“Every now and then I get down to the end of the day and I have to stop and ask myself why I’ve done it.
It just seems so useless to have to work so hard and nothin’ ever really seems to come from it. ”
~ Tom Petty
Its turning out to be a tough year to be a progressive isn’t it?
Sure seems that way to me. Looks like we’re not going to get any kind of meaningful health care reform, unless you call being forced to do business with criminals meaningful. Meaningful in the sense that it means our government is still firmly in the hands of the corporate masters of the universe.
The Copenhagen talks turned out to be just that – a bunch of meaningless babble, spin, and photo opportunities where leaders of the world gathered to stroke their egos and scoff at the little people making so much noise down in the streets.
How quaint of us to think our leaders would ever do anything that might adversely affect corporate profit margins just to save the planet. Meanwhile, Rome, and the rest of the world, burns.
Almost one year into the Obama administration we’re still on the ground in Iraq and ramping up for a surge in Afghanistan. Gitmo’s still open and the prospect of bringing torturers to justice is pretty distant these days. Not to mention the liars and criminals who got us into this mess to begin with. Where’s the justice they’ve got coming?
I once heard someone say we don’t have a justice system in this country, we have a legal system. They were right. Our legal system was designed to preserve the power and privilege of the already powerful few at any cost. It works very well and has for well over two-hundred years now.
It’s getting to the point where I almost don’t care what happens, and I’m beginning to think that’s just what the powers that be wanted in the first place.
The more I think about the 2008 election the more convinced I am that we were setup and have taken the bait once again; hook, line, and stinker.
Think about it! How else do you explain the meteoric rise of an obscure, dark complected Chicago politician with a funny name to the presidency of the United States.You don’t get to the chairmanship of America Incorporated by being an honest, well-spoken liberal.
Even with a huge progressive base, the puppet masters still control the choices we’re offered. We should have seen it coming and maybe a few of us did, but the real power running this country saw us coming from way down the road, and when we showed up for the party, they were ready.
The oligarchs of Wall Street, the heads of the big banks, the insurance industry, and all the other corporate heads of state knew that after eight years of overt Republican lies, criminality, and general mismanagement, this nation was primed and ready for a “change” candidate, so they stacked the deck and gave us one.
Senator Barack Obama was a highly motivated young politician with a gift for eloquence and a drive to succeed. From the day he was elected, Mr. Obama began backing away from the progressive positions he alluded to throughout the election cycle, filling his Cabinet with center-right, Clinton-era moderates and banksters from the same crime syndicates that put us all on this sinking financial ship in the first place. Almost from the beginning this administration didn’t look anything at all like the change I was lead to believe in when I voted for it.
I used to think the excesses we’re witnessing, the corruption and greed so blatant in government and commerce today were recent developments; products of the depravity of late twentieth century avarice and materialism, but they’re not. Today’s social ills are eerily reminiscent of events barely a hundred years ago. Consider the following quote from a speech delivered in 1890 by activist Mary Elizabeth Lease of Kansas.
Nothing has changed!
Unless you’re born into the platinum spoon class you’re screwed from the day you draw your first breath. The top one percent owns the government, so they make the rules. It’s disgusting!
The recession is over for the most important members of our capitalist society, the investment titans and banksters. They’ve made fortunes off this depression because fewer workers equal lower labor costs and higher production at lower cost equals greater profits for the worthless bastards at the top, and greater profits mean higher stock values on Wall Street.
Unfortunately for the working class, the descendants of the robber barons spent the last hundred years making damn sure that every worker in this country is so dependent on outside employment and revolving credit, so indebted to banks and employers, that the chance of a widespread general strike or any other meaningful protest is almost nil.
The power of organized labor, bought a century ago through death and bloody sacrifice, has slowly but surely been undermined over the last several decades. Today, most workers see union membership as an exercise in futility, and in all but a few cases, they’re right. Most unions crawled into bed with the corporate overlords years ago and things have gone downhill for labor rights ever since.
The capitalists of the early twentieth century gave us a few concessions (eight hour work days, overtime pay, weekends, etc.) to stave off a second American revolution, and spent their time and money since then making certain that most of us got fully indoctrinated into the cult of free market capitalism. Socialism, a vibrant populist movement at the turn of the nineteenth century, has likewise been demonized by the capitalist class over the last hundred years and today, most people associate the word with tyrants and dictators.
The efforts of our ruling elites over the last few generations have paid off. One look at the Sarah Palin phenomenon speaks volumes about the widespread appeal of ignorance and superstition to the semi-literate, emotion driven culture that dominates this nation today. It’s really depressing to be sitting here, watching it all play out and be almost powerless to do anything about it.
What kind of world are my children and future grandchildren going to live in? I shudder to think of it.
We can’t quit, can’t give in and give up, but I can’t see light at the end of the tunnel any more. The corporate elites control the elections, they dictate which candidates we get to choose from, and they control most of the information sources.
No matter who wins an election, it always leads to the same result, differing only in whether we take one step or two steps at a time toward the corporate feudal state we keep steadily rolling toward year after year.
I’d really like to see a new party form, maybe even two new parties: one progressive and one for the hardcore conservatives (we’d beat’em in a fair election any day). The Democratic and Republican parties of today have both become virtually irrelevant – two sides of the same corporate controlled coin.
If Reps. Alan Grayson, Anthony Weiner, and Dennis Kucinich could be convinced to join up with Senators like Bernie Sanders, Al Franken, and a few others to form a truly progressive party, I’d follow them to Hell and back. Show me something to really believe in and I’ll be in the street, going door to door every chance I get, but until something like that happens or some real election and campaign finance reforms take place, screw you guys, I’m goin’ home!
You’re right, Thurman, there is NO justice without money.
As for the health care debacle, I see more and more politicians back-pedaling. I know we are fixing to get screwed, because they’re all touting how many good things are in the bill. This bill, as it stands, stinks. I doubt that even the House/Senate Conference can improve it enough to be palatable.
Glad you finally conquered the Word Press Comment problem.
Thanks Brother Tim,
The whole health care fiasco reminds me of that old definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result. Time to hunt up that old jar of Vasoline!
Maybe Santa has a stimulus package of his own and we’ll all be getting a brand new jar for Christmas?
Ho, Ho, and Ho!