Dissipating Our Power

Political opinion is informed on how one attributes weight to only a few criteria. Conservatives hold authority and loyalty above fairness and consequence. Progressives kick authority, and seconarily, loyalty, to the curb in favor of fairness and the consequences of actions. The old chestnut is "Liberals fall in love, conservatives fall in line." It's not surprising that no matter what remedial damage control and repair to the state of the nation our President is able to achieve, his supporters remain disappointed that more hasn't been accomplished. Liberals question authority and pay closer attention to the current fairness quotient and how the state of things effect status of all the crises all around us. Liberals squabble a lot among ourselves. And, that disspates much of the energy and attention that might otherwise be focused on changing things.

The difficulty challenging Obama "apologists" and apparently disappointed Democrats who might be labelled cronically malcontent is that there are huge repositories of information and details to which none of us are privy that would change everybody's outlook on the matter.

First of all, the reality of our bicameral legislative system and the separation of powers makes it inherently difficult, by design, to make huge changes.That's why it's taken the Republican party, actually since Nixon but shifted into 2d & 3d gear under Reagan, and into overdrive by GWBush, decades to reach the level of inside power, overwhelming support of irresistible money, and relentless pressures on every representative to toe the (literally) Corporate line or face annihilation. And, you can't plausibly suggest that corporate stongarms are limited to the Legislature. Look at how the Supremes subverted the Constitution to place GWBush into the Oval Office in 2000. Look how mercenary contracts have taken over huge swaths of military support once fulfilled by enlisted personnel. Notice how former special forces and special ops retirees become executives among armament manufacturers, switching to lobbyists, some running for and winning legislative offices, branch off to create and run mercenary armies for hire on the world market. See how Wall Street execs take posts with various regional Federal Banks, back to the boardrooms, spend a few years in International banking, European national banks, and back to the Fed or Cabinet portfolios/undersecretary positions. Are you really telling me you can't envision regular channels relaying warnings to incumbents to play by the long established rules or lose a parent/sibling/spouse/child to some unexplainable accident? A warning by well placed insiders under secret obligation to well heeled moneyed interests is all it takes. Withdrawal from Afghanistan is delayed, closure of an offshore detention center, unhampered by the Constitution and unbound by civilian courts, is canceled, corporate owned news outlets fail to point out false equivalences, political non sequiturs, mischaracterizations of fact by adversaries, outright Right wing fabrications and Republican doublespeak in daily reports...and on and on. We are demonizing each other which is exactly how the powers-that-be want it. The only solution is to force transparency of government machinations, the reversal of Bush era (and current administration) secrecy, and holding each and every representative accountable each and every day on each and every issue.

These corporate funded, elite few have been setting us up and have been controlling us for a very long time. They're very good at it. Just as they can't ship all eleven million undocumented Hispanics back over the border, they can't threaten the entire electorate. Nor, can they keep us fooled forever, try though they may. Their subterfuge only lasts so long, and the longer it's applied the more gently the pushes have to be. They bit off 'way more than they could chew, 'way too fast for their own good with their boy George W. who just couldn't tell from appropriate, from just enough or too much and who may have actually believed the magical thinking, snake oil formula they were pushing was real. For all their cash, they only have so many votes, and their buying power is the least effective its been, thanks to the likes of OWS, Pacific Radio, some on MSNBC, Jon Stewart, Current TV and a host of alternative news sources, for a very long time. They win when we stay quiet and complacent, or when we're too busy arguing among ourselves. Our only viable course is to quit this internecine squabbling and focus on the true threats to our representative democratic republic: Wall Street, Armament manufacturers, telecom giants, Big Oil/Pharma/Finance, The Federalist Society (description), the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)...All the guys at Bohemian Grove, at the Koch seminars, the Hoover institute genre think tanks...all the people who need the Middle Class quiet, obedient and complacent.