I was watching TV the other day as the “March Madness” of the NCAA basketball tourney was getting under way and an announcer for ESPN was interviewing President Obama who was making his picks for the tournament.  In the process the interviewer apologized because of the president’s busy schedule and President Obama made an impassioned, and very appropriate, plea for those interested in supporting the earthquake victims in Japan to log into a web address (I believe it was USAID.gov) to find charities which are helping with the recovery effort.  I laud the president for that, I appreciate many of the things that he’s doing which indicate where his heart is at, but I continue to be frustrated by his seeming lack of will to confront the very REAL issues that threaten the very fabric of this nation.  I’m still trying to understand whether he just doesn’t “get it,” whether he simply believes that in the end “good” will prevail, or whether he’s part of the corporate mentality which is attempting to override over 70 years of the New Deal.

Why am I struggling with this?  Why do I even care?  Well, then Senator Obama got me excited about the prospects of turning around what was so obvious to so many of us – the abuses of the republicans over the past 30+ years which were magnified to what SHOULD have been unmistakeable levels under George W Bush and Dick Cheney – and started the PUSHBACK toward the New Deal type government which originally empowered so many ordinary Americans AND turned this nation into the envy of the rest of the world.  When I started writing this blog I was convinced that the downward spiral started under the tutelage of Ronald Reagan and began in 1980.  The more I read (mainly history books), the more I realize that this RIGHT WING agenda has been simmering since Franklin Roosevelt originally put it in its place in the 1930’s.  There has been a right wing CABAL conspiring to overturn EVERY advancement for working people that was made under Roosevelt’s New Deal since Roosevelt put the first reform in place.  Roosevelt himself was part of the privileged class which has spawned this conspiracy – as was JFK – and he was (as was JFK) considered a traitor by the wealthy elite who have been chipping away at the Roosevelt advancements ever since.

One thing that should be clear to anyone who’s researching this is that this “cabal” will do anything to get what they want.  They’ve proven over and over that they believe in the saying, “The end justifies the means.”  One of their main weapons is pathological LYING!  As I’ve pointed out on this site several times there is a secretive group behind the push for a “permanent republican ‘majority'” that is to a large extent connected to a group called “The Family” (They call themselves “The Fellowship”) who ostensibly profess a belief in Jesus, although they compare Jesus with World leaders such as Lenin, Mussolini, Hitler, and even bin Laden – authoritarian personalities who have significantly “changed the world.”  Believe me, they’re not talking about the Jesus I know who said, “What you do for the least of these, you do for me.”  This “cabal” has discovered that there’s a large group of Americans who will blindly follow just about anyone who professes to be a “Christian.”  (although, I profess to be a Christian, and I’m sure they wouldn’t follow me)  And, they clearly missed the scripture which condemns giving “false testimony.”

The original founder of “The Family,” Abraham Vereide, who was motivated by his hate of Roosevelt and the emerging union movement in America, was followed by a man named Doug Coe as their leader and both of these men professed, according to Jeff Sharlett in his book “The Family” (he infiltrated the group as an intern), an admiration of the authoritarian nature of the Nazi’s in Germany.  In fact, after World War II, they even recruited a few of the remnants of the Third Reich who managed to avoid prosecution for war crimes into their group.  “The Family” has included murderous dictators like Suharto of Indonesia who ordered the murder of up to half a MILLION of his citizens and the imprisonment of another MILLION and a half after he took over the country.  Evidently, “The Family” was impressed by the level of his authoritarianism and even invited him to prayer breakfasts in Washington DC.  (I’ve often wondered what they prayed with him about)  These people took to the “big lie” theory of Josheph Goebbels (head of propaganda for Hitler) like a duck takes to water – and, they’ve been practicing it for as long as I can remember.  You’ve probably seen the so-called “talking heads” of the republican party on TV repeating the SAME LIE over and over again, drilling it into the heads of the people who think they must be telling the truth because they say they believe in Jesus.  Makes me better understand why Jesus himself cautioned believers from being influenced by “false prophets.”

And, these republicans and the people behind them (The Family, the Koch brothers, the US Chamber of Congress, the big oil money, Wall Street, etc.) are really GOOD at LYING, and they are succeeding in their “task” of undoing the New Deal.  They even managed to pass some of the most strategic legislation during the one democratic presidency between Reagan and Obama.  Yes, it was during the Clinton years that the so-called “free trade” agreements were passed, the Telecommunications Act – which allowed the consolidation of America’s media into a “conservative” nightmare – was passed, and maybe worst of all the Glass Steagall act was repealed.  All three of those setbacks were MAJOR to the undoing of Roosevelt’s great accomplishments.  Now we have “tea party” governors all over the country along with their republican legislatures passing bills which are clearly aimed at undermining what are left of the unions that people such as Vereide, Coe, the Koch’s, and the rest of the right wing “cabal” I’m writing about hate.  This invisible group of republican supporters have managed to appoint Supreme Court Justices who somehow decided corporations have “free speech rights as if they were individuals” and can therefore spend unlimited amounts of cash in elections, and putting all these “advances” together you get Karl Rove’s “permanent republican majority.”  I guarantee you the next target they have their sights squarely set on is the Social Security Trust fund.  They hate the minimum wage, they hate the 40 hour work week, they hate maternity leave, and I could go on – I’m sure you get my point.  (the Koch’s are reportedly worth close to 50 BILLION dollars, so we know what they love – and that’s MONEY – I’m convinced they can’t get enough of it)

So, at this point of my rant, you are probably wondering how does President Obama fit into all of this (he does go to “The Family’s ‘National Prayer Breakfast'”) and, I’m wondering the same thing.  As I’ve said on MANY occasions on this site, I’m very discouraged by President Obama’s willingness to push for the status quo.  He has shown little resolve to put up a fight against these forces – in fact, in many instances he’s simply continuing the Bush/Cheney policies that so many of us HATED.  That begins to get me to my point of the evening.  The people of Wisconsin have energized me just as Obama did in 2008.  My hope is that they continue their fight against the power grab of Scott Walker, their “tea party” governor, who I’m sure believes that the outrage will die down against him by the time they can legally start a RECALL campaign.  My hope is that by the time he CAN be RECALLED, several of the republican state senators who went along with his scheme will have already been recalled and he will just be the next Wisconsin politician in the line of true democracy at work.  Here’s the MAJOR problem I’m having with what’s happening in Wisconsin.  Where is the President?

I wrote a post about this a while back and I continue to struggle to understand why President Obama wouldn’t have been front and center in Wisconsin standing firm with the workers of the state fighting to keep their collective bargaining rights.  Wisconsinites also gave their governor unbelievable powers in deciding to whom and for what to sell Wisconsin’s public utilities.  To me, that could be where the real long term damage from Walker’s abusive power grab will lie (the union busting can be reversed, but once the Kochs take over the municipal utilities and gain title, it might be too late to reverse that).  But, what is wrong with our president that he can’t make a stand that is clearly pro union and pro worker?  This does not bode well for the future of this great nation and the democratic party.  “We the people” are under assault – from within – and our president, who should be leading the charge to turn back this assault, seems more inclined to want to make some kind of deal with the opposition.  Any deal – as long as there’s a deal.  That’s how the health care bill got convoluted, that’s how the Wall Street regulation overhaul got whittled down, that’s how the original “stimulus” package got cut to the point that it was far less effective than what was needed, that’s how the “Bush tax cuts” UNBELIEVABLY got extended, that’s how the 16 month exit from Iraq got forgotten, and I could go on and on.  I originally thought “if Obama can’t make a stand on the tax cuts we’re in BIG trouble” – well, we are in big trouble – I just didn’t know how big.  The FACT that the president couldn’t bring himself to show solidarity with a BUNCH of everyday working class people who were braving below freezing temperatures to express their outrage at a BLATANT anti-union republican power grab is BEYOND my ability to understand.

Yes, President Obama is much better than anything I can imagine coming from the “right” as far as the White House is concerned – but, it looks to me that the focus of what he’s doing is getting re-elected.  I think there’s a good chance he will – only because the alternative is so bad.  But, where is America going to be in ten years if we don’t start drawing some lines with our expectations of our government?  We have a government that is so CORRUPT that it appears to be incorrigible.  I honestly thought Obama would be up to the task of “fixing” that.  Do you remember his promises about purging “lobbyists” from his administration?  How far did that one go?  What about the transparency?  What about holding the abusers of power accountable?  I believe one of the reasons President Obama failed to act as he should have regarding the investigations of the Bush administration was to protect the CIA from all the TORTURING it was doing during the Iraq FIASCO and years gone by – who knows how many “secrets” would be unveiled with an election?  Also, it appears Obama has no stomach for turning back some of the abuses – hence we’re attacking Lybia on “his watch.”  Based on books I’ve read since Obama’s inauguration, I’m beginning to wonder “what’s up” with this?  Is there some kind of “secret rules” in our capital that says you leave “them” (meaning CIA, and others with unseen MAJOR power) alone or they will “get you?”

I have always been convinced that republicans, along with the CIA, were involved in a conspiracy to murder John F Kennedy – I teach my students to make inferences – and the evidence I’ve read is overwhelming for this inference.  In the book I’m now reading, “Family of Secrets” about the Bush family, the case was persuasively made that President Nixon was a victim of a CIA setup himself when he was president.  The CIA and the large oil barons were unhappy with Nixon’s “liberal” accomplishments and the threat he posed to their sacred “oil depletion allowance” which was making many of them (including the Koch’s I’m sure) FILTHY RICH.  I’ve posed the question many times on this site as to why one democratic president after another virtually refused to investigate fully republican misdeeds.  Even the Warren commission, for heaven’s sake, had Allen Dulles as one of the “main men” after he had been FIRED as CIA chief following the Bay of Pigs fiasco by JFK himself.  Our government has example after example of the “tail wagging the dog” and our media does a good job in making sure that “we the people” have to uncover this on our own.  I hardly know a single adult who is trying to figure out what our government is “up to.”  Most people I know simply believe that the US government is still the “beacon of the free world.”  That’s certainly what I hope for, but the more I read about what has gone on in the last 60 years (basically, since the inception of the CIA in the early 50’s) the more disgusted I get. 

While the actions of the people of Wisconsin are inspiring, I continue to believe that it will take a NATIONAL leader to stem the tide of this assault on America’s middle class and her character.  As I pondered President Obama’s willingness to get the United States bogged down in yet another Mid East quagmire – with the “no-fly” zone in Libya – I just had to take a deep breath and say another prayer for my children and grandchildren.  I’m partly responsible for this because I voted for the man.  I read the book “Washington Rules” (I highly recommend it) and the premise of that book is so true.  The “military industrial complex” does rule this nation.  Dwight D Eisenhower warned us about what has come to pass.  When will we listen?

All I can surmise is President Obama is trying to make it clear that he’s a “real” commander in chief as he ostensibly violates our constitution by sending American military force against another soveriegn nation by choice.  At least President Bush buffaloed Congress into rubber stamping his venture into Iraq.  I’ll end tonight by asking, will all the unions be gone before we expect more from our leaders?  Are we so arrogant to think that we should be resolving the problems of EVERY nation around the world?  (or is it just the nations where we get our oil?)  Are our leaders trying to tell us that we can’t afford our public servants, but we can afford to throw a couple BILLION dollars worth of bombs toward Libya to protect their protestors?  Honestly, it appears to me that President Obama is more invested in the Libyan and Egyptian protestors than the ones in Wisconsin?  What’s up with that?