Monday, November 15, 2010

“Did I Miss Something?”

We Americans are a strange lot in many respects. We are a collection of contrasts that often don’t jibe.

The facet of our makeup that most fascinates me is the extent to which we go to tout our love of equality among men. That is, ideally, a big deal insofar as our national character is concerned. However, in reality, we readily create and support differences in status within our society, quite willingly and readily. We have a different set of standards we apply to celebrities and powerful figures. We defer to them and accord them status that does not apply to the common person. We permit them to engage in excesses and indulgences that are not available to the rest of us. There are very real double standards that are indigenous to who and what we are.

I am, by nature, an egalitarian. Perhaps it harkens back to the sod from which I came. The motto for Wyoming is “The Equality State,” and I not only believe there is much to be said about the meaning of those few words, but I believe in them with all my heart and soul. The only real heroes we have, for the most part, are those who have long ago been consigned to the earth below the manicured lawns of cemeteries after having “paid the ultimate price,” in the service of their country, or those who still wear the uniform. As for the others, we have ascribed to them a superior status, probably more out of a sense of envy for what they appear to be, or out of the power we ascribe to them for what they have. In either case, those are false premises from which flow all sorts of excesses we tolerate that would not be the case if applied to the average person.

I happen to believe that all great fortunes have, at their source, thievery on a grand scale. I, also, happen to believe that most of our other heroes exist because of a vicarious need on our part to emulate them. I question whether or not we really get our money’s worth.

Have you ever noticed that those who enjoy all that super status ascribed to them by a willing society only make “mistakes” whereas, their common counterparts commit crimes? The former makes public apologies and acts of contrition. The other goes to jail. The image of the former is quickly “sanitized,” whereas the latter carries the stigma for a lifetime. Where is the “equality” in this? I just don’t quite see it.

None in my lifetime has been quite as glaring as the persona of William Jefferson Clinton.

If you recall, on his inauguration day, when he and Hillary presented themselves to the incumbent President, George H.W. Bush and his charming bride, Barbara, the chill was so palpable an Arctic wind would have seemed like a tropical breeze. Yet, within a very short time, Bill and George had become the best of friends, playing golf together and traveling all over the globe touting their various humanitarian endeavors.

Did I miss something?

Bill and Hillary were no sooner comfortably ensconced in the White House than it came to light that he and a poor little rich girl from Beverley Hills had been engaged in a bit of exotic hanky panky around and under the desk in the Oval Office. Bill was, ostensibly, talking on the telephone while Monica was engaged in playing “telephone” under the desk. Now, by all generally accepted standards, such behavior would have been regarded as “moral turpitude.” Bill would have been bounced out on his ass and Monica would have been relegated to oblivion. But that was not to be the case. After all, people in high places are judged by a different standard. They don’t commit crimes or grievous indiscretions. They just make “mistakes.” Bill plunged himself into a public display of contrition, seeking counseling for his sexual addiction from that great paragon of virtue, Jesse Jackson who, parenthetically, just happened to have his own progeny from a sexual “mistake” squirreled away in some secluded part of Los Angeles. But, rich and powerful boys play by a different set of rules. The fact that Bill disgraced the Office of the President of the United States was, after all, just a “mistake.” Although it is doubtful that the Diety to whom Jesse professes his loyalty, Jesse’s “mistake,” was quickly forgotten and both now stand before the world completely sanitized for having made those insignificant little “mistakes.”

Did I miss something?

The champions of the free market and small government wasted no time in seeking Bill’s impeachment. But, Bill, being the cool cat he was, remained reasonably composed and, again, committed another small “mistake,” when he was found guilty of what, when applied to the common person, is known as “perjury.” Perjury is classified as a felony but, then again, the rich and powerful don’t commit crimes, they just make “mistakes.” Bill was cleansed and quickly morphed into the outstanding leading example of statesmanship and leadership we have all come to love.

Did I miss something?

Bill had a nose, not only for power, but money as well. He courted the favor of Phil Gramm, Republican Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Robert Rubin and Larry Summers, all complicit in their common goal of inflating the housing and derivatives markets, and totally deregulating the financial industries. Goodbye Glass-Steagall and hello riches beyond their wildest dreams, all bought with the money of unsuspecting investors. Ah! Such are the newfound joys of gambling with other people’s futures and no one to look over your shoulder. Yet another cardinal lesson on how the benefits of the “free market system” accrue to the common good. Yeah; right!

Did I miss something?

Phil Gramm faded off the scene, but his wife was rewarded with a cushy, albeit rather minor position in George W. Bush’s Cabinet. After all, they have the divine right to take care of their friends without consequence, right?

Bill and his minions still brag about how they handed over the largest budget surplus in history to George W. Bush and his happy band of thieves, only to have all that money squandered in a twinkling, all based on a pack of lies and corruption on a scale never witnessed by this country in its history. I still cannot quite accept that Bill didn’t suspect that might happen. Rather like handing an ice cream cone to a school boy and telling him to not eat it. The fruits of their collective plunder and blatant dishonesty are wreaking havoc on our economy to this day, with no end in sight.

Did I miss something?

With both Bill and George H.W. distinguished progeny of the highest office in the land, they set themselves to altruistic pursuits that were worthy of the white stallions and glistening armor of gallant knights from days of yester year. When President Aristide of Haiti embarked on a mission to gradually democratize that impoverished island, it took very little time for George “The Lone Ranger” and his faithful companion “Tonto” Bill to save the poor peasants of Haiti from the possibility of raising their own rice at a fraction of the cost of what it took to buy that same food staple from the corporate producers of rice in the United States. After all, we had to protect interference with the free market that clearly established its superiority when applied to the human condition. The Aristide Administration was quickly and surreptitiously undermined by the dynamic duo, Aristide was consigned to exile in South Africa and the island nation of Haiti sank back into its life of desperation and life at the subsistence level. I don’t recall seeing a lot of copy devoted to that slight of hand by our former leaders.

Did I miss something?

Then there is the shroud of mystery surrounding that charismatic young man who wowed the delegates at the 2004 Democratic National Convention with his Keynote Speech. Who was he and where did he come from? Who cared? His image was just what the power brokers were looking for, and he was clearly a force with which to be reckoned in 2008.

I find the whole hard-fought contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for the Democratic Presidential Nomination rather incredulous. I am more inclined to believe the whole epic was less a quest for the nomination and more an act of theater staged for popular consumption. I will grant you that the final push to the nomination was a real cliff-hanger, but Obama was clearly on the trajectory to the nomination. He soared to victory and wasted no time in making a series of imperial speeches that only he can stage and deliver. He had us mesmerized by his persona and the endless promises of reforms that would be reminiscent of the golden days of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

But, what doesn’t quite jibe in all this theater is why did Barack Obama import former stooges from the Clinton Administration, all of whom occupied key positions in his Cabinet and administration? Why are they the very ones who were instrumental in setting the stage that led to the greatest deregulation of the financial industries since the prelude to the Great Depression? Why was he so tenacious in keeping them in all the key financial and administrative positions, despite learned advice and encouragement to the contrary? Was this wonder-boy really his own man or was he the one anointed to further the dark ambitions of a pervasive greed and avarice on a scale never before witnessed in the history of the Republic? What happened to all those reforms that were to be the foundation for “change we can believe in?” Why did he do a complete about face and cave in to virtually every vested interest he had vowed to challenge, and that had a stranglehold on every aspect of an economic behemoth that was impoverishing the lives of the middle and working classes of this country? Why does he still persist in that relentless pursuit, all under the banner of political bi-partisanship? Who is sitting in the Captain’s Chair on this voyage of the Titanic? Bill or Barack?

Did I miss something ?

Why do I see the tentacles of the Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush Administrations in all this? Because I no longer see a democracy with honest differences between the major political parties. Because I only see a country governed with one, unified plutocracy. Any real difference between the political parties was blurred a long time ago. I will acknowledge that we have different labels, but when it comes to ruling, both major political parties are one and the same, beholden to the same centers of power, greed and evil. They pick those who will be the front men for their pursuits. They finance them and keep them in power. Their power extends not only to the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives, but to the Supreme Court, the Federal Reserve, the Pentagon and other unrelenting leeches on our national character and our national treasure. Their “lobbyists” are like maggots crawling all over the rotting corpse of what was once a great nation, populated with a good and decent people, and holding hope and promise for every one of its citizens. Through their control of the industries that fund, shape and control our perceptions of the world around us, they create in our heads what they want us to believe. Every effort to reform and change our system of government, and return it to the people, requires that one only scratch the surface to see the hand of the oligarchy that not only owns but controls our very lives. Those who serve as their lieutenants do their bidding and formulate the false outrage and resistance to their unabated encroachment into our lives. Dick Army, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and their like? Just actors dutifully playing their parts for the purpose of further anesthetizing our senses and dulling what little intellect and inquisitiveness we may still have to call on.

I have no doubts that Barack Obama is the product of an insidious agenda catering to the basest aspects of our human nature. He can be counted on to relentlessly pursue bi-partisanship and he will cave in to the opposition in every instance where it benefit’s the super-rich, the powerful, the influential, the corrupt and those seeking to drain every ounce of life-blood from those who “work” for a living. Tax cuts for the top one percent of the population will be extended and continue indefinitely. The monetary gluttony of the military establishment will continue. Elizabeth Warren will be consigned to the back bench when all the dust created by her dedication to honesty and her dogged determination settles. Will he seek a second term? Only if there is still work left to be done on behalf of those who have him on a short leash.

All of this will be summarily dismissed as just the machinations of another far-out conspiracy theorist. It always is and, so far, it usually works.

Given the incestuous relationship between the Republican and Democratic political establishments, I honestly believe this country is crying for a new political party that subscribes to honesty in government, transparency in all it does and champions the needs of the majority of the citizenry it is intended to serve. I don’t see how we can continue as we are without the entire charade disintegrating before our very eyes.

Such an endeavor will be a monumental undertaking. It will require strong leadership with the charisma to appeal to our better angels and inspire us to new heights. It will require a solid base of dedicated people who know the difference between right and wrong; the difference between real freedom and tyranny in all its forms, and the need to be ever-vigilant and on-guard against the frailties of our human nature, not the least of which is the legitimate pursuit of unbridled greed. There are those among us who can pull it off. They are former members of government, academicians, and people seeking real change and a better life. They are those who are willing to stand up for decency and all the human attributes that distinguish us from those who only seek the gratification of their insatiable appetites for hedonistic and materialistic pleasures in life, the rest of humanity be damned.

The notion of a new political party is, in my opinion, a first step. Its first order of business must be a commission comprised of the finest minds in our midst, with the avowed purpose of developing a blueprint for restoring integrity and original intent to our system of government. It cannot be trusted in the hands of politicians. They are too willing to “compromise” for the sake of their own interests. We have a vast reserve of academic minds in all the relevant disciplines, including the energy and vigor of the graduate students pursuing degrees in those disciplines.

Were it not for the fact that I am now permanently consigned to the taxonomy of “Senior Citizen,“ I would be the first to sign on.

Cowboy Bob
November 15, 2010

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