Taking stock of our current political leadership.
(Image by A blogsite by novelist John Rachel) Details DMCA
Many folks actually believe our elected "representatives" -- quotation marks are warranted since they don't in fact represent us at all -- listen to us. To put it mildly, this is a bit naive. The simple truth is, it's completely refuted by the facts.
Granted, these professional politicos put on a good show. They all have at their disposal the best handlers, who tell them how to gesture and when to smile. They have the best speech writers money can buy, who twist words into incomprehensible but delightful-sounding gobbledygook, smearing just the right among of cake frosting on often the most insidious acts of blatant treachery. We buy into this three-ring circus because we foolishly trust these clowns.
We think that if we call their offices enough times, routed into the digital black hole of automated message machines; that if we attend the rare town hall meeting when he/she has found time between lunches with lobbyists, and fundraisers blessed by deep-pocketed corporate benefactors; if we sign online petitions, that add to the growing pile of tens of thousands of similar petitions; if we organize rallies and protests which while unreported by the media we're sure will attract some attention; if we write letters to the editor of our hometown newspapers, which in all probability won't get published but whose message will, we believe, still somehow magically get communicated; surely all of this effort will make a difference and we'll see some good, positive changes take place.
Talk about a disconnect! Talk about willful denial! Talk about delusional thinking!
Look around, folks. Could it get worse for those of us with some humanity and decency? Look at all levels of government. We have a card-carrying member of the .1% in the White House, lapdog puppets of the rich and powerful in control of both chambers of Congress, Republican majorities in all of the state legislatures, and Republicans also as governors of the majority of the states.
What does this mean? What can we expect?
Aristocrats and their pay-for-play toadies in high places are elitist and anti-democratic to the core, they are relentlessly greedy and insatiable, and will use their power to further enrich themselves at the expense of the rest of us.
How will this end?
The ultra-rich have been and will continue to plunder our nation until there's nothing left to plunder, then they'll move on to other countries -- it's quite evident that the process is already well underway throughout Europe and Asia, funneling vast amounts of wealth to the already ultra-wealthy via hyper-capitalism and the neoliberal juggernaut.
Here's the straight talk, though it's not what you want to hear.
None of what we're doing works because . . .
The people we vote into office are not listening. Not to you and I, the everyday citizen.
It's that simple. We don't need to analyze this any further. Sometimes it's just exactly what it appears to be. If someone is laying in the middle of the street with six bullet holes in their head, brains scattered across the pavement, and a note pinned to their back which says, "I told you to stop hitting on my wife", we don't need an autopsy to see if maybe what the poor slob had for lunch caused his death. Or whether maybe he's allergic to his new wristwatch band.
Our legislators are serving the rich and powerful and ignoring the needs of everyday folks like you and I. Period! It's right smack in front of our eyes. This is not a rumor or a piece of conjecture. The Princeton study by Professor Martin Gilens and Professor Benjamin Page in 2014 was unequivocal in its findings.
"Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organised groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence."
This means we are now forced to take DRASTIC ACTION.
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