In honor of the "government shutdown" here in the U.S.A., I feel that it is only right that I share a few thoughts on a problem that underlies this once great nation. Years ago, if you were an uneducated fool, a psychopath or sociopath, the vast majority of our population knew enough to discount your ridiculous raving, your bad mouthing of "the system" or random attacks on innocent people trying to make a living around you. We actually had a level of compassion for people hurting so bad inside that they had to lash out at the world around them. However, we knew enough to not vote these bad actors into office. What we are facing down in the House of Representatives right now is a group of outliers so devoid of knowledge, skills and attitudes that are required to participate in politics that they cannot understand or adapt to the responsibilities that come with holding office.
We have used a series of tools to keep them under the delusion that they are not only worthy of respect, but that they are "God's" gift to society, even though their actions reflect ruthlessness beyond compare. I often harp on the ruling elite, the monied class and the oligarchy in general and this post, sadly, will not be much different. To even mount a political campaign for the House of Representatives in our nation is something only multimillionaires can afford.. Winning a House seat in 2008 was 1.1 million. Four years down the road, with the Citizens United case that made it through the highest court in the land, money and donations to political campaigns is now considered speech, allowing the campaign coffers to swell exponentially with less and less oversight. Winning a senate seat is nearly ten times as expensive.
This is the "cost" of our current system from a direct financial cost perspective.
With the advent of taking idiots and assholes seriously, our governing bodies have been hurt terribly. In our current system, as long as you pay to play, the media will point their cameras at you and "reporters" will flock to your press conferences and spread the "news" in your press releases whether there is substance behind your words or not. This is akin to babies playing with their own shit. If you continuously reward them each time they "make" it and tell them that they have made a great thing, they will never get over their creations. We have developed a new sort of system that rewards obstructionist rhetoric, bases entire campaigns on single issues, a system that demonizes those who cannot afford to defend themselves and unwittingly props up the cult of ignorance with million dollar graft and corruption.
Thinking that the uber-wealthy will be content to sway politics in a single district is foolish on the face of it. The billionaire class uses these fools whenever and where ever they find them, with donations from large donors crossing as many state lines as their ruthless tentacles desire. The minions (our supposed representatives) are thoroughly convinced that it is their ideas that are valuable, their "stance" against cooperation and their "moral" values that the wealthiest Americans are lining up to fund. This is akin to the person who has been bruised and battered in a car wreck wandering around in shock telling people "No, I'm fine, I don't want to go to the hospital." These people are so in love with their image of who they know themselves to be, that it is difficult to tell them anything different.
If one tries to inject a little truth into their swollen, ego-driven self image, it is easy for them to brand you as a heretic, a "taker" (as they like to call those who they call "the problem" with our nation) or a litany of catch words or phrases that exempt them from having to consider anything but their illusions as real. We can see the ignorant, bigoted, hateful , spiteful and obstructionist representatives behaving badly in nearly every political debate, each evening on the nightly "news". We can read about them in the papers, yet the idea of them being horribly destructive to our nation, our political system and the rest of the world economy never seems to come up. The self-love that they must feel, combined with the funding of oligarchs, has created a master class of self love, lies, deceit, corruption and vehemence that makes Ronald Reagan seem tame.
The vast majority are being beaten into submission by less than one third of the Republican representatives to the House of Representatives. That body is only supposed to hold one half of one third of the power of our great nation, the childish fit that they are throwing is harming not only our country but the world economic system. However, the wealthiest class, who own the media outlets are still telling us that 10% of us believe that the President himself is to blame for the recent government shutdown. To those of us who try to make sense of the litany of lies and pablum that get passed off as news, this hardly seems possible when only one in twenty folks polled think that Congress is doing a good job.
When our forefathers first stepped onto this great continent, those who were here already had made their peace with the land. Since that time, it seems, we have gone to every effort to rape and destroy this place. Virtually nowhere can we find a spot that has not suffered at the hand of "development", not been exploited for profit, not sustained irreparable damage for the sake of profiteers. Letting those same interests steal our elections will surely be the ruin of all that is left.
We have used a series of tools to keep them under the delusion that they are not only worthy of respect, but that they are "God's" gift to society, even though their actions reflect ruthlessness beyond compare. I often harp on the ruling elite, the monied class and the oligarchy in general and this post, sadly, will not be much different. To even mount a political campaign for the House of Representatives in our nation is something only multimillionaires can afford.. Winning a House seat in 2008 was 1.1 million. Four years down the road, with the Citizens United case that made it through the highest court in the land, money and donations to political campaigns is now considered speech, allowing the campaign coffers to swell exponentially with less and less oversight. Winning a senate seat is nearly ten times as expensive.
This is the "cost" of our current system from a direct financial cost perspective.
With the advent of taking idiots and assholes seriously, our governing bodies have been hurt terribly. In our current system, as long as you pay to play, the media will point their cameras at you and "reporters" will flock to your press conferences and spread the "news" in your press releases whether there is substance behind your words or not. This is akin to babies playing with their own shit. If you continuously reward them each time they "make" it and tell them that they have made a great thing, they will never get over their creations. We have developed a new sort of system that rewards obstructionist rhetoric, bases entire campaigns on single issues, a system that demonizes those who cannot afford to defend themselves and unwittingly props up the cult of ignorance with million dollar graft and corruption.
Thinking that the uber-wealthy will be content to sway politics in a single district is foolish on the face of it. The billionaire class uses these fools whenever and where ever they find them, with donations from large donors crossing as many state lines as their ruthless tentacles desire. The minions (our supposed representatives) are thoroughly convinced that it is their ideas that are valuable, their "stance" against cooperation and their "moral" values that the wealthiest Americans are lining up to fund. This is akin to the person who has been bruised and battered in a car wreck wandering around in shock telling people "No, I'm fine, I don't want to go to the hospital." These people are so in love with their image of who they know themselves to be, that it is difficult to tell them anything different.
If one tries to inject a little truth into their swollen, ego-driven self image, it is easy for them to brand you as a heretic, a "taker" (as they like to call those who they call "the problem" with our nation) or a litany of catch words or phrases that exempt them from having to consider anything but their illusions as real. We can see the ignorant, bigoted, hateful , spiteful and obstructionist representatives behaving badly in nearly every political debate, each evening on the nightly "news". We can read about them in the papers, yet the idea of them being horribly destructive to our nation, our political system and the rest of the world economy never seems to come up. The self-love that they must feel, combined with the funding of oligarchs, has created a master class of self love, lies, deceit, corruption and vehemence that makes Ronald Reagan seem tame.
The vast majority are being beaten into submission by less than one third of the Republican representatives to the House of Representatives. That body is only supposed to hold one half of one third of the power of our great nation, the childish fit that they are throwing is harming not only our country but the world economic system. However, the wealthiest class, who own the media outlets are still telling us that 10% of us believe that the President himself is to blame for the recent government shutdown. To those of us who try to make sense of the litany of lies and pablum that get passed off as news, this hardly seems possible when only one in twenty folks polled think that Congress is doing a good job.
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