We find ourselves going over the cliff, economically, for the economic idiocy that began in the Reagan years. The justification for beginning the transfer of wealth to the wealthiest few, and away from the middle class, on the theory that very rich people can 'trickle down' on the lower spectrum of the economy, proved disastrous.
Each year, the deficit grew, median income dropped. The gap between the very wealthy and the middle class widened, while the gap between middle class and poverty became more fragile.
The past 8 years where even increased 'tax breaks' for the wealthiest few, coupled with multi-billion dollar 'gifts' from our then President Bush to the Oil companies, who had just raked in their largest quarterly profit in history, along with every other failed economic policy and the rampant greed and corruption, fueled by progressively more deregulation and nullifying rules and oversight, may have been the fatal blow to our economy.
I am sure that a pointless war, the botched, corrupt response to national disasters, continue to rot the economic foundation that has been rocked, reeled and is keeling over.
That's us, dogpaddling in the middle of an economic tsunami, surrounded by fog, trying to figure out A:) how we got here, B:) How to get out of this, and C:) How to make sure it never happens again. You'd think we would all be pulling together on this one. Our very lives depend on it. Millions are going under every month. This is an exponentially declining model.
Instead of pulling together, the very same swiss cheese policies that have ruptured and destroyed the once strongest economy in the world, are being shouted by the fat man on the radio who wants ---MORE tax breaks for the wealthy. For blue collar workers who struggle every day to support their families, he wants them to get their wages cut.
The fat man is paid $25M a year by a corporation that pays him to lobby his minions to champion tax breaks for himself and for them. They are the powerful who have been bleeding the system for almost 30 years now.
They can only continue bleeding us, if we remain too engaged in battling each other to see what it is they are doing, and who is acting on their behalf, to hold anyone accountable and save ourselves.
If elected officials from his realm step out of line and say he is not their deity, they can be heard the following day, groveling for his forgiveness and reaffirming his role as their leader. Yet, most of his followers are the very same people whose wages he wants cut, while giving himself a bigger tax break.
There was a time when a simple-minded blowhard like this would not be heard outside of is own front porch, ranting and railing, demanding more for himself and demanding less for others. People would ignore him as crazy and his rants would occasionaly draw a middle finger salute from the annoyed.
But we have had this weird fog around us for a very long time. People can be made fearful and reactive. He serves the purposes of those who thrive on the fat of the land while setting us to do battle of the ugliest most divisive sort, wounding and crippling ourselves; our sense of nation fragmented to smaller and smaller pieces of 'thems' and 'us's', while the fat boys laugh.
When I see John McCain, a man with so many houses and cars, he has lost count; a man whose life of wealth and privilege have given him every advantage and removed every consequence from his path of arrogance, ignorance and selfishness; who was allowed to advance in his military career while breaking every rule, flunking out at the bottom of his class, crashing every plane; promoted over and over again, while others whose lesser offenses resulted in court martial or being drummed out of the corp-- when I see him stand up and criticize a spending bill that will rescue people who are, today, out of a job, and him demanding 'more tax breaks' which will benefit, mainly people of his level of wealth, allowing them to 'trickle' on the rest of us, if they want to-- or to not. When I see people like McCain and Limbaugh cannibalizing any chance of unity for the sake of political sport, I wonder what it is so many people think they are doing.
I wonder what it will take for our nation to come out of the fog and realize that these blowhards are not economic geniuses, nor do they care about anyone who is not in their pay grade.
When the political opponents of Barack Obama, a man who came from a family that had to struggle on food stamps, and who had to get scholarships and work his way through college, was labeled an 'elitist', and that chant was picked up, I feared for our nation.
Clearly, the disadvantaged had allied themselves, with the elitists masquerading as 'one of us' while denouncing the epitome of the American Dream of succeeding through hard work and overcoming disadvantages, as an 'elitist'. People bought into that. They bought into it with their racism, their anger, their ignorance, their confusion, and their fear.
The 'elitists', whose lives of privilege and advantages could label the other guy as 'elitist' and people bought it made one thing clear: The truth did not matter. All that matters in the fog of ignorance and fear, is the loudest voice. Common sense, truth, decency, had lost their value in the arena where our candidates vie for our votes.
Against all odds, against the oppressive constant fear-mongering, a man by the name of Barack Hussein Obama, became number 44. Out of the fog, came "Hope".
Determined to salvage our economy, and to impact those most affected immediately and to sustain any recovery over the long haul, legislation was crafted.
These are such strange times. Poised on the edge of greatness or disaster, a suicide mentality rages over the airwaves, whipping the fearful into an army of ignorance, while the greater part of our nation bleeds, and our soldiers are dying in a far away land, in a war that we have not begun to end, but which is ending us. A war praised by the fat man, who laughs at those who follow him, and congressmen who grovel at his feet for forgiveness.
Republicans opposed the rescue legislation, as a wall. Despite getting ammendments they said they wanted, they stood against it because the fat man told them to. The fat man, who has no economic worries, no understanding of the economy, told them not to. He needed to affirm his power by a show of force, at the cost of precious time.
The senate now debates this bill, and the fat man's minions oppose it because it is not perfect. The battle comes down to our president trying to save the lives and jobs of a nation, and the fat man who wants to prove that there are enough stupid people in the nation to make him wealthy, and do his bidding, regardless of who he hurts, even if it kills them.
Asked what proposal they had to counter the one they said was not good enough, they said that they "plan to roll that out in the next few months". With a million or more people losing their jobs every month, what's their hurry?
Clearly, the urgency and importance of this as relates to the nation's crisis, is lost on them. Clearly, the more important thing, in this greatest time of crisis, while the jobs are vaporizing, the homes are vacating, markets are collapsing, is that the losing party throw a tantrum on the public floor, and demand "More Tax Breaks", and no money goes to those who 'are not working'. Those who are still working, blue collar, must lose wages.
When we get out of the fog, you will probably ask yourself: "Whose interests were they serving?" We may never know for sure, but for sure we will know that it was not in the best interests of our nation, nor the men, women and families that make us who we are as a nation.
Then, you might remember the fat man, giving orders from his perch, tugging on his cigar, getting a chubby when he proved to the world that congressmen grovel at his feet. Maybe we can all see more clearly then, that we could have saved ourselves faster and better, had we not been engaged in a battle over power that none of us could win. It's not about dominance; It's about unity. Failing to see that will cost us all that is left of what is left of our nation.
We are a great nation. We are a nation conceived on the impossible dream where a handful of hopeful warriors defeated the most powerful empire in the world. We rose to be the strongest nation, and the nation of greatest hopes where people of other lands aspired to become one of us, and live their dreams. The nation to which other nations looked for inspiration and for guidance and assistance. We were that nation. But are we still?
We can become great again. But we have to do that which makes us stronger. We would never have become a nation if we did not share the dream of equality. We cannot pursue the politics of division without suiciding our democracy. We cannot allow misinformation, deceptions, to hold the same weight as things that are true, decent and fair. Lies are not equal to truth. Blowhards are not fighting for us. Fighting one another because a fat man who is paid $25M a year to keep us fighting, insures that we all lose.
We are running out of time. Flailing away in the fog, swatting down swarms of lies, drains us all. We can, as a nation, wake up and decide that we will, as a nation, come together and save ourselves. We can decide that as a nation, there are things that affect us directly, as a nation that are worth fighting for or against. That there is a time and a place for power plays and tantrums, but this is not the time or the place for vile, inflammatory rhetoric.
Look around. That's us dogpaddling in a sea of economic fallout. More have gone under, more are getting weary and will soon go under, while we fear and mistrust one another. It is like we should be coming together so we don't drown, but instead, we are dogpaddling and fighting the fog.
I hear the fat man laughing. I have to go now. I want to hear what his orders are to our elected officials who are afraid to do any bidding but his.
End
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