"The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism—ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power." --Franklin Roosevelt
I'm tired. I am a bundle of outrage with no place to vent. No place to go. The Republicans despise everything I stand for. The Democrats won't fight for it. Then there's the real problem--the vast majority of people are too stupid to know the difference. When are we, we the people, going to take back our country?
The idea that people still control our country is an illusion. The corporations control everything, and act only in the interests of squeezing every last cent of profit they can. Great men don't make decisions, instead that is left to the Wal-Marts, Monsantos, McDonalds, Aetnas, and so forth. They control our elections through the spending of millions and millions of dollars to get their Republican cronies elected. They are responsible for outsourcing our jobs overseas. They posion our food supply to get a few percent higher crop yield or give it a shelf life of a few more days. While doing this, they pay very little in taxes, take massive government subsidies, and foot us with the tax bill to pay for it all (or, in reality, our children and grandchildren in a perpetual cycle of debt).
Yet, when all this goes wrong, they blame the government, and not only get away with it, but are rewarded with even more power. Yet, who is to really blame for our problems. Did the government ship our manufacturing sector overseas? Do they pump our food full of pesticides? Is it the government's fault I can't start a small business, or the fact that I can't compete with the economies of scale afforded by an operation the size of a Wal-Mart?
And for all we spend as a country, what do we get? Where is our infrastructure? We have an obcenely large military (which largely benefits the large companies who grossly overcharge to supply it, but not a lot that actually helps the people). No public health care (the insurance companies don't want that), no high speed rail (the oil companies don't want that), and even things such as a decent education are becoming unattainable for many in several parts of the country. And, truth is, that's really the way they want it. We are nothing more than a market. We are completely disposable, so long as we replenish ourselves.
Meanwhile, they say they'll create jobs? Yeah. They'll ship all our decent jobs to China or India, and we'll be begging for the eight dollar an hour retail job they come offering in its place. And they wouldn't offer that much if it weren't for a minimum wage. I am a proud member of the middle class. I don't have a ton of luxuries, but I don't want for any necessities, either. I realize I'm lucky. I also feel like an endangered species. As a public school teacher, how long until the corporations decide that a system of education isn't really necessary anymore? After all, who needs to be able to decipher Shakespeare or do trigonometry to run a cash register?
And, yet, it could all be stopped. For everything they've done, the one thing the corporations haven't yet been able to touch is our institutions themselves. Those that were founded BY we the people FOR we the people. We can still save our country, but how long do we have?
But its going to be a lot, a lot of hard work. They say Rome fell because it became decadent. We're on the verge of falling because we've become stupid. Stupid enough that our republic has been reduced to sound bytes and thirty second ads because our populace has never had less knowledge of what actually happens in our civic affairs.
WE should be outraged. WE have to take our country back. Yes, we're probably not getting the 80 year old lifelong Republican to vote our way (even though their Republican party of modearates like Mark Hatfield is long dead). We have to educate the younger generations. We have to put forth the hard work to get them to vote in droves. To understand, if even slowly, that government can't legislate things like religious morality, and that its just a tactic to get people to vote against their own economic interests. We have to contest every race--not just senate or congressional seats, but every state legislative race, every county commision, ever city councilor or school board. We have to fight hard. Campaign hard. Yes, we're not winning a senate seat in Utah in 2012. But if we fight hard for it, and make even small gains every try, we can eventually. Change is hard, but we can attain it if we fight for it. We also need democrats who will actually fight for us, instead of the spinless ones that we've had far too many of.
But we can't depend on just those elected. We all have to work toward 2012--starting right now. Find a candidate and work for them. If there is no suitable candidate for your local city councilor or school board--run that race yourself. Contest everything. Fight tooth and nail. Make sure liberals know that they have a choice. Then fight like hell. Concede nothing--not even the reddest race in the reddest state in the union. Take back the narrative. Educate. Millions of people working are the only way we can counter their millions of dollars.
I still believe in the ideals of this country. But if we don't fight for them now, they'll be gone forever.
/incoherent rant