For those of you out there who still stand in support of your elected federal officials, I have only one question: Why?
This is the America they have brought to reality today:
Education is falling farther behind the rest of the world, including some third world countries. Science and math scores are at all time lows. Education costs are at all time highs. Cuts to student grant and loan programs for higher education leave many out of luck. The average reading comprehension ability among adults is judged to be at a sixth grade level.
Health care has become so expensive that many citizens go without, causing preventive care to be ignored at the peril of national health. Hospitals are overwhelmed with uninsured and illegal immigrants and are closing their doors. Seniors are having to go without vital medicine in the wake of a “new and improved” Medicare prescription benefit. The average bankruptcy is due not to reckless, wanton spending, but to unexpected, catastrophic medical costs.
Energy costs have skyrocketed, but energy providers and others in the energy industry have seen their profits explode. The average person has to choose between filling up the gas tank or buying new clothes for the kids. Home heating bills are even worse. Yet the answer from Congress is not to aggressively explore new energy resources, but to offer tax cuts to the industry as they attempt to gut wilderness areas in the quest for more non-renewable energy sources.
Employment is being sent overseas as companies seek to improve their bottom line at the expense of the people they want to buy their goods. For every middle wage job that leaves, a new Starbucks opens so net job loss is negligible. Net income is going way down though. And as inflation rises along with the federal interest rates, average Americans are being squeezed by the financiers and credit companies. Bankruptcy is also tougher to access for those in real need, but companies can shift their obligations like pensions and health care off on the government while receiving subsidies and bail-outs and tax cuts.
Prisons are expanding in both population and power as more citizens are targeted in the worthless war against pot users. Meanwhile, child rapists and convicted murders are paroled and let loose on an unsuspecting society to make way for the dangerous dopers. We have nicer prison complexes than schoolhouses, which is okay since so many will end up there now that they can’t get a good education or a good job anyhow.
Domestic security is a farce with our unsecured borders, unprotected ports and transportation systems, and concern with taking nail clippers away from the elderly and infants. Regular Americans are kept off of airplanes by a “no-fly” list while we look the other way as violent gang members sneak across the border. But at least the president is spying on average citizens to make sure they aren’t calling terrorists abroad. After all, better to monitor the phones than stop them at the border.
Our environment is being assaulted by corporations who continue to ignore regulations and get away with it. Reducing greenhouse gases is just too darn expensive. Ensuring that water is clean takes too much time, and besides, we soon won’t have any scientists to monitor this stuff anyhow.
On the foreign front, we’ve managed to piss off most of our former allies and made some new, duplicitous ones in the process. The “War on Terror” has been turned into a war on innocent foreign citizens while the real dangerous people are left to plan another battle for another day. And let’s not forget about the fact that we’ve hocked the future of the next two or three generations to foreign countries to pay for all of our misdeeds. The mortgage on America is held by everyone but us, and when the bill comes due, it will be our future generations who are left holding an empty purse.
Throw in an assault on the Constitution by a power hungry president and administration, fueled by a religious ideology and sense of American superiority that does not exist and the very tenets of freedom are on the block.
And what has your congressperson or senator done to prevent any of this? The Republican party in congress has created many of these program policies and championed them through couched as family values or moral certitudes. The Democrats have sat idly by and let it happen. Both want only to remain in power and get richer while the average citizen withers away. They are paper tigers and corrupt pawns of corporate hegemony and religious zealotry and neither will help us regain what used to be a given- namely, American freedom, prosperity, integrity, and pride.
Sure, some politicians are trying to do what is right for America and Americans, and by extension, the other people in this world. But the majority are careerist hacks, bent only on their ability to get power and keep power. They’ve made politics a game of partisan bickering without benefiting the taxpayers who keep them in office. They’ve turned us off on politics by their own ineptitude. They’ve made the job of governing so meaningless that we’ve stopped participating. And now they can do as they will, not to make life in this country better, but to keep the people out of the way.
So I ask you again, Why do you support a system and a politician who would sacrifice you and your children’s future freedom and peace? Is it because you believe the rhetoric you read in the paper or the sound bites you see on TV more than you believe what your own experience tells you? If I kick you in the head and tell you it doesn’t really hurt do you believe that too?
There is another way. In America we are allowed, no, we are required, to choose who will govern us. And when those who are in the chair of power do not do their duty, we are supposed to get rid of them. If the Democrats and the Republicans won’t take this country to a place it should be, a place where our tax dollars fund the people who pay them instead of the bureaucracy that has no common sense, then we must find people who will. We must choose to elect people who are like us. People who suffer the inanity that we all endure and want to change it. People who grow weary of the rhetoric and seek to speak the truth. People who will work towards a common goal of returning America to the land of freedom and fiscal sanity and lawful rationality that it was meant to be.
If the two party system has become so corrupt that it cannot right itself, and I fear that it has become just that corrupt, it is time to move away from it to an era of citizen legislators. Don’t be fooled into thinking that we need two parties to move America forward. They obviously have done nothing but move us backwards. We could do better without them, and our very way of life may require that we do just that.
This entry was posted on Monday, January 16th, 2006 at 12:50 am and is filed under Common Sense, Democracy, Drug War, Government, Health, Politics, Presidential Politics, Reform.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
January 16th, 2006 at 3:29 am
Very good reasoning Ken and every time I
read your posts,I find them very informative and might I add a good intelligent read. keep blogging.
January 16th, 2006 at 4:14 am
Ken,
I have to agree with parts of what you said, but much of the education problems have more to do with states and less to do with the Federal government.
I did miss one thing in your long post, what are you proposing we do about it. Identifying problems seems to be the easy part, but fixing the problems has always been the more difficult problem.
I have been reading your blog for sometime and I would really like to hear some of your ideas on how we can fix the problems.
January 16th, 2006 at 6:26 am
(resposnes)
winthinreason- thanks for the compliments. you keep reading and I’ll keep writing.
jon- If I may direct you towards my archive contents button just to the right, I think you’ll find that I have offered ideas on most, if not all, of these problems.
I’ve been writing for over a year now and for the first eleven months, this blog served as a launching point for many “out-of-the-box” solutions, as well as expanding on the thoughts others have had before me.
I agree wholeheartedly that it is far easier to complain than to offer solutions, which is why I made a concerted effort to present my solutions before I started posts like this one. Consider this post to be a recap of what is wrong, and the previous posts to be what we can do about it.
As for education, state governments do exacerbate the problems with education too, many throwing more money at a failing institution rather than trying to actually repair it. I blame the entrenched attitudes of unions and adults who are more concerned with having more money on the table instead of trying to improve the situation. Parents share a large amount of blame there too. But as I said, please read the posts from the archives.
And thanks for your continued participation in the conversation.
To give you a head start, my 4 part discussion on education begins on 4-13-05 and continues with posts on 4-17, 4-20, and 4-24.
Simply click those dates (or the weeks they fall into) down in the archive links (farther down on the right.)
After you’ve had a chance to read there, I’ll be happy to talk more about specific thoughts I have to solve our problems.
January 16th, 2006 at 7:07 am
I know that education is a problem, but I’m sensitive to calling it a problem without placing blame in the right places, otherwise teachers get blamed, and I don’t think they are the problem. There are a variely of socioeconmoic and funding issues. But I don’t count teachers as being part of the problem. Their a hardworking group that gets no respect.
CoolAqua
January 16th, 2006 at 7:54 am
Anyone who is still supporting this administration really has issues. I mean, I know they boondoggled (lied to) the American people, and pride makes it hard for them to admit being had. But, come on…we can’t start recovering until we’re all on the same side. The bullies have done enough damage.
I agree with nearly everything you’re saying Ken, I think you did a good job putting it all together here. There’s more of course. You might mention how we all should be ALL up in arms against Alito because he’s against our personal right to privacy, particularly women. But, he’ll get approved instead. Where is the hope? I have never heard more people talking about moving out of our country. That’s not the answer, but it’s impossible to deny it’s tempting as we continue to watch things go wrong.
I do wish more Neocons were reading this post, they’d get a dose of what they’re doing to the rest of us!
Keep up the good work my friend. Now relax and light it up.
January 16th, 2006 at 8:40 am
Well, let us say that the old American republic is well and truly dead. The institutions that we thought were eternal proved not to be.
And that goes for the three departments of government, and it also goes for the Bill of Rights.
So we’re in uncharted territory.
Gore Vidal
January 16th, 2006 at 8:45 pm
I hate to quote movies but a very good comment was made by a “councilman” from Zion in “The Matrix” that REALLY got me concerned for the future of this country.
“Choice is an illusion given by those WITH power, to those without.”
It worried me, because we fight so hard for fair elections and we’re “told” that this new process is much better than the old, only to reveal itself worse off than before… etc etc…
Kinda creepy.
January 16th, 2006 at 10:10 pm
Ken, I’m with you on this one. Solutions are challenging. But indeed, what we need is a wholesale change in leadership. The culture of corruption as called by the dems doesn’t stop at the GOP party door.
The problem also is an inherent element to our capitalist society – a place where one person, one vote is not the case. Have you ever voted in a proxy election for a company? If you have a million shares, you get a million votes. That’s why the denziens of corporate america seek the services of folks like Abramoff and other lobyists. They want to tilt the playing field in their favor. And as long as the politicians remain dumb, fat and happy – living off a large income and the largese of corporate america – it will be difficult to break.
What we really need is a political coup de tet – a peaceful one a la MLK Jr. – were the people rise up like the meek inheriting the earth – and reclaim what is rightfully theirs.
Anyone who thinks the existing sysem is “of the people, for the people and by the people” at this day and age have their heads so far up their own asses, they are farting out their mouths.
January 17th, 2006 at 12:10 am
well said. i would love to see a voting revolution in this country. if every american went out and voted for their favorite third party, the result would be fantastic. shit, it’d be fantastic if just half of americans did that.
January 17th, 2006 at 3:05 am
Nicely said Ken–as always.
January 17th, 2006 at 7:03 am
Like the others, I can only agree. My observation is this: In fair elections, we might achieve the goals we seek, but when will we see a fair presidential election again? And congressional elections are suspect, as well.
Our first step may need to be a battle for guaranteed honest elections (as if we’re living in some backward country under thug rule), before we can move on to actual policy.
January 17th, 2006 at 7:08 am
(responses)
CoolAqua- I don’t blame teachers entirely, but they do often show resistance to change in the system. At least the teacher unions and administrators seem to be more focused on getting money at all costs to increase administration budgets, and the like. They seem to forget that these are public dollars that should first be used to educate and provide safe and secure infrastructure. Teachers get plenty of respect from me and I realize that they are often paddling up the creek with a broken paddle, little parental support, and crooked administrations/school boards. My mother is a teacher so I do recognize the plight of teachers too. Thanks for the thoughts.
BonJ- Of course there is more. In fact, it’s hard to know when to stop complaining about the mess we are in. And I’m not always this heated up you know. Just needed a good rant to get people thinking about the damage being done to our country in the name of “security.”
Good to hear from you again.
Chromatius- Nothing is eternal, especially when we turn our back on it and expect it to keep working for us. Vigilance is key, as is involvement. We need to try to at least stay afloat while the ship is righted.
James- Perhaps it is better to say that Choice, when abdicated to a select few, really is no choice at all. WE THE PEOPLE are supposed to be the ones in control, but we’ve turned our heads in the hope that all will be done right by our leaders. It isn’t and it’s time to reengage. In a big, loud way!
Thanks for dropping by.
Windspike- I agree wholeheartedly. The leadership we have is rudderless and corrupt for the most part. But we can break this chain of corrupt madness if people get off their butts and speak out and vote for change, then put people in who will actually demand, fight and get that change for us. Thanks for the support.
Stranger- Here, here. Get out and vote for someone NOT already part of the problem. If that means an “inexperienced” legislative branch, so be it. Can’t get much worse than we are stuck with now.
Thanks for the comment.
Bonnie- Thanks you, as always.
January 17th, 2006 at 7:12 am
(response)
Shea- IF enough of us battle for a guaranteed honest election, then proclaim loudly who we really voted for, then found the outcome to be different, it would be grounds for “storming the castle.” No corrupt administration or congress or legislative body can survive the actual onslaught of the people when they are tired of getting screwed.
A fair congressional election is far more important than the presidential one. After all, if we have legislators that would actually question the executive and actively thwart any illegal breaches of the Constitution, that position would have less chance to damage this country. As it is now, we have only a rubber stamp on the vileness that spews from the White HOuse.
January 17th, 2006 at 11:32 am
As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it.
Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests.
Gore Vidal (again)
January 17th, 2006 at 7:50 pm
The Medecaid and Medacare thing really has me riled. I agree with you we could do without the currupt legislation.
Hey Ken,
Sorry been away for a while.
January 17th, 2006 at 7:54 pm
The two party system is really a one party system and they have made it virtually impossible for a third party to prevail. Until people wake up and realize both parties have been bought and sold by big business, mainstream America will continue to be the big losers.
Unfortunately the mainstream media is one of those big businesses which has been bought by those in power. And thus, as long as Americans rely on them for news, they’ll never get the facts.
January 19th, 2006 at 8:22 am
Once again, Ken, a thorough and thoughtful essay with a conclusion that’s right on the money. I’ve believed for some time that the interests of the people are no longer represented by either political party, and I couldn’t agree with you more that the time has come for a change.
The big question, to me, is how the American public can be convinced of the viability of a third-party candidate, without the acknowledgement and visibility given “the big boys” by the mainstream media? Case in point: In November, we in the Garden State had a little election for Governor. Naturally, 99.999 percent of print and TV coverage, both positive and negative, was spent on the major party candidates, one a Democrat with still-unanswered questions of corruption in his official closet, the other a faithful Republican disciple of the Church of Saint George.
And what was lost on the citizens of New Jersey was that the selection of either would simply mean more of the same kind of disconnected, ineffective government. With slightly varying hues, yes, but nothing of advantage to the citizenry.
What was also lost – primarily because very few actually knew – was the fact that an Independent candidate was clearly the best choice, both for his lack of previous involvement in the dirty political game, and for the intelligent, innovative ideas he espoused. And so, without the money or connections to have an equal amount of public exposure, guess how many votes the best man for the job received…
Mine – and about 5 others.
OK, I exaggerate for effect. But it flabbergasted me that in the midst of an era in which distrust of “politics as usual” is a subject on which most Americans seem to agree, when given a chance to make a difference my fellow state citizens opted for… politics as usual.
Unless the print and television industries as a whole demonstrate more of a willingness to present third-party candidates equally, seriously, and respectfully, instead of as some fringe element hardly worthy of notice, a timid and/or apathetic populace will continue to view their vote as “wasted on someone who doesn’t stand a chance.” Perhaps that’s where the initial thrust of our grass-roots activism should be focused – a campaign to get the media itself to devote more airtime to this vital issue, to agree to wider exposure of independent office-seekers, and, by doing so, to legitimize the very idea of a third party in the minds of the public.
Thanks again for a great post.
January 19th, 2006 at 9:25 pm
Is there anyone even paying symbolic lip service to the health care crisis in the U.S.?
When I left the States a couple years ago, I was paying about $180/month (am self-employed) for a fairly basic plan when I could finally afford one. Before that, I hadn’t been a doctor in years. Here in Slovenia, I have the most basic mandatory national health insurance, a plan that costs me about $17/month. I made a trip to the emergency room last week; when I checked out, the bill for my two hour stay along with several tests totaled less than $5. My co-pay for a prescription was less than a buck. A follow-up visit to the doctor amounted to another $4 out-of-pocket.
Sure, taxes are higher here, but, it seems to me, that you also get something for those taxes.
Cheers!
January 20th, 2006 at 6:08 am
(responses)
Chromatius- What’s the deal? Have you got a book of Vidal quotes handy for any topic? (Just kidding..)
It is true though, that words are used not to confuse the electorate that is already paying scant attention. Thanks for the comments.
Stacy- Absolutely agree with you here. The system is really just a single party with a split personality. Thanks for dropping by.
Angel- Good to hear from you again. And yes, the whole health care debacle, from the federal programs to private insurance is a looming crisis we’ll have to address soon. Where are the leaders we so desperately need to take a stand for common sense, regardless of how popular it is with the corporations who profit off of the misery of the sick and the fear of the healthy?
Bob- Thanks for the link up on your site. Always appreciated. The answer lies in having independent candidates who will go meet the people instead of relying on the MSM to do their campaigning for them. Certainly the current crop of legislators aren’t shaking many hands that don’t contain checks or freebies. I think if people could actually see someone out there stumping for them it could make a difference. And yes, some well placed activism towards a media culture that caters to the status quo could be a big help too. Ready to knock on some doors inyour neck of the woods?
Pirano- Sounds like things are at least affordable where you are now. I assume that the actual care is of good quality as well? On a personal level, I have a fantastic insurance plan through my employer, one that few people have. I pay no premiums for my entire family and have a modest co-pay. I even managed to find a decent doctor, but then I’ve yet to face any catastrophic medical situations for myself. (Ironically, the company I work for is actually based in Mexico.)
But just because I have a great deal going now doesn’t mean I always will, and most of my friends and family sure don’t have it as good as me. I understand that a problem in health care exists universally, and I would gladly pay more to make sure everyone else gets the same advantages I enjoy today. Thanks for stopping by and sharing another perspective.
January 23rd, 2006 at 3:06 am
I certainly agree that there are many problems with our current government, but I’m a bit amazed by the ease with which many find hope in a “new” party. There is simply no reason to think there will be a different species of politician elected, regardless of what the name of the party is. There is not some reliable source of “new” people that can be counted on any more than the ones we’re getting now.
There is no us and there is no them, many of those that decry current leaders would fair far worse under similar pressures. Learn about the leaders you’ve got so you know which should be dumped and replaced, and which saved, in any party. A third party might be a good thing, but don’t expect the inevitable tendency for power to corrupt to somehow bypass the new party
January 23rd, 2006 at 6:11 am
(response)
Mindthaw- I don’t advocate for a third party. I advocate for independent, non-affiliated representatives who have honor and integrity. Having honor and intergrity also presumes that one would voluntarily relinquish the reins of power if one felt that power beginning to corrupt said honor. There are plenty of non-politicians who could fit that bill if given a real opportunity. Let’s find and support them.
January 23rd, 2006 at 11:30 pm
…No doubt you see that the immensity of the task of governing a colossus like the U.S., on all it’s levels, with all it’s interests, is undoubtedly the most complex undertaking in the history of mankind. A large scale retooling of the leadership component is unspeakably difficult and fraught with immense risks. The intent of my first comment was more along the lines of a reality check than a disagreement on principal.
Speaking in terms of a “they” that have brought on our problems, and a “they” that ought to be replaced in order to fix things, may lead to perpetuation of an over simplified approach, and in turn an over simplistic response, to current opportunities to actually contribute to solutions.
The system of government(s) molded by the Constitution anticipates the need for periodic assessment of leaders as individuals and it is in this capacity that informed citizens are needed, and will continue to be needed, regardless of which individuals attain “power”. My fear is that honorable, qualified, and independent thinking people that are now in office will be cast in the same light as corrupt, inept, or beholden puppets. When you lump all politicians together you make almost futile the struggles of each, to overcome resistance to change, to keep their ego in check, to educate themselves thoroughly about matters they deal with, and even to break from the herd (as you so rightly highlight as necessary at times).
A small, but often decisive, portion of the voting population, may be off on the sidelines advocating wholesale replacement of leadership, while some brilliant, moral, inspired candidate is loosing narrowly to a slime-ball power freak, simply because the former chose the only heretofore realistic path to winning an election. Yes, I agree there are plenty of good people in our society that might be able to resist the many insidious forms of corruption that haunt the hallowed halls, but be careful you don’t throw out the ones that spent a lifetime learning how government works and battling heavy odds to get to a position where they actually contribute, just because the creep next to them sold out.
If you replaced them all tomorrow, you would send the nation, and the world, into a tailspin, and would have no alternative way to prevent the new batch from rotting soon enough.
Advocate for strengthening and enforcing accountability measures. Promote people you have witnessed demonstrate a resistance to corruption. Assail those in power that shun the light of public scrutiny. But for goodness sake, don’t thin the ranks of responsible voters by over simplifying the challenge of keeping the hounds of chaos at bay.
January 25th, 2006 at 6:09 am
(response)
mindthaw- I hear what you are saying, but i think that it is the bureaucrats who actually keep the nuts and bolts running, not necessarily the politicians. Both need some fixing, but the bureaucrats take primary direction from the elected officials. Replacing the officials would not result in a meltdown necessarily, only a serious refocusing.