This is my second attempt at capturing my thoughts this evening – thanks to either my computer going haywire, or me pushing the wrong “button” (I’m getting up there in years, so I’ll let you figure out the probabilities here :o).  My concerns are centering on my frustration with the direction of this country I love (the United States of America) and the reality that it’s my generation (“baby boomers”) who are largely responsible for what is looking to me like an acceleration of the decline of America world wide.  And, the negative possibilities of this decline are very real and sobering, considering I have children and grandchildren who are among those who stand to inherit what we leave for them.  I’m beginning to feel that, as Americans, we are making some really STUPID decisions.

I just finished reading “Bad Money” by Kevin Phillips and he makes a very compelling argument that the transformation of America’s economy from one centered on manufacturing to one centered on finance as the “trigger” we will all look at years down the road to be the beginning of our downfall as the world’s leading “power.”  (that’s my summation of his argument – using my words – he compares America’s decline to the decline of previous “empires” which is the term he uses in reference to the U.S.)  Philliips’ argument makes total sense to me and it is consistent with other views of economists I’ve read making me wonder why our leaders aren’t getting the message.  My initial thoughts in response to that “wondering” is that our leaders are too busy grabbing as much money as they can while they still can.  This nation is in the grip of a small group of people who have an insatiable appetite for wealth – it’s like they can’t get enough – and, anyone who threatens their “money grab” is the enemy.  I’m talking about a small number of multinational corporations (and the people who run them), the financial industry – especially Wall Street, the hedge fund business, and the politicians who do their “bidding.”

These people have an enormous amount of power – due to their unbelievable wealth – but, the bottom line is the American voters, who have the ultimate power to thwart all of this, are either STUPID or are in a confused state from the effects of the 24 hour propaganda cycle known as cable news.  The “mess” that America is in right now is the result of over 30 years of greed and right wing economic policy which has been aimed at creating power at the head of corporations at the expense of government power.  Some of the leaders of this movement – which actually precedes Ronald Reagan, but which I believe history will put at Reagan’s “feet” – are not too subtle about their disdain for government.  Reagan himself proclaimed that government was the problem, not the solution.  Grover Norquist, a leading operative of Reagan’s and the republicans, was quoted as saying “My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”  The “tea party” and hence the republican party which it is transforming to an even more extreme position, is STILL working to bring Norquist’s goal to reality.  George W Bush, from Norquist’s standpoint, did a good job of destroying government and, in the process, enhancing the greed of the aforementioned corporations – all this to the detriment of the VAST majority of Americans – especially what once was a vibrant middle class.

I was almost depressed when Reagan was elected in 1980 and the election of George W Bush with Dick Cheney as his running mate in 2000 was unthinkable to me (of course, history will have a never ending “field day” with the FACT Bush/Cheney were appointed by our right wing Supreme Court – and, when ultimately history looks at this long term republican conspiracy to TOTALLY control our government, the stacking of the Supreme Court will be one of the main “cogs” in that scheme).  That last thought brings up a topic I’ll discuss at further length on another day – which is the ability of the republicans to see farther into the future – that is “long term” than the democrats who seem to be more short sighted.  The dems seem to always be on the defensive – reactive instead of proactive in their approach to problem solving.  It was the election of Bush/Cheney and their subsequent misadventure into Iraq in combination with one demonstrable incompetent act after another which caused me to start writing in the first place.  While apparently many Americans have already forgotten the damage caused to America and the world by those two, I’ll go to my grave remembering what they’ve done to this great nation and to many other nations around the globe – which is actually what is prompting my thoughts of the evening (sorry for the wordiness).

Simply put, the United States position in the world is teetering on “thin ice.”  There are a plethora of reasons for this – but as “all roads lead to Rome” I believe you could say all reasons lead back to the greedy, selfish, arrogant attitude of those in power who are attempting to turn America into a corporatocracy.  And, let me remind anyone who’s not been reading my posts or others like it – the “melding” (my term) of corporations with government is the foundation of fascism.  Also, since it is the very people who are behind this movement (republicans) who are calling our present president a fascist – Google the term political projection – I’ve posted on this in the past and don’t have the space to do it again, but I’ll just leave it by saying, in my view, this is a serious issue.  What’s interesting about this push for unlimited corporate power in America is the voters have the ability to stop it in its tracks – and, a HUGE majority of voters have the self interest to do so.  These corporate “thugs” are doing everything they can to squeeze even more of America’s wealth up toward the top and they won’t be happy until ALL unions have been busted and America’s workforce is grovelling for whatever wages they can muster ON THEIR OWN.  One of their main objects of scorn (aside from Social Security and Medicare) is the minimum wage.  I’m finding that, of the people whom I actually talk to who consider themselves republicans, most have NO IDEA what “their” party is up to.  In fact, when I tell them, they don’t believe me – they believe that people like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck wouldn’t tell lies.

Again, as I’m thinking that we as Americans are STUPID I can’t help but wonder if anyone out there knows or cares that the rest of the world is moving toward a position of doing without the U.S.?  Do you think that’s really possible?  Well, that’s probably a bit over the edge – mainly because, for the forseeable future, the United States will continue to be a major exporter of FOOD.  And, yes – even the Chinese realize they are going to need a lot of food going forward – just as we are going to need a lot of OIL – if we continue to elect republicans who refuse to face up to some long term realities.  Of course, that last statement causes me to back track just a bit because I, just a few sentences ago, claimed the republicans are better at thinking “long term.”  What I meant in that statement was in their ability to formulate a plan to gain and KEEP power.  Quite naturally, one of the premises of my discontent with republicans is that from a positional point of view it would be hard to even call their positions “short term.”  As far as I can tell – THEY HAVE NO POSITIONS – other than manipulating voters in order to keep and maintain POWER and deplete America’s treasury – that’s what it’s ALL about for them – THAT’S WHY THEY’RE SO DANGEROUS!

People around the world wondered why we re-elected Bush/Cheney after they so bungled America’s foreign policy to TOTALLY destabilize the middle east while at the same time allow Osama bin Laden a free pass out of Afganistan and into Pakistan – a country with an arsenal of Nuclear weapons – deliverable weapons!  That, in and of itself, was MAJORLY STUPID!  Their incompetence in “prosecuting” their invasion of Iraq led to arguably hundreds of thousands of deaths which – from the world’s standpoint – didn’t seem to phase Americans enough to vote these people out of office.  The result is a MAJOR decline in America’s standing around the world – the consequences of which is what I am trying to get at – but, along the way there are so many thoughts springing into my head.  For example, how is the “world” going to view America if we now put these repubicans back in charge of our congress?  I honestly don’t believe there are many Americans who understand how dependent we’ve put ourselve with some of these countries who are on the verge of totally turning against us.

We are not only dependent on oil that comes from some places where leaders have nationalized the oil industry and would use it as a tool if necessary to express their disdain for our greedy and destructive policies (and these policies have been ongoing for decades) but we are becoming increasingly dependent economically on some countries which are losing patience with us and OWN BILLIONS of our dollars.  Countries such as China, India, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Argentina, and I could go on are tiring of our history of exploiting them for their resources.  We’ve largely created a behemouth economy, which is now based on debt and living beyond our means, and if we can’t figure out how to turn this around, I believe these other countries will force us to do so in the not too distant future.

The American public voted for Barack Obama in 2008 to turn the tide away from this corruption and military incompetence.  And, without question, Obama is a MAJOR improvement from Bush – although, the discontent from “progressives” such as myself has been spreading since the first days of Obama’s term due to some quizzical decisions.  For me, the TERRIBLE act of PARDONING (for all intents and purposes) the Bush administration for what EVERYONE (including most of them) knew were legal transgressions (I’m trying to be polite here) was the first MAJOR blunder.  Abandoning the “Public Option” (and one that was actually an option for EVERYONE) was extremely disappointing to me – that was a place to draw the line with over 70% of America “on board.”  I could go on, but the point here is that despite the disappointments, turning away from Obama at this point is STUPID because it would be turning back to the Rove, Bush, Cheney, Limbaugh, Palin, McCain, Boehner, McConnell, Beck, O’Reilly, Angle (ughh!), Paul (double ughh!), O’donnell (triple ughh!), and the rest of the republican – now – tea party crew which are destroying America’s image in the world.  Picture how that looks to those in other parts of the world who are looking for the U.S. to regain it’s place at the top of the “food chain.”  Believe me, the people in China, Russia, the Middle East, Japan, India, South America, and other parts of the world with mega resources who are holding mega amounts of dollars are NOT stupid!  Are America’s voters going to push this to the point that all these countries abandon the dollar as the world’s leading currency?  Do America’s voters understand what that will mean? (I’m trying to understand and feel that I still don’t – but, based on my readings I believe it’s NOT GOOD!)

Over the past 30+ years the republican party has managed to push the United States of America so far to the right that I know consider myself a “flaming liberal” as one of the members of my church called me.  In the 70’s I thought I was a conservative.  I’ve been railing against government debt for almost 40 years – and, guess who’s created the public debt?  Almost ENTIRELY on “republican watch.”  Started with Nixon, Carter cut it in half.  Reagan and Bush 1 took it to unbelievable levels.  Bill Clinton brought sanity back to the budget process.  It didn’t take Bush 2 long to put what his father and Reagan did to the debt on steroids.  And, now it’s up to Obama to pull us back to something reasonable.  When Dick Cheney crowed (as he was pushing through the second of Bush/Cheney’s tax cuts that were UNFUNDED) that “Ronald Reagan proved deficits don’t matter,” I knew we were in for more trouble than I had originally imagined when they took office.  The irony is listening to all these republicans complaining about the debt now and blaming Obama for something they are almost TOTALLY responsible for.  I hope Obama and the democrats have the courage to let ALL the so-called Bush “tax cuts” expire in December – including the portion that affects me – but, I doubt they will have the courage to do so.  They’d have to say to the American people, it’s time to “tighten our belts.”  I realize that’s no way to get out of a recession, but I have ZERO confidence they can get the republicans to agree to extend only the cuts going to the middle class.  If Obama and the democrats cave in on the “tax cuts to the rich” I’ll be totally through with them.  But, that will happen after the election so we just have to hope they’re developing a backbone.

One way to guarantee issues like the tax cuts don’t go the republican’s way is to fight back in this election where I believe the totals when it’s all over will show that something like half a BILLION dollars will have been secretly infused, thanks to the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, almost all of it intended to turn Congress back to the republicans.  And, as I’ve stated many times on this website, once they gain control the problem becomes immense – for the same reason.  Citizen’s United will preclude democrats from fighting back due to the financial differences between “we the people” and the Multi-national corporations who benefit from republican control of our government.  Do you honestly think the politicians who are receiving “secret” support in the multi millions of dollars – sans Karl Rove or the Chamber of Commerce or any other of the so-called “Super PAC’s” – don’t know exactly where the money’s coming from and won’t be “beholding” to the sources of their election?  This is shaping up, in my opinion and despite my disappointment with the democrats, as the most important election in my lifetime.  It was important to stop the “Bush doctrine” in 2008, but these people are coming back like a bad dream and we MUST send a message to them.  I’m voting today – and, as an independent voter, I refuse to vote for a single republican until common sense returns – which won’t happen until the American public REPUDIATES this extremist right wing agenda they’re pushing.  I’m a Christian and I take Christian positions on issues that put me at odds with some democrats, but when Sharron Angle says the solution to a 12 year old girl becoming pregnant by her father is to “turn the lemon into lemonade” – meaning it should be illegal for her to terminate the pregnancy – this, to me, is one of MANY examples where these people are going way too far.  It shows that while they claim they want less government, what they’re really saying is they want less government in areas that benefit big business and MORE government in areas that will actually intrude on the lives of everyday Americans.  The time to stop the “tea party” – republican – agenda is November 2nd!