Our Breaking Political System

It is obvious to everyone. The US political system is breaking down. To some, it is already broken.

No one trusts politicians of either party - and with good reason. Congressional approval ratings are in the toilet and have been for a long time. The country is polarized into warring factions. No one will have a reasonable discussion with their opposition. Avarice, greed, fraud and corruption are the hallmarks of today’s political scene on all sides. Most people today wouldn’t trust the typical politician to watch their dog.

Dollars now decide most elections and large multi-national corporations spend lavishly to control politicians;  They sponsor and achieve legislation in their favor at the expense of everyone, and have become 'too big to fail monsters' in their own right;  Corporations are now ‘people’; legally, but, corporate political decisions are made by their CEO’s and board members who ruthlessly ignore the political wishes of many of their stockholders; ‘Freedom of Speech’ today means that dollars can and do vote, and very copiously at that. The environment and quality of life for all citizens suffers while corporations take advantage and fight any and all efforts at protections. The top leadership of corporations pay themselves at several hundred times the rates of their lowest paid employees;

Corporate kingpins live on an elevated plane, isolated from the problems they have willed for all others; They hide their wealth overseas while taking advantage of favorable legislation paid for with corporate dollars for their personal benefit; They fight tooth and nail against anything benefitting others while demanding further tax cuts for themselves; They engage in massive, expensive and duplicitous propaganda campaigns to enlist the help of the very people they economically control to protect their own special interests.

Big Money are deliberately employing hot button ‘red herring’ issues like abortion, immigration and homosexual life styles to divert, divide and control the electorate in political sleights-of-hand designed to cloak their true designs. If you doubt this, do a little research for yourself on the ALEC group.

‘Capital’ is now in political control in the US and much of the developed world for all intents and purposes. Capital is busily solidifying its grasp by whatever means will work for it. It is a classic and obvious case of ‘the ends justify the means’ from the standpoint of capital. But, since the system is breaking, it is also becoming seriously and increasingly out of balance. Things which are seriously out of balance can not sustain for long, and unless brought into equilibrium again, will end up destroying themselves and things around them. Guaranteed. It is not unlike a flywheel out of balance which if not repaired, will eventually disintegrate, tearing out its shroud, freezing its engine and bringing everything to a crashing and disastrous halt.

That’s precisely where we are today. The world is impacted by myriads of problems, from over-population, to global warming, to water shortages, wars, starvation, human diseases, lack of access to medical treatment, endangered food resources, to ‘ethnic cleansing’ and racial injustice, nuclear proliferation, and so on and on and on. Meanwhile, our systems for dealing with such problems has been captured, and their resources diverted to the further enrichment of empirical corporations and those who run them. Indeed, rich corporation often find things to their financial advantage to quietly ignore problems, or encourage things like warfare and disease. Keep one thing always in mind: The bottom line is the one and only thing that really actually matters to any large corporation.

One might think the rich could see where this is heading, and the danger that is in it for them. Several times in the world’s history similar situations have arisen on national levels, and the results have not been pretty for the people who were in control at the time. In fact, historically, this has always, without fail, resulted in oceans of bloodshed, followed by a ruthless retrenchment of society more draconian than the one it replaced. But, apparently our ultra-rich today are oblivious to history, or believe they are smart enough to maintain control forever. They may be right, but I seriously doubt that - and no sane person who studies history should. 

Both the Occupy Protesters and the Tea Party people on their respective sides of the political spectrum are manifestations of social dissatisfaction with the political status quo. There is a growing consensus in the nation that we are being ‘had’. Big Money has attempted to use the Tea Party of advance their agendas, not realizing the danger they may be unleashing upon themselves. I believe they are now starting to perceive this which is one reason the Tea Party has quietened down lately - their backers have backed off.

The pressure is building, and it is past time for ‘We the People’ to take back our country - peaceably if possible - but take it back we must. Otherwise, we are in for a bloody explosion sometime in our future, and fairly soon in my opinion. 

Who can fix things? Not me, certainly, but I have been giving this some considerable thought and believe I have some ideas which can help. I will lay those out in a future blog posting as soon as I can find the time to write them down.