Djelloul Marbrook

Can we really be as religious a nation as we’re cracked up to be? Or are we sound-bite religious? Just asking.

There’s a question the politicians don’t have the fortitude to ask. I don’t think the preachers do either. What kind of a society are we willing to pay for?

Caring for the other guy doesn’t come cheap. It doesn’t come from political shell games, like giving the richest 10 percent of the population a tax break and calling it a break for everyone. Words are cheap, games are cheap, but putting our money where our mouth is hurts.

The politicians figure we’ll vote for them as long as they don’t raise our taxes, and if they cut them, so much the better. But the more they cut those taxes in Washington the more expensive state and local government becomes, and the higher your property taxes climb.

That’s the sleight of hand that’s been sending people to Washington to represent the corporations that are cutting your pay and benefits and shipping your jobs to India.

Another game is to say we don’t have to use tax money to help the poor and the sick, let the churches do it. Well, are the churches doing it? Some of them are having trouble keeping their doors open.

Most of us can’t afford to send our sons and daughters to college, much less graduate school. Most of us can’t afford to get sick. But we sure do like those tax-cutting tricksters intent on transferring what’s left of middle-class affluence to the rich.

What’s that about?

The corporations are getting the government they paid for. And we’re getting the government we’re not willing to pay for. What a deal. A deal struck in the most religious nation in the western world, and it sure wasn’t made in heaven, was it?

—DM