I have been pondering this for awhile, in all the Obama is powerless memes, the constant parade of "unusual" weather, the ongoing destructive bills pointed at anything remotely sane and helpful in this country. I have realized that we are all indeed powerless until the Democrats, any sane Republicans and we the people learn how to say NO. Not the petty whiny "NO" to be obstructionist but the "NO" of people who have had enough, who refuse to let the destruction continue.
Reading about the weather really makes me nostalgic, I remember over and over when I grew up watching Nova, National Geographic and Discovery Channels how every single nature show ended with "Man's continuing habitat destruction and fossil fuel burning will cause these creatures to go extinct." I was too young to remember Carter but I have heard how he was telling people back then, "We need to get off oil. We need to say NO to cheap oil." He put solar panels on the White House. He lost his election and we forgot or never listened to his message.
I remember feeling sorry for all those biologists, conservationists and environmentalists who spent decades studying an animal or ecosystem to try to save it, only to lose out in some stupid court battle and having to watch their life's work get destroyed by a development.
I remember when I was about 16 a huge chunk of "my" desert got torn up by a Sun City Development and I remember very clearly wanting to blow up every damn tractor and earth mover over night, to make those developments even more costly.
Now here we are 30 years later and watching the world burn. The sad thing is all we would have had to do was say No.
We could have said no to suburban sprawl, no to fossil fuels, no to expanding our military engagements, no to developments that were not eco friendly. Reagan, Clinton, the Bushes and Obama could have said No to slowly destroying the middle class, could have said No to wasting money on the Military Industrial Complex, could have said No to destroying our education system. Unfortunately it seems the only people in power who know how to say no are the Republican Obstructionists, they are quite content to hold our country hostage for their evil ideals, yet no one in office who has good ideals is willing to go that far.
We could have said No to Wal Marts, NO to one stop shopping, NO to cheaper products, no to bargain shopping - all those things have contributed to manufacturing going overseas. In the constant race to provide cheap goods to get the bargain hunters American companies had to find ways to get consumers to buy their products. So Americans chose to sacrifice their own jobs to feel good about how much they saved at the checkout counter.
We could have said NO to corrupt politicians, we could have said no to voting for the lesser of two evils and YES to candidates that actually have ethics, morals and believe in helping the country not increasing their power. People like Dennis Kucinich and Howard Dean, but we as a party constantly leave them out to dry in our search to find the "electable" one we choose the middle of the road, compromiser who then is quite content to allow his Chief of Staff to insult us to our face.
Republicans are not afraid to punish those who do not deliver, we just let them keep destroying us. We have not yet figured out how to say NO.
NO you shall no longer destroy the foundations of our planet and our country any longer.
NO you shall not continue to disrespect us and our beliefs in your search for power and money.
NO you shall not take us for granted.
NO we shall not live in fear of "the other" when the one we choose is only slightly less worse.
Humans as a species do not think long term unless destruction is staring them in face. Perhaps we should give them the destruction they seem to be craving in order to make them realize that actions have consequences.