A few days ago I forced myself to watch a bit of Glenn Beck.  This was really hard for me.  It has become clear to me that he’s marching toward the head of the “pack” of the paid shills for whoever is behind this right wing corporate takeover that is continuing to gain steam in America.  I’ve long been writing about how it’s my belief it started (at least noticeably to me) during the days of Ronald Reagan.  I’m beginning to believe it started well before that, it’s just that Reagan was the perfect “actor” to take center stage in the White House to further “their” message – whoever “they” are.  Well, as irony would have it, there was Beck spewing out a theory – using puppets – that the “left wing conspiracy” was/is funded by George Soros (the main target of these projectionist nutjobs) – Soros supposedly acting behind the scenes and using different politicians and political commentators to further HIS message.  Soros, in the background, “pulling the strings” of these people on the front lines who are leading this country into some form of fascism (I couldn’t keep watching long enough to get all the details at this point – it was creepy)  This is CLASSIC on the part of Beck and his benefactors.  Accuse the opposition of EXACTLY what they, themselves, are doing in order to divert attention from their REAL goal – which is appearing more and more to be a fascist corporate takeover of our government.

Then, after thinking about what he was doing for a bit, it dawned on me that this is just another part of the right wing propaganda scheme that I’ve been railing about for years.  Essentially, Beck is saying the same thing I’ve been claiming – only he names the conspirator “behind the scenes.”  I have been unable to put a face to what is happening “behind the scenes” of the republican/right wing “conspiracy” – but, talk about your projection!  I keep wondering if Beck is just playing this devious game and he’s giving hints to the “left” as to what is REALLY happening to them – with some kind of huge bet somewhere as to if or when they are going to “get it.”  Beck has an arrogant confidence that by the time the “left” figures this out it will be too late.

The person I’ve heard with the best perspective on all of this is an auto mechanic, of all people, named Tom Dwyer in Portland, Oregon – who advertises on the local “progressive” radio station.  As I listen to him, I continually wonder – where are our leaders?  If auto mechanics and 6th grade teachers can figure out what’s going on, why can’t the democrats who are in leadership positions do the same?  I believe the answer to that question would be clear if we could simply “follow the money.”  Let me elaborate.  (I honestly believe there is a pent up desire in America to get behind whoever decides to stand tall against this “invisible” enemy – people, from “both sides of the isle,” feel “it” – it’s just hard to figure out what “it” is)

I will begin by reiterating what I’ve been saying for several years now.  We, in America, are at war.  And, the war which has the most profound influence on the future of this nation is not in Iraq or Afganistan, it’s right here at home.  It’s the WAR for the heart and soul of this nation.  I’ve gotten to the point where I’m almost obsessively consuming non-fiction books on how our government is functioning – I began reading about Iraq in 2004, then Afganistan, then the economy, and along the way several books opening my eyes to different inside aspects of how America is being governed.  I can tell you, the more I read, the more “chilling” it gets.  In fact, I’ve got to take a deep breath in an attempt to lay out a small portion of these thoughts in some kind of sequential order so that they make sense.  Let’s start with Barack Obama.

I got excited about a presidential candidate for the first time since RFK in the 2008 election.  I made a lot of assumptions as I supported Obama and, looking back, the “red flags” began prior to his election.  The first one was when he voted for immunity for the telecoms who were illegally wiretapping American citizens.  I was so upset about that one that I wrote a three page letter to Obama’s campaign staff.  I don’t remember if I got a direct response, but I do remember Obama promising to “fix” the “FISA” bill once in office.  One of many promises BROKEN!  To many on the “left” this didn’t appear to be too big a deal, but to me it was one of the first “hints” that Obama was more “republican-lite” than truly “progressive.” (can I use the word liberal here?)  later, as soon as I found out that President Obama was defending the Bush wiretapping in court, I knew this one was a lost cause – and, frankly, I was very surprised he didn’t get much “blowback” from the “left” for this.  Additionally, Obama was right in the thick of the TARP bailout – although, thankfully, that MUST be put on Bush and Paulsen.  I was OK with the government loaning GM and Chrysler money to save millions of blue collar jobs and an auto industry which was in danger, but allowing the Wall Street Banks to “get away” with risking this economy, and plundering TRILLIONS from America’s pension funds and taxpayers – with virtually NO accountability – was unthinkable to me.  Of course, we sent a message that not only are these Wall Street thugs “too big to fail” – but, they’re “too important to fail” and therefore the HUGE bonuses for ruining MILLIONS of Americans’ lives.  Remember, the CEO of GM was “canned” and the government took ownership subject to TARP money being paid back – not ONE Wall Street executive was fired from any of the “too big to fail” banks and the Obama administration clearly backed off “nationalizing” any of the banks.

I took Obama to be incredibly intelligent during the election (and, I still believe he is) but I had to wonder what he was thinking when he surrounded himself with Wall Street and Goldman Sachs alumni in his new administration.  I shuddered when it was announced Rahm Emanuel was to be his chief of staff and Obama kept in tact Bush’s “war machine” in the pentagon.  While I certainly prefer Secretary Gates over Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense – NEW BLOOD was needed.  How do you change a policy with the same people who created it?  This is the course President Obama chose for both the economy and the two UNWINNABLE wars he inherited.  Now, he – and the REST OF US – are paying a price for these (and some other curious) decisions.  The “tea party” has been energized and the – OK, I’m going to say it – liberals are TOTALLY turned of by our democratic president.  It was much easier for me to be disappointed with Bush/Cheney, because I didn’t expect any different.  However, the “change I could believe in” wasn’t republican-lite.

Obama and his supporters will point out all their “accomplishments” – which there are some notable examples – but, none of them have come without a significant “cost.”  Our president started by negotiating the “stimulus” package down to an amount that was sure to leave too many Americans unemployed in a futile attempt to get “bipartisanship.”  This created a lot of criticism from Obama’s own “base” because WE (I say “we” because I was pointing out the folly of a too small package before it was voted on myself) understood that the need was for more money aimed at creating jobs through rebuilding our infrastructure.  I honestly don’t understand how that couldn’t have been obvious to Obama and his advisors.  The president then gave away the ability to negotiate with “Big Pharma” before the health care legislation was even written – apparently, to avoid a fight – which didn’t end up being avoided.  It’s been one example of pandering to the “right” after another in his tenure in the White House – over and over to the dismay of LIBERALS (there, I said it) like me.  In fact, Emanuel – as I’ve pointed out here several times – referred to Obama’s liberal base as “f___ing retards.”

So, in an attempt to gain support among a bunch of republicans and racists who really do want someone “white” in the White House, President Obama has alienated much of his base.  And, now it’s being reported that Obama is willing to CAVE on the so-called “Bush taxcuts” because of this apparent republican “landslide” in the midterm election.  He still hasn’t figured out that there’s more of us than them – UNLESS we stay home on election day.  I’ve voted every election since 1968, but I’m really tiring of voting for the less of two “evils.”  President Obama is not convincing me – nor are a large protion of the democratic party – that if we truly “follow the money” from the corporate heads who want control of our government – that  much of the money won’t lead right back to the democratic party.  People are tired of what I call “half – legislation.”  That is, stuff that’s supposed to look good, but really is just more “business as usual.”

Before I lay back into the republicans, let me take the “health care reform” for example.  I’m trusting what I hear that there’s some good in the bill.  But, at this point, there’s NO CHANCE the “public option” will be part of the “reform” by the time everything “kicks in” (if it does kick in) – and, without that the problem is FAR FROM SOLVED!  It seems as if the people who recognize this reality the most are the potential supporters of the president.  Abandoning the public option, abandoning a sufficient stimulus package, abandoning strict Wall Street reform, refusing to hold anyone accountable for wrongdoing in the name of our government – all of this is DEFLATING Obama’s base.  And, he’d better figure this out before he does one more stupid thing.  The most recent rumor is that he’s going to cave on the “Bush tax cuts” and I’m predicting that if Obama signs a bill extending the tax cuts for the rich, he will be a one term president FOR SURE.  I will work to make sure he’s not nominated again if he does that.  My personal preference was for him to repeal all of the tax cuts (including those intended for me) once he took office.  Extending them will be political suicide for the president.

So, obviously, our president and the democrats are not without problems when we “follow the money.”  Their actions would indicate that they’ve bought the coolaid from the corporate heads as well – especially the “military industrial complex.”  But, they pale in the wake of what we just witnessed with the republicans and the “tea party.”  I’ve seen the figure $4 BILLION as the amount “invested” in the previous mid term election.  I presonally find that hard to believe.  And, I find it hard to believe that Americans of ALL political persuasions don’t care where the money came from.  The idea that BILLIONS are being spent from UNNAMED sources should get EVERYONE’S attention.  Do you really think that much of that money didn’t come from foreign “investors?”  I’m a little uneasy having Saudi Prince’s, Chinese business people, or business people from any country outside our borders “investing” in our politicians.  Is anyone here having trouble imagining why so many American manufacturing jobs are disappearing?  Does anyone besides me worry about our large corporations sharing their technology with countries like China and India – who don’t think twice about stealing the “secrets?”  Does anyone really believe that these people aren’t smart enough to take America’s trade secrets and turn them into future advantage?  It’s the same old make a dollar today at the expense of many dollars tomorrow approach to everything in America.

Getting back to Beck and his diabolical scheming to convince Americans that Obama is the fascist, he’s got unlimited funds coming from somewhere and people had better not continue looking the other way as he performs his duties.  This man is DANGEROUS!  He’s inciting unlimited numbers of Americians who believe he’s an honest commentator.  The divisiveness that is being driven by Beck, and some of the others such as Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh – which is fueling the “tea party” movement, is reminiscent of former times in America – most recently in the 1920’s leading up to the Great Depression.  The parallels of the rise in corporate power, the HUGE desparity in wealth between the “rich” and the “poor,” and the greedy policies coming from Wall Street are earily similar to the “big crash” of 1929.

What’s even more scary to me is some of the inferences you can make about the republican party (and, unfortunately, some of the democrats as well).  I’m presently reading a book which is titled “The Family” by Jeff Sharlet.  The book describes a group of American leaders – mostly congress people – who are bonded through a fundamental extremist view of Christianity and who’s group history dates back to the 1930’s.  They have been funded by and have been supporting America’s corporate elite in a FIGHT against the New Deal policies of the Roosevelt era which brought the U.S. out of the Great Depression since Roosevelt’s first days in office.  Today’s version of this group are the ones accusing President Obama of being a fascist, yet the group is founded on principles espoused by Adolph Hitler himself.  The groups founder is quoted in the book several times as admiring the fascist governments of Germany and Italy.  Additionally, these people are grounded in a history of racism.  They have reached full steam ahead in the “right’s” overt attempt to ensure that President Obama fails.  We’ve heard the words from Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Beck, and most recently Mitch McConnell – the republican leader in the senate – publicly stated that the republicans NUMBER ONE goal is to make sure Obama is a one term president.  I’ve been following politics for a long time and there has been many major political differences among the parties in my lifetime, but I’ve never seen such an attempt to undermine a sitting president.  The bottom line is that we all succeed if the president succeeds.  Disagreement is one thing, purposely blocking every initiative in an attempt to destroy him is quite another.  (of course, Obama seems to be playing into their hands with his constant pandering – which wouldn’t seem so bad if 20 MILLION Americans weren’t unemployed or underemployed)

I invite anyone to read “The Family,” or to read Robert Reich’s “Aftershock,” or Kevin Phillips’ “Bad Money” and you will get a good view of the parallels between the corporate power grab of the 20’s and what is happening today.  The American people are proving to be poor students of history which is likely to sentence us all to repeating it – hence, another Great Depression.  That is my biggest disappointment from the recent turn of events on November 2nd.  The “tea party” professes to be a grass roots “populist” movement – but, they’re funded by some of the largest corporations in America and they will be totally beholden to the lobbyists in Washington once they take their spots in the new congress.  (actually, it should be fun watching the republicans fighting amongst themselves) I mean, some of the people the republicans elected were LOBBYISTS and FORMER congresspeople – talk about your mixed message.  The bottom line here is that the people behind this movement have a history of racism and Nazi sympathy.  They’re quick to throw out the accusations toward Obama, but when you look beyond the surface you have to wonder what are the American voters thinking.  I’ll say this to President Obama, if you don’t start standing up for the people who elected you and FIGHT this republican corporate takeover of our nation, you will go down in history as one of the worst presidents in history.  The American public didn’t vote you into office to placate republicans.  They voted you in to CHANGE the course of our government.  I believe it’s not too late to reenergize the liberal base, but it won’t happen if the president caves on the Bush tax cuts!  And, if the left doesn’t demonstrate a willingness to fight people like Beck, Limbaugh, and Palin they will succeed in destroying what’s left of the New Deal.  It was the New Deal which created America’s great middle class and these right wing power brokers have been attempting to dismantle it for approximately 70 years.  Members of the “Family” believe in authoritarian government (theocracy) – and include many now at the head of the “tea party” movement and sitting members of congress.  For those on the left who think Beck, Palin, and the “tea party” are a joke, I suggest you take a deep breath and prepare for the fight of your life!  They are the  perfect shills for whoever is behind this movement!