The more I get involved in “paying attention” to our political “scene,” the more I just end up shaking my head.  This summer I’ve had the opportunity to be around people who inhabit golf courses – people who have been very successful in business – and people who seem to be watching Fox “news” en masse.  Now, in the interest of focusing on the golf I haven’t said too much to many of them – and, some actually seem to be “progressive,” but, it’s getting increasingly difficult for me to listen to people I love and respect blame everything in the world on President Obama.  Today, one of the people in my group was sharing about a medical procedure his sister went through that was very expensive (it worked) and one of the guys in the group (I didn’t know this one too well) commented something like “Thanks alot Obama for ‘Obamacare,'” very sarcastically as if President Obama is the reason the procedure was expensive.  I’m just getting so tired of this ignorance from grownups that I’m losing steam.  Most of these guys are still unaware of the “objective” of Fox – even after the Shirley Sherrod mess – and, I for one, can’t seem to even talk to them about it without them going off on “liberals.”  In fact, the ones I talked to had no more than a passing knowledge of the entire Sherrod incident and they still think Fox is a “news” outlet and they believe EVERYTHING they hear from the likes of Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, and the others on Fox.

What’s worse for me is that when I do drum up a conversation with these guys (as much as I can stomach – because I’m not going to proselytize some liberal “solution” to them, I just like to hear what they think) almost everyone of them is a “ditto head.”  These are all college graduates – the kind of people Beck, Limbaugh, and the others would classify as “elitists,” yet they’re buying into these liars hook, line, and sinker.  When “pushed” a bit about the state of politics in America the response usually is that it’s a mess and “I don’t want to talk about it.”  For me, it’s hard to disagree with the first statement and difficult to accept the second.  Yet, I certainly don’t have the answers – thus I end up back here writing in an attempt to “vent.”

My son is 21 and has ABSOLUTELY no interest in “politics.”  Neither does a SINGLE one of his friends his age.  When I quizzed my son the other day about “civics” we came to the conclusion that I, as a sixth grade teacher, expose my students to more “civics” than he got by the time he graduated high school.  Part of that was he wasn’t engaged in high school, but the bottom line is there are a large group of young people in this nation who simply take our freedoms for granted and have NO CLUE what went in to getting them.  I brought up with my son the Shirley Sherrod incident to help him understand the willingness of our media to BRAINWASH our citizens.  His comment: “Well, they can’t brainwash me because I don’t watch that stuff.”  My comment to him was “they’ve already succeeded in brainwashing you because you are destined to be one of the “low information voters” (if he ever votes at all – which is questionable – he certainly doesn’t view voting as a privilege at this point) and they’ve prepared you to be part of the ‘permanent underclass.'”  His response, something like “yah, whatever.”

I’m writing this because I’m feeling the effects of “Citizens United” coming on like a freight train.  I’ve been watching these conniving republicans since I was in my 20’s (I’m now in my 60’s) and they’ve been slowly working their way to this point – the place where their “permanent republican ‘majority'” could become a reality.  And, I’m not sure where my frustration lies the most.  Of course, to me, the republicans are despicable – and, I’m talking about the leaders of today who are doing this surrepticiously (years gone by, there were many a republican I respected and voted for).  The national media has become almost non-existent – which, of course, has been part of the republican plan all along and they are close to accomplishing their goal of controlling it.  In fact, I believe they’ll continue to call it the “liberal media” far after they’ve gained control of EVERY media outlet in this nation.  But, then comes the real culprits to me.  The DEMOCRATS!  They’re the ones we’ve been depending on to stop this “freight train” since 2006 and sometimes I wonder if they even have a clue as to what is transpiring.

In 2006 the American public voted the republicans out of power in the congress in order to end the illegal occupation of Iraq.  George W Bush, in all his arrogance, went right on the offensive with his so-called “surge,” and the dems put up nary a whimper.  In fact, the “surge” couldn’t have happened without the consent of the democrats.  Since that time the “experts” have been trying to further BRAINWASH the American public that the “surge is working” because, ultimately, the level of violence did subside in Iraq.  However, we don’t hear a lot of talk about the FACT that over 1500 Americans have died in Iraq since the inception of the “surge,” NONE of the political objectives have been met, the Sunni STILL HATE the Shia and there’s virtually NO discussion of the Kurds in negotiations to set up an Iraqi government after the last election, and al Qaeda will invariably still do everything they can to ramp up the violence when necessary in order to keep America’s troops in this UNTHINKABLE situation.  The bottom line:  it’s 2010, the dems have had control of congress for four years and the republicans are still stopping virtually every bill aimed at helping America’s middle class while voting eagerly for every measure that prolongs this occupation and the one in Afganistan!  GET A CLUE DEMS!  I knew we were in trouble when I heard my own democratic congressman announce he was supporting the “surge” (he told me – in public – that he was “concerned” for the Iraqi people) about the same time Nancy Pelosi announced “impeachment is off the table.”

I won’t go into my reaction to those two decisions (if you’re interested, visit the archives), only to say that it sickens me to listen to our congress battling over things like healthcare reform, (a green) energy policy, climate change legislation, Wall Street reform, job stimulus, unemployment benefits – all defeated or tremendously watered down because of the republican obstinence in congress – but, when it comes to the defense budget, the occupations of Iraq and Afganistan, and anything else that has to do with WAR we see the bipartisanship which President Obama seems so interested in facilitating.  In other words, we’ve got the same old corporate military influence on our political process which has had the House and Senate by the “short hairs” since the days of Ronald Reagan (actually, it probably started in the days of Nixon – that’s when Milton Friedman hit the scenes with his “shock doctrine” as per Naomi Klein or “free market” voodoo as per most republicans who’ve “bought the coolaid.”

As our leaders lead us further off “the cliff” – as if there is only one direction the great United States of America can travel – it seems that no one in Washington DC even stops to think of why do most of the people in the rest of the world HATE America?  This hatred is spreading like a cancer spreads in an unsuspecting body.  And, our leaders just keep going along with the corporate GREED mongers who have no regard for ANYTHING but the almighty dollar (and, trust me on this one, when it comes to the point where the dollar is no longer the currency of choice these people will switch their “loyalty” in a milisecond).  How we’ve allowed ourselves to become subservient to the “corporate masters” is beyond me.  These people are OPENLY trying to ensure our sitting president will FAIL and only a small percentage of the public even seems to be paying attention.  I mean, I find it beyond astonishing that people like Rush Limbaugh (the defacto head of the republican party – I can’t believe I’m even writing that – have you ever seen what a bold faced liar this guy is?), Glenn Beck, Hannity, Lars larson and the others can openly conspire to cause our president to FAIL without seemingly the slightest repercussion.  Do the “conservatives” really want our nation to fail?  Are they so opposed to a black president (actually – you could call him white, couldn’t you? – after all his Mom was a good Kansas girl) succeeding that they’d have the whole nation fail?  All I can say is what is wrong with these people?  I can’t imagine a president being elected by the people and the minority attempting to undermine him/her.  But, that seems to be what is happening as I write!  Isn’t this all of our country?

I’m really getting tired of writing, but I have children and grandchildren and I’m disgusted at the country my generation seems to be OK with leaving for them.  In my mind, most of the damage was done by George W Bush and Dick Cheney plus the republicans in congress who’ve bought into the “lock step” approach to EVERYTHING.  Just pause for a second, remembering these are the very people calling President Obama a socialist or even fascist, what does doing things in “lock step” remind you of?  Really, think about that for a moment.  And, if and when a republican might somehow step out and tell the truth about what’s happening – Oh my gosh, here comes Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, Larson, and the rest to make sure that person is on every right wing “black list.”  One thing that will be very interesting – I haven’t seen the “fallout” yet – but, the other day I read an article by David Stockman in the New York Times (an Op Ed) titled “Four Deformations of the Apocalypse, and subtitled,”How My Republican Party Ruined the American Economy.”  I’m sure he’s getting lots of hate mail or worse by now, but Stockman was the original “supply sider” in the Reagan administration.  He clearly pointed out the falacy of the tax-cutting free spending (on the military – this possibly being my inference, I’ll have to go back and re-read – in fact, I’ll just link the article HERE so that you can read it if you’d like) republican philosophy of the previous 30+ years.  Stockman is certainly not someone I agree with, but his honesty was refreshing to me and in this article, at least, I felt his explanation was RIGHT ON!  I’ll let you figure out what he would have done differently from today’s republicans, but the bottom line is the DAMAGE has been done – and, proposing MORE TAX CUTTING (as republicans are doing) is INSANE!

I honestly am starting to believe that until we get some REAL conservatives to start calling out these republicans on their GREED and CORRUPTION this nation will continue its downward slide.  It feels to me as if the rest of the world is holding its collective breath wondering when the American people are going to stand up and put an end to this nonsense and reclaim the position so many people died to create.  We can’t be the leaders of human rights when we’re violating them with regularity – and then, when exposed, doing NOTHING about it.  We can’t claim any MORAL high ground with the rest of the world when we’re allowing corporate interests to BULLY us and every other country in the world around with all their money – remember, the Wall Street meltdown effected people worldwide and, yet, there was nearly NO ACCOUNTABILITY for the people who caused the problem.  And, our military adventures in Iraq and Afganistan are ruining our image in the world as a bastion for freedom.  We are sacrificing our own freedoms out of fear of terrorists (isn’t that a victory for them? – isn’t creating an atmosphere of fear their goal?) – today, republicans, who were quick to allow our fourth amendment (warrantless wiretaps) to be “shredded” during the Bush/Cheney fiasco proposed elimination of portions of our 14th amendment – evidently to create more illegals who they can deport in some magical “roundup” of Latinos.

I’ll end this post by saying the real fear – it seems to me – is embedded in the republican leadership and they are using it to “divide and conquer” as the next election looms.  I often wonder what it is they’re so afraid of.  Is it homosexuals having basic human rights?  They’ve won a few elections already using that one.  Or is it guns?  I’ve personally seen several TOXIC emails come across my own inbox claiming that President Obama is going to take everyone’s guns from them – I’m sure that’s a “winner” with a few million people who believe what these guys claim.  However, I personally believe – based on the assault on Obama’s presidency and now the suggestion that the 14th amendment be repealed (this because of the injunction on the Arizona immigration law) The thing republicans fear the most is having a white minority in America!  I’ve heard reports that it is just a few years until the majority of Americans will be “non-white” and, it appears to me the republican party (which is almost ALL WHITE) is trying to make sure they don’t become an afterthought.  Well, the way they’re going about it makes them deserve to become an afterthought in my view.  Shipping the Black people back to Africa is not an option, so I guess we’re going for the “next best thing” which would be to ship the Latinos back to their countries of origin.  I honestly don’t understand how anyone can vote for these people.