty years ago
That insurance mandates were your idea
Just fifteen years ago
What's so different now?
I see one difference and it's as clear as
Black
And
White

So pardon my bluntness when I say
You don’t know shit
From death panels to deficit lies
You’ve flooded the population
With fear and misinformation
You never read the health care bill
Just strained it through a sieve of bumper stickers
And talking points
What comes out is nothingness

Take a look around
Sixty-seven countries with universal care or single-payer
Have they descended into socialist hell?
Or are their life expectancies better than ours?
I wonder
How you'll tell the 20 year old cancer patient
That his insurance policy has been rescinded
Or that his lifetime cap has been reached
And they'll be no more care

Welcome to Waterloo, my friends

Are you proud?