Then as I was reading something by George Will, it suddenly hit
me. George “disclosed”, at the end of one of his right wing hit pieces, that
his wife is a consultant-adviser to the Ric Perry campaign. So, it finally hit me—Duh, you idiot. It’s all
about the money. Many years ago, George Will used to write speeches for Ronald Reagan
and then go on TV as a political “analyst” to describe how brilliant Reagan was
and how great were his speeches. I
thought at the time that was a bit tacky, but never went the extra step and
decided that George Will was simply a right wing hit man who was for sale to
the highest bidder and republicans tend to have more money than democrats, so he
always sells to the republicans. So, of
course people like Will cannot, speak out against the parade of clowns and
misfits. There’s too much money at stake.
And apparently, and sadly, there really isn’t anything else going
on in our political system. It’s always only about money and power—and power
only because it begets more money and eliminates the threats to ongoing money
accumulation. The concept of America and
what that used to mean has now disappeared from our current political landscape.
America is apparently nothing more than a honey tree, and the guy who ends up
with more money wins. Nothing else is at stake—the “Give me your poor, your
huddled masses, yearning to be free”, is basically just a joke at this stage.
In the old days, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, some people (not
many even then) used to care about things like educating our people, establishing
fair rules of the game, protecting the environment. Now, it seems nobody cares
about anything, except money. Our banks have basically turned into an organized
crime ring, and evidently that’s ok with us. When was the last time you saw one
of the banker CEOs go to prison for financial malfeasance? Nah, when they screw
up and lose a bunch of our money, we just give them more—so they shouldn’t
fail, don’t you know. It occurs to me
that the mafia could really take lessons from our financial institutions. There’s
way more money and way less risk than screwing around with drugs.
So apparently, morality has disappeared from the political scene.
When pols talk of “faith and family values” we know they are lying, just to get
our attention and our votes. All they really care about is remaining in power,
so that they can feed and be fed by the monied interests—our corporate CEOs—you
know, the 1% set.
That explains much. Like why the republicans seem to act in ways
that seem designed to destroy the middle class. I kept thinking . . . the
middle class is what made America great, and public education is what created
the middle class. Why would they want to destroy those institutions? Well, part
of the answer lies in the nature of an educated middle class—they tend to be
troublesome to the 1%, the Koch brothers and all the CEOs who want to be able
to do anything they want , including destroy our environment completely. An educated class of people will argue with
the CEOs and question their motives, so getting rid of that class seems
important to the Koch’s (and their appointed representatives, like Romney,
Perry, et al). So, first you hack away at the public education system, then you
ship all the middle class jobs to China. And bingo, the middle class begins to
disappear. The 1% set is apparently too
stupid to remember that old rascal Henry Ford, who thought that paying people a
decent wage was good for him, because he would then have customers for his
cars. The 1% set no longer cares about that, especially since they don’t
produce anything for sale any longer. So, none of that stuff matters.
I’m not sure where this realization that nothing matters any
longer except money takes me. For one thing, I suppose I can now really just
assume that whenever republicans open their mouths, they are lying. And that
whatever it is they are saying, I should assume it has something to do with
money and the accumulation thereof.
Mainly, they are talking because they want to regain power, and they
want power so they can continue on their path towards more money.
One question remains at this stage, i.e., where in all this money swamp
are the Democrats and Obama? So far, it would appear that precious little separates
the two parties. I do trust Obama more for reasons unclear, except that he had
a different background, and seems less to be grounded in money. But we need to see some change in the way our
president approaches the world and us—ordinary citizens. We need to see our president embrace the kind
of strategy we thought we were buying into when we elected him. We need to
follow a course such as the one below.
In economic matters,
extremes do not work. Under Bush, we shifted dangerously in the direction of a
fascist state—that is, a state in which private owners of businesses dictate
government policies. The inevitable result is Enron, et al, as well as the collapsed
financial system. We have been drifting in that direction for quite some time
now, even under Clinton. Everyone has been so concerned with government regulation
they failed to notice that unregulated business is
as dangerous as unchecked government. One gives you fascism; the other socialism.
Private business interests must always be checked to assure that the public is
protected. So too must government overseers. Balance in everything is the
answer. But balance requires mental agility. The public has little patience—they
want the world to operate on autopilot. They need to be convinced that a world
in which competing interests are balanced is both an efficient world,
and a world that is worthy.
We need to pay for what
we need or want. The Republican Party has been, almost as a matter of policy,
fiscally irresponsible. They practice “charge and spend” politics. We will now
have to pay for their profligacy. The public—the thinking public—needs to
understand that we cannot continue on the course they continue to follow.
Mainly the rest of the world will not allow us to continue on this course. They
will simply stop buying our debt and then it will end, badly. Taxes are the way we pay for
our policies. Taxes are neither good nor bad, in the abstract. They represent
the price of operating our country, or, perhaps, the glue of a civilized
society.
Organized religion has
become dysfunctional. For reasons I cannot comprehend, religious leaders have lost
their way on matters of intellectual thought. Science is now being posed as
some alternative to faith—as though people of faith ought to be opposed to
rational thought. There is no conflict and there never was. The public must be
convinced that leaders who find conflict are charlatans interested only in enhancing
their personal power. If God gave us this magnificent universe,
God also gave us brains to ponder its majesty. Those who wish to stop science are
trying to return us to the dark ages, where they ruled through fear. We dare
not return there, but the republicans and their coterie of 12th century
leaders, opened the door to religious extremism, with all its fearful consequences.
Terrorism continues to
grow, and we currently have no effective way to check its growth. It is now
clear that policies under Bush were a growth medium. We are breeding
terrorists, and every time we kill innocents, ten terrorists take their place against
us. So generally, military solutions do
not work well to end such desperate tactics as terrorism. We need different
strategies.
We must pursue policies
that are aimed at preserving the Earth. We need to conserve. We need to pursue
alternative energy policies. We need to use economic forces to create a demand
for energy-efficiency and energy independence. Under republicans we are driven
to pursue policies promoting wasteful energy consumption, mainly because republicans
are paid by the extractive industries. We need to tax wasteful energy
consumption, so as to encourage wiser use of Earth’s limited resources.
We must pursue a policy
of economic independence for all our citizens. During my career, I worked for seven
organizations over a 45 year career. For 20 of those years, I worked for
several large and small companies that contributed nothing beyond Social Security
for my retirement. Republicans keep up their efforts to threaten that reserve.
If indeed we wish to get rid of Social Security, we do not need to “privatize”
it. We need to pass legislation that forces every economic entity in the
country to pay into a portable retirement system. TIAA-CREF comes to mind—the
system used by most universities and non-profits. If the private sector would
begin to live up to its responsibilities by a mandatory contribution system, we
would not need Social Security. Take the system used by universities and non-profits
and replicate it throughout the whole of the private sector. Do not allow
companies to wriggle out by use of part-time workers. If they employ part-time
workers, they still pay full retirement benefits.
Similarly, we must pass
a system of health care reform. Obama’s
program only takes us part of the way towards such a goal. We need to continue to argue that, while
republicans do not appear to believe that all Americans should have access to
health care, democrats do. We need a single payer system. We need to stand up
for what is right here – 40 to 50 million people who have no health care is not
right.
Republicans, with their “no-Child-Left
Behind” Act, were attempting to scuttle public education. We need to begin
working with the states to remedy the currently deplorable state of public
education. In our area of North Carolina, they seem comfortable with a drop out
rate of 35%. Think of that. We can do better. Indeed, we are losing ground to
the rest of the world,
and we are at risk of
becoming a country of stupid people. Mainly, because of the current emphasis on
testing, and teaching to the test, the entire system has begun to be based on
lies. We simply make up results that keep us out of trouble, whether the kids
are learning or not. That latter point seem irrelevant—child learning no longer
seems to be the point of public education. Similarly, we need to stop blaming
teachers for all the problems in our current system. Parents are as responsible
as the teachers.
We must examine
carefully the structure of government. The creation of the Department of Homeland Security was an
absurd idea—a solution in search of a problem. Think of it. The CIA and the FBI
wouldn’t communicate and were demonstrably inept, so we forced the Coast Guard,
FEMA, and the rest to become one entity. An idea only a truly stupid person could
embrace. Structure is not the answer when the problem is an absence of
thoughtful consideration of available evidence. It is possible that Mr. Bush
could have, indeed should have anticipated 911. We still need to hold our
public agencies accountable for their failures, especially but not exclusively
the security agencies. New structures
might be required, but Homeland Security and the Patriot Act are not answers to
any problem we currently have.
President Obama, you still
seem not to recognize that your republican colleagues continue to focus on
zero-sum games. Apparently they do not understand the concept of win-win. They
do not care about the effects of their actions, or inaction on the future of
America, nor do they care about ordinary Americans per se. They care only about
money and about ways to acquire money. That they are owned 100% by their
corporate owners seems not to trouble them. So you must act accordingly. Do
what you think is right, rather than what you think they will approve. Stop catering to their whims and their empty
promises. Declare that game over.
We need to begin again,
with a grand strategy that includes openness, an embrace of democracy through peaceful
means, and an impassioned defense of rational policies that seek to better this
once-proud nation and indeed the entire world. It is well to remember that
societies will be judged ultimately by their treatment of those less fortunates
who cannot care for themselves. We stand for that principle against the forces
of darkness unleashed and embraced by the republicans.
If in the end their
money wins out, at least let it be known that you tried to oppose their dark
instincts.
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