Any vision for America going forward must be
articulated as part of a
global vision. As this global recession has so forcefully reminded us,
we all intertwined. The world today faces at least six key economic
challenges, some of which are interrelated. Their persistence and depth
is testimony to the difficulties that our economic and political system
has in addressing problems at the global scale. We
simply don't have effective institutions to help identify the problems
and formulate a vision of how they might be resolved, let alone to take
appropriate concrete actions. (Joseph E. Stiglitz from his book,
Freefall, pg 188)
...we have 50% of the world's wealth but only 6.3% of the
population.... In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of
envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a
pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position
of disparity without positive detriment to our national security.... We
should cease to talk about vague and -- for the Far East -- unreal
objectives, such as human rights, the raising of living standards, and
democratization. George Kennan in his 1948 Biography (pages
104-105)
* The US is a wholly owned subsidiary of trans-national corporations and it has become an oligarchy.
The partisan Supreme Court's
Citizens United decision solidified this fact. Every Congressman who
favors an agenda for people will be facing deep-pocketed 'conservative'
opposition. In addition, where Republicans control State legislatures,
they have been systematically making it more difficult to vote:
requiring photo id's, restricting early voting, making it more
difficult for students to vote, plus their more standard techniques of
hacking voting machines, engaging in
dirty tricks, or voter caging. The Republican
wrecking crew will be
able to take over again.
For their lobbying expenses, corporations
benefit from very
little tax burden (which they are attempting to completely shed), a military that protects their interests at
public expense, a safety net
that assures if they are large they cannot fail (taxpayers will pick up
the tab), and, since the only healthy industry in the US is for
weaponry they get immense profits from war.
Since
every Congressional district has jobs dependent on war profiteering,
there is always an incentive to increase 'defense' spending. There is
no particularly credible threat to account for all this weaponry. It
likely generates considerable ill-will around the world, but it is (pay
attention Republicans) an immense, extremely unproductive, GOVERNMENT
JOBS PROGRAM. Meanwhile our infrastructure is in bad shape, our rails
in sad disrepair, and you have many market choices for
automobiles...but no public option.
US corporate media has a strong
influence on culture, politicals, citizenship, and education. What it
does is sell product but its entertainment always has a message that
includes sanitized history, celebrity gossip that disguizes corporate
advertising, Right-wing demagogues on talk
radio promote a
regressive agenda that can only lead to an imperial state defending an empire that robs the people and can destroy the
planet. Corporations fund the Tea Party
to
buy political gridlock. The message is designed to pacify people so
that they do not realize they are losing their prospects, their wealth,
and their freedom. The predator must first fool, then paralyse its prey.
* The middle class has been sinking since Reagan took office.
Workers bargaining rights have been systematically eroded. Republicans
are intent on destroying any kind of social safety net including Social
Security (not much of a problem really), healthcare,
* Probably the best
indicator that someone is a Republican is
wether they are regular church attendees. To have beliefs based on
faith, lessons of history, informed opinion, or
evidence become irrelevent. This is how the Republican agenda can be
conveyed by misinformation. Don't be surprised that religion is not
just an unholy GOP ally, but is, itself, a large industry.
* For example, our leading economists tell us that austerity
is
a bad idea now and that it will further weaken the economy.
Republicans, however, know that a bad economy could win them elections,
so they have cut at all levels of government and done nothing about
massive unemployment.
In the latest discussion of the US budget,
a partisan group, meeting in secret without any public
oversight will probably not agree on anything. The
result will be across the board cuts in Federal
spending, a further weakening of the economy, and the
death of the American dream. This will largely
accelerate our race to the bottom.
* Science tells us that global
warming is man-made, that the
population has exceeded the planets carrying capacity, and that further
additions to carbon emmissions can doom the planet. Republicans, ever
ready to claim science a scam, are oblivious.
What's the Matter With Republicans
? They oppose measures to provide a social safety net and in many ways
foster divisiveness using religious
bigotry, dirty election tactics, racism, homophobia, and the big red
scare. While
demonstrating xenophobia they have also oppose measures to protect civil liberties with the possible
exception of the Second
Amendment. They don't much care who is armed, after all arms are
profitable.
* Like other empires, the US no longer responds
to its people. To pay for the
empire, there can be no social programs like
healthcare or social security. Union busting and offshoring
jobs assures declining wages, but has the side-effect of weak
demand...the real reason why the US economy will not recover.
The Republican Party, along with corporate media have
sponsored the world's largest military to guard corporate interests,
most notably the interests of oil companies, but many others as well.
After losing the 'big red scare' which was justification for the
world's largest military, Republicans had to find another reason to
maintain the military-industrial complex, so they engineered a culture
war with the Muslim world.
They are completely oblivious of global challenges. They spurn
international law, and
attempts to reach international consensus...unless, of course, it is to
the advantage of Corporate
multinationals.
They are willfully ignorant about climate
change because it might restrict
their right to pollute. They
have a lot in common with Jim Jones.
Republican values are about money, not people. Their agenda is
more
about accumulating money than working for the public good. Their
economic agenda is counterproductive. Their attitude toward government
makes failure a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Republicans are driving a very bad bargain: "we
are in the process of destroying a great many
things which are real
— soil, water, energy, resources, other species, our health — for
the sake of something that exists chiefly in our imagination: money."
from DeclineOfTheEmpire.com
Republicans, like the Bush
family, were supporters and financiers of Nazi Germany. They nearly
accomplished a coup during the Roosevelt administration and they
continue to promote policies that lead to fascism,
defined as rule by corporations.
US media, particularly broadcasters,
see no obligation to serve the public. Since concentrated media
controls almost all information, the US is mostly run by corporations. That is, by definition, Fascism. They have demonstrated the
ability to create storms of misinformation that trigger protest mobs.
Because most of the economy is corporate, they also can buy the Congress.
The Republican Scam all but
makes the US ungovernable. Congress is
money driven, so decisions are often not the right ones.
Religion is an important tool for
Republicans to keep real issues out of the public mind.
Media is key to keeping people ignorant. It is largely
responsible for our failed schools. If people are reminded of any
history, they would know we are on a rapid path to the
bottom.
Republicans champion the death
penalty. They only seem to care about the 'right to life' for the
unborn. For the 16,000 children who die each day of starvation, they
have said little. In their trade-mark hypocrisy they strongly favor the
death penalty.
Religious groups, including Roman
Catholic Bishops, have been willing to block any meaningful health care
reform in order to have their way on abortion.
They are not nearly as vocal
about the 16,000 children who die each day of starvation.
They made no secret of their opposition. Patrick Kennedy famously may
no longer take communion. Bill O'Reilly, indoctrinated by Catholics, is
credited with the death of at least one abortion doctor. Religion,
without a doubt, is a leading motivation for violence and terrorism. Abortion has been a major cause of violence in
the US.
All major
religions make women second class citizens.
The W administration used 9/11 to push through an agenda that had been a
Neocon dream for decades: invading Iraq,
rolling back civil liberties. The US has become a leader in
incarceration of its own people.
The US was the last advanced country standing after WW II. As
a result it became the leading supplier of product to the world and its
currency became the most important. It was predictable that this status
would not last in the long run.
As its industry has migrated to low wage countries, its
economy has visibly weakened, the currency is facing competition and
its misguided concept of itself as a superpower is no longer
defensible, it has continued to fund the military
at levels that exceed
the rest of the world's combined. Democracy will not be spread with
guns and bombs.
In short, the US has become an empire,
it's President a strong-man head of State
increasingly unaccountable, the Congress a
quaint, (and corrupt) irrelevant appendage of dysfunctional government,
and a foreign policy that mostly works at the point of a gun. Since
corporate war profiteers are running the show,
it is by definition, fascist.