As stated many times I started writing this post due to my extreme frustration with the Bush administration and the seeming willingness of the media and the democrats to go along with their criminal behavior.  It wasn’t simply the incompetence that REALLY BOTHERED me, it was the fact he (plus Dick Cheney and the rest of them) willingly disregarded the constitution they were elected to uphold in order to further their own interests and those of their immediate “friends.”  I’ve now gotten to the point where I waver back and forth between feeling the need to write about republicans – who are hell-bent on destroying our government – or the democrats – who seem to be more than willing to let them.  The problem I’m feeling, and I’m sure MILLIONS of other Americans are feeling is that there’s only two viable parties in this country.  When the republicans decided to undermine EVERYTHING this nation has stood for in my adult lifetime (almost 45 years) there was no place else for me to turn, realistically (I’m a lifelong independent), than to the Democratic party for help.

Well, that is a decision that I’ve been revisiting since before the inauguration of Barack Obama.  I’m not trying to sound arrogant when I point out that much of what is part of the present national debate – from the standpoint of the “populist” revolt – I’ve been pointing out since before Obama put his hand on the Bible to take HIS oath to defend the constitution.  Despite my INTENSE support of Obama’s candidacy, I started to see what I called at the time “red flags” right from the start.  I would invite you to read some of my earlier posts, if you need evidence of that.  The reason I point this out is that I believe the people in Washington are either totally out of touch with the reality of the people who they have been elected to serve, or the corportate corruption is so pervasive that there’s not much hope for the “change we can believe in.”  As I’ve said many times on this site, I believe if a sixth grade teacher can figure this stuff out, the leaders in Washington should be able to as well.  And, President Obama should FIRE his advisors who have allowed him to continue this wishy washy attempt to engage republicans in his agenda.  Earth to Obama, THAT AINT GOING TO HAPPEN!

Personally, I really like President Obama.  I like everything about the man except his unwillingness to take on the republicans.  He doesn’t seem to understand this is a WAR for the future of the very nation he has at least one (and hopefully two) terms to actually CHANGE.  We have been under an assault for over 30 years by a bunch of right wing fanatics – some of which we are aware – and many, I’m certain, we know nothing about because they’re hiding in the background supplying the “front lines” (that would be the politicians, pundits, etc.) with unlimited supplies of money.  They’ve had a PLAN TO DESTROY OUR REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT since the days of Ronald Reagan.  Reagan wasn’t too subtle about his intentions when he said the 9 worst words in the English language were “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”  George W Bush actually hired people to head departments of the government who were opposed to the existence of the very departments they headed!

Of course, these right wing thugs didn’t want to shut down the government entirely, they really wanted to (and have succeeded to a large part) “retool” the government to funnel as many of the tax dollars as they could to their favorite corporations (not to mention their tax cuts for the people who don’t need it).  Hence, the elimination of welfare to poor people and the HUGE increase of welfare to large corporations.  I mean, don’t you find it interesting to have oil companies making something like 40 to 50 BILLION dollars per year, and yet still be the recipients of HUGE government subsidies at the same time.  Or the pharmaceutical industry using grants from the government to develop drugs and then negotiate with the same government to make sure that they get windfall profits on the drugs at the expense of our senior citizens – who, in many cases, can get the same drugs cheaper by going to Canada than by purchasing them here with the help of Medicare.  Or how about this one, the large investment banks on Wall Street almost led us into another Great Depression (still a possibility), but the government provided them with 700 BILLION dollars – OUTWARDLY – in the so-called TARP bailout to keep them solvent and prevent a “collapse” of the financial system, they guaranteed something in the neighborhood of 10 – 14 TRILLION – yes, that’s TRILLION with a T – in guarantees against future losses, AND they are now GIVING them (well, really looaning them, but I believe you get my point) money at near 0% interest which these very same companies are GAMBLING with AGAIN, and making BILLIONS more that they can use to fight the DESPERATELY needed regulation which would again separate the lending institutions from the insurance companies and the investment “banks.”  We need Glass Steagall!  With the democrats we have in congress, it ain’t likely to happen!

Hence, the mounting frustration from all sides.  The republicans are ginning up all the racists out there to get out on the streets and “protest” our “socialist” (or worse) president.  They managed to get control of the Supreme Court (this will be a problem for years to come – generations to come if the democrast totally “blow it” and allow the republicans back in the White House any time soon) and now they’ve managed to get corporations to be classified as “people” with the same rights as “people” – and, for those of you who don’t get this one – trust me – this is the CULMINATION of a lot of scheming on their (republicans) part.  If the democrats and President Obama don’t figure out the dire straights we’re all in (except the corporations, of course) things could change for the worse – and QUICKLY.  It’s obvious that the vast majority of Americans have no idea what is really going on here, and what the stakes are.  Once these corporations get a stranglehold on our government, it will probably take some kind of revolt to turn things around.  For those of you who don’t understand this;  the combination of authoritarian minded politicians (republicans marching in “lock step”) aligned with corporate sponsors and religious fanatics can lead to exactly what the “tea baggers” accuse our present president of, and that is fascism.  For those of you who think something like that is impossible in America, well, I hope you’re right!

By rights, after the damage done by Bush/Cheney and the rest of the republicans in the eight years prior to Obama, the republicans shouldn’t see the “light of day” politically for a generation (or more).  However, they have ABSOLUTELY NO SCRUPLES!  And, the democrats seem to me to be OVERMATCHED.  The continuous FLOW OF LIES coming from republican leaders apparently has no end.  The only way I can see to get this stopped is to FIGHT BACK.  But, unfortunately, as I’ve been saying for several years now, the one thing I can agree with republicans on is that THE DEMOCRATS ARE SPINELESS.  So, the American people have a choice, CORRUPT or SPINELESS.  To tell you the truth, I think there are enough people who don’t understand the depth of the corruption in Bush/Cheney and who see their LEADERSHIP as something that appeals to them to create a MAJOR problem for progressives by 2012 if Obama and the democrats don’t figure this out.  One thing that doesn’t appeal to Americans is SPINELESS.  I don’t know why the democrats don’t get this.

I’ve written to President Obama, I’ve written to the Democratic party, and I’ve even written to the republican who represents my district in the Washington state legislature.  Despite the FACT his response was in total disagreement with me, the ONLY one who wrote back was the republican (that doesn’t mean I’ll vote for him, I just found that interesting).  I explained to both Obama and the democrats why they could no longer count on my meager contributions – OR MY VOTE.  I need to see CHANGE before I will vote for it again.  I’ve even sent them suggestions, to which I got no response as well – evidently they don’t like my suggestions.  And, of course, I’ve written about my suggestions on this site MANY TIMES.  What is very interesting to me, something like 100 – 200 people find this site in the middle of cyberspace every day, I have no idea how, and so far, I’ve only received a couple responses to my thoughts – but, I keep thinking that if enough people keep their voices speaking maybe something good will happen before it’s too late.  Sometimes I even hope that President Obama himself will happen upon this site – because, boy would I love to talk to him, face to face.

Remember, when GW Bush was in office he managed to get a bill through congress (with democratic support) that would, for all intents and purposes, allow the president to lable anyone – even American citizens – as “enemy combatants” – in his so-called war on terror, and, therefore, be eligible for a free ticket to something like Guantanamo or a comparable site.  Despite the constant attacks from the “right” on President Obama, which they now seem to think is OK – during the Bush presidency, if you don’t remember, saying anything against the president “in a time of war” was considered unpatriotic.  Do you really trust people like GW Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, John Yoo, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Sarah Palin, John McCain, and I could go on?  That’s what we’ll get, only probably worse the next time, if the democrats fail.

So, what can be done?  Well, I’ve stated this OVER AND OVER on this site.  President Obama’s refusal to even allow investigations of the Bush administration – he blocked legal investigations and congressional investigations both – AND THE REST OF THE DEMOCRATS WENT ALONG WITH THIS – could be considered at some point a BLUNDER of comparable magnitude to Bush’s unbelievable invasion of Iraq.  This may seem like a stupid statement to many, but if the republicans get back in control in the next 4 years, saying “I told you so” won’t do a bit of good.  The republicans will be doing the same things that President Obama is, by default, saying are OK.  Yes, he did say that the United States doesn’t torture – but, do you think one single republican heard him?  By “looking forward” Obama opened the door to more torture if another republican makes it to the oval office.  And, it’s this very tepidness to actually do what he took an oath to do – that is defend our laws and the constitution – which makes him look bad in the eyes of millions of Americans.  I’ve stated this before, but if his “looking forward instead of back” analogy held any “water” whatsoever, there would never be another criminal prosecution in this nation.  YOU HAVE TO LOOK BACK to hold people accountable for illegal behavior, because the crime ALWAYS happens prior to the investigation and the prosecution.

It appears to me that neither our president nor our democratic congress have any idea that there is a WAR going on.  And, if one side doesn’t even recognize what’s happening, well – I think you can get my drift – it makes it really easy for the other side to win.  I mean, how much sense does it make that the republicans can be CONTROLLING the nation’s agenda with 40 or 41 votes in the senate.  By the time the democrats figure out what’s happening it’s likely to be too late.  President Obama didn’t want the investigation of Bush/Cheney because he didn’t want the inevitable “distraction,” as he called it, while he was “pushing” his health care legislation.  What he didn’t understand, and seemingly still doesn’t understand, is that he NEEDS THAT VERY DISTRACTION, and he needs it as soon as possible.  It is that distraction which would have prevented the obstructionist activities of republicans and probably allowed the health care legislation to have become law.  Obama and the democrats need the public discussion to return to what the republicans did when they were in control.  The “people” think that if something illegal was done during Bush/Cheney there would have been prosecutions.   So without them, they assume that Bush/Cheney et al were “above board” – which COULDN’T BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH.

The TRUTH is, in my view, that this feeling of enablement by the republicans to SAY ANYTHING or DO ANYTHING without fear of reprisal even though much of it is TOTALLY FABRICATED – and, worse than being misstatements, they are constantly BOMBARDING the airwaves with the same TALKING POINTS which are absurd purposeful lies designed to FOOL the people listening – is the fault of the spineless democrats.  These guys (republicans) are the masters at manipulating the media through classic propoganda.  As Lee Atwater taught people like Karl Rove, the only thing that matters is the END – don’t worry about the means.  They have been secretly taking control of our “liberal media” (one of the sorriest jokes ever played on any nation has been the conservatives convincing the American public that the media they have taken over is “liberal”) since the days of Reagan and with Bill Clinton’s help (passing the 1996 Telecommunications Act) we now have about 5 corporations controlling the vast majority of the media.  Fox “news” (better termed, in my view, as “noise”) is owned by an Australian (Rupert Murdoch) who owns a whole bunch more of America’s media than most people realize, and it’s run by a right wing republican operative (Roger Ailes) and, the American public – and democratic party – seems to just go along with this.  It’s absurd on its face, to me.

Now, we will have foreign corporations participating in our electoral process pretty much across the board, and those like Alan Grayson of Florida who are speaking out against the corporate fraud in Washington will be the initial targets in the next election.  Most democrats, especially in the senate, seem to be unwilling to put up a fight.  It’s almost as if when they think the republican attack machine is coming after them they just run and hide.  THESE DEMOCRATS ARE GETTING EMBARRASSING!  I don’t know where else there is to turn.  I’d like to think that the populist “rage” could be funneled toward elections where the so-called Blue Dog democrats could be defeated in democratic primaries.  People like Mary Landrieu, Blanche Lincoln, Ben Nelson, Evan Bayh, and most famously the democrat turned independent turned turncoat Joe Lieberman need to be “retired.”  And, a bunch more – like Max Baucus need to face challenges in primaries if they can’t vote independently of all the corporate money they’ve already received.  They seem to have no interest in fighting this republican slime machine and putting it in its proper place – which is “out to pasture.”  I’m just not sure there’s time for that strategy at this point, due to the recent Supreme Court decision.  Anything after next November could be too late.

Our representatives have proven en masse that their number one priority is getting re-elected.  And, despite his claims to the contrary, that is what it has looked like to me from the president’s prespective as well.  It seems like the democratic loss in Massachusettes got Obama’s attention, but I’m not sure he got the right message.  He’s still got Rahm Emanuel feeding him advice.  When the pundits were praising President Obama for “taking on” the House republicans at a recent retreat, I was thinking “He’s still reaching out to them.”  When I listened to his comments in the State of the Union speech calling for more offshore drilling, more nuclear power plants, more “clean” coal, and a spending freeze on all “non-military” spending I thought, “he didn’t get it.”  He’s still trying to kiss the republican’s butts.  The republicans aren’t looking to find common ground.  They’re looking to defeat Obama (the thought of a Black president succeeding is very unappealing to them), they want desperately to be back in power (they make a lot more money when they have the White House), and they’re looking forward to the corporatacracy which has been made possible by John Roberts, Sam Alito, and company on their Supreme Court.  The democrats need to expose the misdeeds of the republicans through investigations of Bush/Cheney et al, or Obama’s a one term president.  The worst reality of all, is the next president will be making some incredibly important Supreme Court decisions, and if it’s another neo-con republican doing it, the results will last for a generation.  What if Exxon Mobil decides it would be worth tens of billions to them for Sarah Palin to be president?