Right now, at this very minute, we have a man who is President that is trying to make himself the knower of all things, the "Decider" and holds "Unitary Power of The Executive Branch" during wartime, even if that war is undeclared. We scoff and say that he is delusional and that he couldn't possibly be serious, and in two more years we will be rid of him. That seems to be the attitude. Don't go that route...it could be suicide for our representative democracy.
We are embroiled in a war that is getting close to having caused a million casualties. The world community scorns us. Our country is represented by two factions that except for media appearances when they talk of democracy and differences between the parties, are all millionaires and corporationists. They act like advesaries, but they are in collusion with one another. There are a few however, in both parties, that are tired of the far right's incessant war's and paranoia, or they are afraid of what looms over the horizon, a dictatorship of the right. Most of these politicians just happen to be Democrats. A small percentage are Republicans, a few are Greens and Independent.
All of this matters very little if we lose our rights under our Constitution, as we have, bit by bit, day by day. We argue with each other while the right wing slowly and fastidiously removes the underpinnings of our representative democracy, while working diligently to bring forth a twenty-first century feudal system, where capitalism reaches it's zenith, and the Corporations become the rulers; deciding what we need to sustain corporate growth for the benefit of the shareholders and the corporate boards. This is not just a U.S. problem; it is a global problem. The mantra will be whatever is good for the corporate environment, is good for humanity. Without Corporations, we would not be able to sustain humanity. This is coming to pass as we speak. Corporate interests are funding the elections in most industrialized nations. What kind of candidate do you believe they will support? They will support their own corporate cronies, and if there is a lack of them, they will support someone that will pledge their support to the corporate idea of governance. This is happening.
Pat Tillman's brother has written an article against the war. Why do you think he did that? He could have continued to be the darling of the Neocons. They would have wined and dined him until he was an old man. Why did he decide to break ranks with the Right and speak out? It was because he sees the lies and distortions and the future of this country under the leadership of the Corporate NeoCons. Let's face it. When a government is led by the corporate sector and not by the will of the people, that is Fascism. That is what the definition of fascism is. This is not a "new" idea brought up by a "C" student that can't even talk without putting his foot in his mouth. It is time to call a spade a spade. We can either see a fascist America, or go back to our representative democracy, when we had two (or more) diverse political parties.
This is going to take work. It will be much easier if we elect a Congress this year that won't be a rubber stamp for Bush, Cheney and Co. If we can take out the right's majority in Congress, it will be a start, but only a start. The real work will come after this election is over. We need to put as much pressure on our Congressmen and Senators to introduce legislation that will change the way in which people are nominated and funded for political office. This is not just one issue; it is THE ISSUE. Unless we get Corporations out of the candidate financing game, all candidates will continue to be beholden to their corporate backers. Unless we change the way campaigns are financed, lawyers, doctors and their related associations, pharmaceutical companies, agricultural conglomerates, petroleum companies and related institutes, insurance companies and defense contractors as well as the different world conglomerates will determine who runs this country and what laws will be introduced or stricken down. You can bet your bottom dollar that individual concerns will not be a priority, just as they are not a priority now. You can see this by the way Congress has been bankrolling big government with the social security fund, the failure to raise the minimum wage, one of the worst records on health care, but at the same time this country spends more on medical care than any nation on earth. How can we spend the most on healthcare than any other country on Earth, and have one of the worst health care statistics of any industrialized nation? It's not hard to figure out. National Healthcare is something that both political parties won't touch. The reason? The money spent on politicians by the AMA, The Insurance Companies, and the Legal Profession.
Am I making a point here? Can anyone see why we must stop the bickering between progressive groups and people and join together against a common enemy that is sure to mute the individual and supplant our representative democracy with a fascist corporocracy? We will constantly be in a series of wars and military interventions in order to keep production up, and dissent low through intimidation and fear. There are two futures that we can choose for our nation. Which one will you choose? If you want the Corporate fascist model, than do nothing and keep believing that we have a functioning democracy that is looking out for individual citizen's rights, or you can stop arguing amongst each other, roll up your sleeves, get rid of this far right Congress and change the way our leaders are chosen and elected. This is your choice as an American. Nobody has ever claimed that citizenship in a democracy was easy. Nobody ever claimed that it couldn't be threatened. It's your choice, and my choice. Let us make the right choice. Let us make the choice that Jefferson and Franklin and Adams would have made. Remember the words of Patrick Henry that still ring true today: "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!"
