What's Really Important
I was inspired to write this article because of a recent column by Jaime O'Neill in the Paradise Post newspaper entitled, "A Death Down In Dallas," where he expressed his feelings subsequent to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. He mentions the "school children who cheered the news, sons and daughters of those who had vilified the man as a threat to American values, a guy who had tried to tell big business what to do..." He ends by stating, "Much of that mood now has returned to theses shores in a time when far too many Americans hunger for a world of stark and simple-minded contrasts: between black and white, good and evil, American and un-American. Voices of fear and hate grow louder as promised hope for change seems to recede."
The great "American experiment" may have tossed out the old aristocracies, but it replaced them with a positive notion of "Capitalism,"* eventually creating an Oligarchy based on wealth and power alone, without the need for the "divine right of birth," or even most of "The People." While so many still adhere to an extreme sense of nationalism, believing the Republic is still alive and well, it has in reality been replaced by Corporatism, driven by old and new money powers alike.
*[Note: Capitalism itself is not bad, but like any "ism," it's only as good as what it ultimately evolves into - how well does it serve, and whom?]
I concur that the present mood of all too many Americans reflect those voices of fear, anger, and ultimately, hatred, that have been heard in this nation for generations. For the first time I understand this mentality has been carefully and methodically nurtured to manipulate lots of hard working, decent Americans who don't have the time and resources to actually keep abreast of the progress of the human condition on the planet, but instead are kept trapped in a loop of tribal thinking making them easier to control - they are especially susceptible to the "we versus anyone unlike us" nonsense always used by those wishing to control others for their own interests, be it religious or political in nature. I imagine this process began soon after the conception of these "United" States of America, though its face changed, making it nearly unrecognizable to most for a time, at least until the 20th century.
"We the people" are becoming nothing more than the peasantry of old. We have been fooled for a long time by the promise of the American dream where anyone with the will and talent could rise to the top. The charade worked well until conditions changed, empowering the newly created "middle class," by virtue of education and security, to become informed enough about the truth of current realities before voting at the ballot box, thus becoming a grave threat to the new oligarchy of corporate interests. Thus began the war against that same middle class!
Jesse Helms couldn't have expressed the fear of the powerful towards this new dynamic any better: "Democracy used to be a good thing, but now it has gotten into the wrong hands." Sorry, Jesse et al, our Constitution meant democracy to be for ALL "The People," not just the people with unlimited wealth and power, those believing they are the cream that "deserves" to rise to the top, while leaving everyone else, whom they perceive as the milk (that which is merely common), at the bottom.
The present blatant and obvious attempt by the International Corporate Conglomerate, especially via the Republican Party, to destroy that middle class and create the greatest class division in United States history, is the case in point! It's unfortunate that so many Americans have been duped -- through lies, misinformation, false advertising, and phony ground roots organizations like the Tea Party -- to play right into the hands of these self-serving, greedy, arrogant, hypocritical bastards. Sure, most of the Tea Partiers "believe" they are independent of all this, but the reality is that their candidates were voted in as Republicans, and will be controlled in Congress by the same ole GOP establishment, just as the latter had planned.
Take a good long hard look at the present Republican agenda/strategy during the past two years and the present. While mimicking the false mantra of fiscal responsibility, small government, free markets, and the need for ending deficit spending, what have the Republicans in Congress actually done? During the worst economic crisis in the United States since the Great Depression, hugely caused by the last Republican Administration, and enabled by several spineless and clueless Democrats, what has been their modus operandi?
They have filibustered the Senate to death to keep House passed bills stymied, have said NO to Wall Street reform, NO to health care reform, NO to extending unemployment benefits to millions (especially as Christmas approaches and the economy desperately needs that purchasing power), NO to small business loans (so much for the champions of small business, NO to the START Treaty with Moscow (so much for the party of national security), NO to the GM and "auto industry" bailout (now proven a huge success), NO to immigration reform, NO to the elimination of tax breaks for outsourcing jobs overseas (so much for protecting/creating jobs in America), and NO to ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING the Obama Administration has proposed to help fix the crisis the Republicans created in America. NO! NO! NO! Sounds like a petulant child not getting their own selfish way.
As the top Republican in the Senate, Mitch O'Connell (I cringe at the mention of his name) recently stated, "the single most important thing for the GOP to achieve in the new Congress is to make sure Obama doesn't get a second term." And let's not forget that Rush "the quintessential stab-anyone-in-the-back-for-a-buck-or-attention money whore" Limbaugh stated right out of the gate after the 2008 Presidential election that he wanted to see Obama (thus the nation) fail.
And lest we forget, the Republican "fix" for greatly lowering deficit spending is cutting discretionary funding by crippling/destroying/privatizing (all synonymous) Medicare, Social Security and yes, even VA benefits, but, or course, not touching an already obscenely bloated defense budget.
Oh, and yes, also in order to cut the deficit, let's not fail to reinstate the Bush tax cuts for the top 2-3 percent, ensuring another $700 billion to be added to that same deficit over the next ten years so they will create more jobs. Remember how all those tax cuts for the extremely wealthy helped create jobs over the past ten years? Cough! Are we to believe it will be different this time? Really?
Get the Republican message? Kill all programs desperately required by middle and lower class Americans as the solution, and make sure the rich get richer.
The Republican/right wing leadership agenda for the United States of America is quite clear to anyone with eyes to see, ears to ear, and an IQ extending into triple digits. Nations, including this one, are no longer important to them, nor is most of the vast population. What's important is the corporate takeover of the world, nation by nation. What need hath one for their eternal soul, when they can be rich and powerful in this short *present lifetime?
I believe the despicable event in Dallas those many years ago was a pivotal move in this war against "The People." Get rid of a president who not only enjoyed an extremely huge base of popularity throughout the nation, but one who would have taken us out of Vietnam before it really got started, thus depriving the new corporate Military Industrial Complex of hundreds of billions, eventually trillions, of dollars in blood money, and securing the concept of "war for profit" (nothing new to the world) for the next century or more.
I do believe America is at war, but not really with Al Qaeda and radical Muslim extremists, or even other nations - this is the masquerade (those people are being manipulated as well). The real enemies are "the powers" behind most of the large corporations, and the unconscionable lobbyists and political whores they own -- those caring little or nothing for the suffering of the little people, and only interested in the corporate bottom line. They purposely incite the people to fear, anger and hatred because it divides them. This is the "Evil" so many fear in the world, but with a face they haven't wanted to acknowledge. For what is evil after all, if not the unconscionable and purposeful will to harm others for personal gain!
Stephen Rose's commentary here, concerning the American Dream, is brilliantly written and is a well-formed outline of what has (and is) happening in this country. It's nice to see that Paradise has this quality of analysis and writing available locally.