This won't be much of a diary but I have had a bunch of thoughts bouncing around in my head since I visited our nation's Capital a few weeks ago. But none of these thoughts are organized in any coherent or rational fashion, kind of a thought salad, not unlike Ms. Sarah Palin's word salad, or at least I hope it's not THAT disorganized or bad.
I took the train in from my suburban hotel, and got off at Smithsonian Station, and you emerge from the escalator right in the center of the Mall near the Smithsonian Castle. Very convenient.
My first impression, like the first impression of many people, I suppose, is that this is the capital of a great nation, a nation with visionary thinkers, founders the laid the foundation that could support a great nation, with inventors, a 200 year commitment to public education of the mass of people. A nation big enough to allow people of differing opinions to live together, to be free enough to express those differing opinions, and not to be enemies because they don't agree. A nation big enough to face any challenge when confronted by big problems.
A nation with a political system that has sufficient flexibility and diversity to allow solutions to common problems without going to war over those differences. This system failed only once, and after a war that shapes our thinking to this day, our nation was re-united and made stronger.
We live in a nation that will pull together when faced with an existential threat, like in World Wars I and II, and one that can unleash the full power and creativity of our millions of people when called upon to do so. We joined together to win those wars. When we came home, we banded together to establish the GI Bill, and create the most powerful middle class the world has ever seen. We took it upon ourselves to right many of the wrongs that were created by slavery and the Jim Crow laws in the South. We built the largest public works project in the history of mankind, the Interstate highway system. Our nation invested in itself, and became stronger and a better place to live.
More below the separator.
After our revolution ended in 1781, and formally with the Treaty of Paris in 1783, our founders already knew that the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, created in 1777 and formally ratified by the 13 colonies in 1781, the same year the shooting between the United States and England stopped, that form of government was already known to be inadequate for a nation that required unity of purpose, and a single entity that the world would recognize as our nation. The Constitution was completed in 1787, and ratified in 1788, and the Bill of Rights was created and ratified in 1791, and our form of government that has stood the test of time was fully formed.
When I walked around the National Mall, I saw monuments to our great presidents, Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, our war memorials, World War II, Vietnam, Korea, I saw our Capitol, the White House, all the elements that signify American power, and the power of our ideas of government by, for and of the people. And it made me wonder, why do some Americans want to destroy the thing that makes America, America? Why do millions of Americans want to reject our Constitution? Why do they want to return to a form of government that was known to be a failure in 1781? Why do millions of Americans reject the institutions that most of us were raised to revere? Why do these people and their purported leaders seek to make the government created by those whose monuments I visited, and defended by President Lincoln, and millions of Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen and Coast Guardsmen, many of whom are fathers and grandfathers of the very people who are protesting our form of government. Their forbears defended and sacrificed for our form of government.
Our imperfect form of government, which has accommodated our national needs for so long is under an attack from within, and many of the very people who are the most exploited, who have been most lied to, are the backbone of the resistance and nullification movement, that for the most part, has been created by those who seek to exploit them most. Those who do the exploiting have, through a stealthy and corrupt means, created many of the government policies that are most exploitative of the ones who oppose the system. For a lifetime, forces in our nation aligned with big corporate power, oligarchy power, have with great strategic planning, well-funded execution, have influenced our state and federal governments to do their bidding, creating a legal structure that encourages the flight of capital out of America, in search of the lowest wages, the weakest environmental regulations, stripping the American public educational system, breaking the unions that when they were powerful, in the 1940's and 50's, and into the 60's, led the way to the most powerful middle class in the history of the world.
From this group of oligarchs, who have so thoroughly corrupted our system of government, maybe the Tea Party rank and file should be asking them, why aren't our kids being educated properly in public schools, why weren't we properly educated in public schools? Where is the commitment to building new, and rebuilding old, but still necessary American infrastructure? Why don't our Highway Trust Fund gasoline taxes go to the job of rebuilding our highways and bridges? Where is that money going? Where are the construction jobs that can't be outsourced, that should be bought with those funds? Why does Wall Street get every break, and why is my home being foreclosed upon, with shady accounting practices, with banks who have funds available to lend at lower rates than you will give me? Why do I take all the risk and you get all the benefits of being an American? These are the questions both Tea Party members and Progressive Americans should be asking of their government and the oligarchs. Both of us should be asking why our politicians oppose any effort to create jobs, either in the private or public sector? There are a lot of why's and no answers. We all need to make these folks answer the questions.
Another random thought. When you look at the Virginia election, what we see is that the Republicans couldn't win an election in what should be their strong point, a low turnout election. Looking at the Attorney General election, there were about 2 million votes cast, and the Republicans still lost the governorship, the Lt. Governorship, and the AG is down to a recount, and the Democrat is ahead. The 2012 presidential election drew 3.7 million voters in Virginia. If the Republicans can't win Virginia in an off-off year, low turnout election, they are toast going forward. Republicans do everything in their diminishing power to tilt the field, prevent voters from going to the polls, gerrymander, and if they can't win in Virginia, a bellwether state, their power will diminish faster than anyone could imagine. This creates hope for the Democratic Party and progressives everywhere, to work to get out the vote like never before in states with vulnerable Republicans, and I perceive that there may be more vulnerable Republicans than usual in 2014 because I believe every voter is on to their game, they are committed to failure and obstruction, and don't give a damn about our country's problems, they only care about their own power.
I will end this diary that I thought was going to be short when I started, but the words kept coming, with a poll.