What is the value of one American? That varies from one individual to another
and one moment to another in time. It is
whatever that one American’s vote is worth that puts just one person in office
and in a position to exploit the system to his/her own advantage. It just takes that one American to create
what will, in turn, give unlimited power and privilege to that vote seeker
which will put him/her in a position to claim all the spoils provided by the
American taxpayer to a system of government that will promptly forget how
he/she got there and lose sight of the fact that he/she is claiming the right
to spend what has been entrusted to him/her as if all of it is a rightful
entitlement to be disbursed as he/she may see fit, all at the expense of all
those whose vote has been so freely given.
I watch a lot of news programs about every conceivable
aspect of what our government and all those who comprise that dubious
manifestation of all those who profess to be doing something for us rather than
to us. They really do believe they are
the anointed ones and Mr. & Mrs. America are nothing more than nameless and
faceless conceptual creations that are there to do whatever they may deem their
rightful prerogatives, any accountability to the benefactors be damned. We, the American people, are nothing more
than enablers to those who see the government and all its real benefactors as
theirs to do with as they please. You
can bet that none of those who bothered to go to the polls will count for one
scintilla of what public servants will do with the trust we have placed in
them.
Those who go to Washington ,
D.C.
While the common person, under penalty of law, gives to the
government, ostensibly for myriad services that serve the common good, it is
freely taken from them and re-channeled to the many vested interests who are
the real benefactors of our government’s largesse to all those who grease the
hands of those who do their bidding, more often than not at taxpayers
expense.
How did we come by a two-party system that, for all intents
and purposes, is essentially the same?
They impoverish the bottom tiers of the population and pass their tax
dollars to those in the form of tax relief to the very rich, bailing out banks
and financial institutions that have pillaged and plundered our nation’s
economy. They, in turn, pay less in
taxes, engage in monopolistic practices and operate with fewer and fewer
regulations ostensibly there to protect the consumer public. They operate in secret, make backroom deals
and spy on us at will. We, in turn, live
in a flat-lined economy while the coffers of all the plutocrats simply bulge
ever more with each passing handout from Uncle Sam.
Those we have elected to office, meanwhile, engage in ritual
waling and gnashing of their teeth because our national budget is out of
control and we are overspending! Alas,
alack! What misfortune faces us now? Those of us who pay our taxes and live at the
bottom of the food chain with barely enough to feed our families and pay our
bills see what few social benefits we have evaporate right before our
eyes. Where has the unemployment
insurance gone that was created to help those of lesser means to weather
downturns in the economy? Where have the
food stamps gone that were put in place to help the least among us get through
the tough times with barely enough to put food on the table for our
children?
What has happened to all those young people searching for a
means to get into and graduate from college so they, in turn, just might have a
shot at the American Dream by becoming a cut above all those living on a
minimum wage? Just ask any one of those
aspiring professionals how much of a burden they are carrying and the
constraints they live under for having taken the money from the government to
finance their educations? Is there any
hope that their burden of debt will ever be paid off? Then, just for the sake of watching the shock
on their faces, ask those from the Ivy League Schools and environs sometimes
frequented by the likes of Barack Obama how they managed to get through the
system unscathed and financially sound?
Let’s face it, those who enjoy the most from all of those
who have the least are the corrupt and compromised members of banking, law,
hedge fund management, founders of successful companies, entertainers, senior
managers and other scavengers who sit on the sidelines hoping, just hoping, one
of the big boys will throw them a crumb once in a while in exchange for their loyalty
and support.
Call it what you will, but this country is owned by those of
means and all those who serve them. They
are the wealthy, the privileged, the news media, the entertainment industry,
the military services, the intelligence community, the military/industrial
complex and all of those of lesser stature who all routinely engage in feeding
frenzies at the public trough. Those who
shape public opinion and appetites in their favor are the complete antithesis
to anything resembling a democratic system.
It is a myth to think otherwise.
Personally, I think the entire fable of how this country was
founded is questionable. How many of
those so-called “Framers of the Constitution” were men of modest means? How many of them lived in mansions on plantations
and owned slaves? How many of them lived
on Elm Street
and drove a one-horse carriage to the office every day? How many of them worked by the sweat of their
brow and supported a family living at the subsistence level? How many of their philosophical progeny now work
in the halls of government with the avowed purpose of limiting all forms of
“democratic” behavior that has the potential to impede the continued
exploitation of all that rightfully belongs to the American people?
Frankly, I see little difference between the “Conservatives”
and the “Progressives.” The former seems
to have God on their side on every issue.
The latter seems to have an “enlightened and informed” view of society
on every issue, as well. The former
operates from a base of divine enlightenment and the latter operates from their
concept of what constitutes a perfect world.
Both groups seem to have plenty of money and privilege at their
disposal. It must be rather easy to
leave all that behind and return to the comfortable surroundings to which you
have become accustomed. It is quite a
different thing to take a stand and fight for what you know to be right and
just.
At the end of the day we have Fox News to keep one side
happy with the knowledge that they really are right all the time. On the opposite side we have those who are
secure in the knowledge their view of the world really is on the side of all
those who are continually exploited by the system in one form or another. If that doesn’t beg the question of having a
multi-party system, I don’t know what does.
Both of what we have continually feed from the same troughs of
corruption.
We Americans, such as we are, always seem to be looking for
something “different” to entertain us and to occupy our minds. No sooner were the Christmas trees taken down
and the liquor bottles put in the recycling bins than it was announced that
Hillary Clinton was retaining one of the best political packs to launch her bid
for the White House in 2016. The
euphoric exhortations from every corner of the Democratic Party, the White
House, and the “progressive” community were deafening, almost to the point of
hearing that she was about to be elected by acclimation. This was just a reminder to saner minds that
the entire spin machine was already in place to make sure she was the only
viable Democratic candidate for President in 2016. I don’t share that view.
First of all, I perceive our two-party system as an accepted
means of controlling the numbers of people seeking office and limiting their
numbers to those who have already proven their prowess in how to play to the
plutocrats that already own and control our system of government. Their strategy is formulated and fostered by
the club that seeks to further their own vested interests at the expense of the
preponderance of Americans who will go to the polls and cast their votes in the
next national election.
I don’t subscribe to the notion that the conduct and
behavior of the Clintons
in the White House, the Senate and the State Department are necessarily ancient
history and should be forgotten, nor has the slate been wiped clean as their
supporters would have us believe. Bill
Clinton’s conduct while President was reprehensible and he proved himself to be
about as base and vulgar as one could imagine.
From the tales that have circulated since she left the White
House, Hillary could swear like a drunken sailor with the style and ease of a
seasoned veteran. She supported George
W. Bush and Dick Cheney on going to war with Iraq and, frankly, I don’t think
her performance beyond that has been particularly remarkable or
impressive.
The Clintons
are what they are. They are in it for
the money, power and prestige. It is a
testament to their prowess and skill that they have managed to get as far as
they have and to have burnished their image so an entire nation sees them as
ready to mount the white horse and ride, triumphantly, back into the
limelight. They haven’t earned the
renewed respect and admiration of the American people. We have the right to a couple in the White
House that has the stature of the First Family.
The Clintons
dispelled any notion of such a perception a very long time ago and they have
done a laudable job of keeping it that way.
We, as a nation, certainly don’t need a repeat performance from them now
or any time in the future. Enough is
enough!
Each of us can make a difference but, in order to do so, we
must revisit the merits and value of thinking for ourselves. Critical thought is not yet dead. The time has come to treat what we get from
all the spin doctors what it is in reality; pure, unmitigated bovine scatology,
hoping what they peddle for us to believe is what we will claim to know. It has worked very well for them for a good
long time. Why should they be concerned
about what we might discover now?
Cowboy Bob
The Sagebrush Philosopher
August 22, 2014
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