On a day as celebrated by the left as it was reviled by the right, key members of the Republican party and the Conservative movement kicked their rhetoric into high gear painting a picture of fire, brimstone, retribution, and rage. From the web to the radio, television news, and terse statements, the GOP seems hell bent on grabbing the ear of any reporter or the lens of any television camera with a refrain similar to “Howard Beale’s” legendary rallying cry.

But is the country really as convinced as the likes of John Boehner and Rush Limbaugh that the passage of the Healthcare Reform bill signifies doom? According to the latest Wall Street Journal poll American’s are in fact unhappy with the President’s handling of the Healthcare Reform issue, with 57% disapproving and only 41% approving. A referendum on the President and the Left’s pursuit of reform? Perhaps, but Republicans fair no matter with 59% disapproving and only 35% approving of their handling of Healthcare. While both sides will point to each sides grim poll Numbers and accuse and insinuate neither seems close to understanding or concerned by the seeming fact that the American people have simply become too frustrated, to exhausted from this bitter fight which has likely torched the notion of bi-partisanship in our times and doomed us all to an escalation of the same name calling and finger pointing that has driven millions upon millions of Americans away from the political process.

Now sure, many will say that they love the gladiatorial showdown between candidates, the snarls and the fire breathing, they do afterall unrepentantly partake in the form of tea party movements and the like, but it is in essence candy coated poison designed to delight us in the beginning and slowly kill us from within over time. How does a fiery full page ad which subtly portrays Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi as a near Satanic figure with a headline demanding donations in an effort to “Fire Pelosi” on the front page of the GOP’s official website move the dialog in this country? What do we gain from shouts of “You lie” or “Baby Killer” on the hallowed floor of the United States Capital?

Is the Presidency of our country, the position not the person, well served, when the President is called “stupid”, “an idiot”, “a Nazi”, “a Socialist”, “Communist”, and all manor of other foul epithets hurled at recent Presidents? Are our children? How about when the memory of those lost to true monsters like Joseph Stalin, Mao, Hitler, and Bin Laden is sullied by ridiculous comparisons to our Presidents. Read carefully those words, “our Presidents”, because in this divisive landscape it is forgotten or worse neglected. From Bill Clinton’s impeachment hearing to the calls that George W. Bush stole the 2000 election in Florida, or the 2004 election in Ohio to the “Birther Movement” partisan divisiveness has spread like a cancer, no longer happy to merely block progress it now spreads, undermining our very democracy.

Republicans, as culpable in this as Democrats over these dawning years of an Internet age that is always thirsty for fresh content and spilled blood have no less then abandoned any remaining shred of decency, launching an all out assault against not only Democrats but any remaining voter who viewed politics as more then a vulgar blood sport.

Threats, and calls for violence, retribution, vandalism, and articles that do nothing more then inflame. Like the headline that screams out “IRS Hiring Thousands of Armed Tax Agents to Enforce Obamacare?” with an accompanying image of a Swat team showing a shocking lack of responsibility from a media outlet, hardly a novel sin in journalism these days nut perhaps less inflamatory the statements of Politicians and pundits?

“America witnessed the first vote for the end of representative government.” said Micheal Steele, Chairman of the GOP, “You saw the Constitution burned by the Democrats tonight” said former Republican Majority Leader Tom Delay last night. “The Constitution has just been ripped to shreds, so why is anything safe?” asked talk radio mouth Rush Limbaugh, adding “defeat these ba******!”. Limbaugh also warned that “leftist radicals will now be making your health care decisions, instead of your doctor,”.

That these quotes come from Conservatives is merely a consequence of their defeat, as there is no doubt the Democrats would have had their own collection of childish and extreme rants had they lost. That these represent merely the first salvo in a war that has already seen so much bloodshed is yet another fact that makes me hang my head though.

Our elected officials have failed us, not in the law that they passed but in their rampant abuses on the good notion of democracy. Nobody wins when there are threats of retribution for every inch moved forward, no winner as long as hate and one-upmanship rules each chamber. For as long as they are so far apart and so willing to wound each other for the entertainment and carnivorous delight of a small yet vocal segment of their constituents with no regard for the damnation it brings our society as a whole this nation shall move no further, our brilliance and glory dimming everyday that we allow that which divides us to not only keep us from action but spur us to break apart.

With Congressional Democrats obsessed with passing something resembling Healthcare Reform, (redeeming more then a years worth of slung mud) and Republicans seemingly comfortable vilifying the long term unemployed as lazy leaches feasting upon societies good nature little hope seems left for those who have or are about to lose the very last of their unemployment benefits.

Indeed even those in the midst of their initial 26 week allotment, or tier 2 or 3 might be rightly called foolish optimists if they expect anything beyond another one month continuing extension of the previous extension of extensions before members of the Senate and House sprint at the sound of a school bell for their long and under-due Spring vacation. A short term extension like the one proposed by House Ways and Means Chairman Sander Levin (D-MI).

Levin’s bill likely signals a stalemate in the lower chamber with regard to a long term extension that would push the date of expiration on the use of all existing tiers to December 31, 2010. Separate House and Senate bill’s with similar parameters have previously passed but there is no word where the committee process stands. Though the long term extension that previously passed the House contained language alluding to an additional tier both the Senate bill and Levin’s band aid include no such language.

To the long term unemployed this can’t come as a shock. Hung up on this policy prerogative or that, or simply in the midst of playing the games legislators play the the Senate and House have twice allowed benefits to lapse, recently due to GOP Senator Jim Bunning’s hissy fit and back in October prior to the approval of the most recent extension. A lull that pushed many to wipe out whatever meager savings they had managed to scrape together.

Even the meager efforts to help have fallen short in their adequacy and aim. A tax credit to employers who hire the long term unemployed. A necessary move but look deeper, eschewing a tiered system the credit defines “long term unemployed” as someone out of work for more then two months and delivers the same credit for anyone in that group. Can the plight of someone unemployed for two months and someone unemployed for two years really be equalized? Can we really deny the bias towards the truly long term unemployed due to the fact that they have been without work for so long?

It goes beyond recent measures though. Repeatedly Congress has ignored the push to make unemployment benefits non taxable, posing yet another hardship on the unemployed. Even the C.O.B.R.A. subsidy, a thoroughly successful program, still only covers 65% of premiums leaving a hefty fiscal burden on those that can ill afford much more then food, shelter, and necessary utilities.

And make no mistake with hardly enough to survive much less abuse it is food, shelter, and those utilities that most unemployed dedicate the bulk of their benefits towards not pleasure trips and extravagant toys. Still not disabused of the notion that  the out of work are “poor because they want to be” and happily living off the fat of your tax dollars? I invite you to try a month living in your present situation on even the maximum allowable benefit for your state. Take a look at the classifieds or the job boards. Sift through the hundreds of scam opportunities and other mirages hoping that one of the thousands of resumes you have submitted nets you an interview much less a job.

Never forget that those who are unemployed are often times just like you, people with an education, people with families, people who still dream. These are the people who misfortune has found and it can come to any one of us, in any way, for as long as it wishes.

Those who have not been able to beat back misfortune, those whose lives have been widdled down to their most basic needs live lives built on the head of a pin with little room for expanse. For them there is no more room for tragedy, no more luxuries to cull. They are simply on the edge of that pin about to be pushed off because a group of Politicians seem to have arbitrarily decided that they’ve had enough time to pick up the pieces, had enough help.

Maybe they think this downturn is fully over, that the glints of light poking through the dark rubble of our economic foreground make it sunshine in America once more. But now as always improved employment serves as the last measure of economic rebirth and we are simply not there yet. Hardship it seems, rushes across the land like a Tsunami while recovery crawls like a slow tide.

To those in need of help I urge you to contact your Representative and impress upon them the dire circumstances you face, do not let them embrace the easy urge to turn you into another number, another faceless casualty in this economic holocaust. To those on the outside looking in, even those against another extension I can only once more ask for empathy and beg for action.

To contact your Senator or Congressional Representative please call the Capital switchboard at (202)-224-3121 or click here to write your Congressional Representative, or here to reach your Senator.  It may seem futile but it is all we have, our Goliath sling shot.