I’ve said, or implied, this before; that if a sixth grade teacher could “get” what’s happening in America, then you would expect our leaders to be able to do so as well.  Well, wouldn’t you?  Wouldn’t that be a reasonable assumption?  If you agree (not that I’m trying to “toot” my own horn :o) go back and read some of my posts in the archives from the previous few years and I think you’ll see that some of the decisions currently being made by America’s leadership are becoming more and more curious.  We (Americans) are in a TERRIBLE “funk” and it almost seems to me that we’re operating as a “rudderless ship” when it comes to Washington DC.  Of course, if you do go back into my archives, you’ll see that I am somewhat “bipartisan” in my criticism of our leaders although the bulk of my rath is aimed at republicans.  Often times I’ve wavered as to who I’m more disappointed in – the republicans for their obvious HATE of America’s “workers,” or democrats for their mostly LESS THAN tepid response to the WAR on the middle class coming from the “right.”

Of course, I could (and probably will – I write these posts off the top of my head) list irony after irony about the “workings” of the American political system.  And, I could list hypocrisy upon hypocrisy regarding those “in charge” as I prepare myself for what looks like, at this point, to be a PAINFUL 2012 election campaign which is going to be dominated by some really WHACKO candidates who will have unlimited (Citizens United) corporate funding as the “right” attempts to unseat President Obama (remember, they have not been secretive about their NUMBER ONE goal, which is for President Obama to FAIL).  As I watch the scenario play out, it becomes clearer and clearer that without some kind of major rebellion by the working class of America, things are going to get a LOT worse before they get better.  I truly hope those of us who are disenchanted with BOTH sides have the resolve to take on this BATTLE, but I’m very skeptical that it can be WON without organized central leadership “from the top.”  (which is why I’m feeling such disappointment with President Obama)

I’m sure on a scale that would measure AT LEAST as significant as the Limbaugh’s, Hannity’s, Boehner’s, McConnell’s, Palin’s, Beck’s, Larson’s, and the other right wing authoritarian corporate shills who have access to America’s airwaves and legislative bodies and want our president to FAIL, I want him to SUCCEED.  Now, please don’t get me totally wrong, I wanted President Bush to succeed.  The way I see it, we are all Americans, and when the president succeeds, the country succeeds.  It’s just that I don’t want President Obama to succeed because he finally found favor with the corporatists who he’s seemingly trying to placate.  Yes, I listen to people like Randi Rhodes who try to justify EVERY action President Obama takes – to me, the same kind of blind loyalty which resulted in the out of control Bush administration – just, from a different “angle,” and today I even heard Ed Schultz, another of the so-called “liberal talkers,” justifying Obama’s authorization for the BOMBING of Lybia.  When I start feeling depression settling in, I think back to some of my earlier posts and wonder what is it that all these people can’t see?  They’re the ones who will have to “rally the troops” – and, President Obama has shown us on several occasions that he will not take the lead in this WAR for America’s heart and soul until he’s FORCED to do so.

The truth is, I believe, Obama actually believes that he can’t win in 2012 if he DIRECTLY takes on the right wing CABAL that is attempting to abscond with our democratic republic through a process which our founders attempted to render impossible.  Our government was initially designed with a system of “checks and balances” which were brilliantly designed to virtually guarantee there would be nothing resembling Karl Rove’s “permanent republican majority.”  Well, they (republicans) are dangerously close to achieving their dream.  I could go back and list all the prominent republicans who’ve been scheming on this plan for the past 50+ years (often I’ve said it started with Reagan, but I now believe it simply hit the accelerator under Reagan) but, if you check out my archives you’ll see MANY posts which have correctly predicted exactly what’s on the verge of happening.

The irony, or hypocrisy, or whatever you want to call it of the republican effort is mind boggling to me.  I was driving around today and looking at bumper stickers on cars.  One thing was very clear as I looked at many cars of people who were just ordinary “working folk” such as myself, the republicans have done a masterful job of dividing the very people they’re looking to SQUASH – the middle class workers of this nation.  Lot’s of anti-Obama stickers that were preposterous in what they implied.  These bumper stickers on the cars of people whom you’d think would really hope Obama succeeds – their well-being depending on it.  Yes, I find it very ironic to see everyday working folk supporting this corporatist CABAL on the “right.”  It really shows you the power of an organized propaganda campaign when you’re dealing with (yes Lars) low information voters. 

You have corporate “water carriers” such as the governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, claiming that the only way to balance the budget of “his” state is to cut the benefits – and jobs – of state workers (watch the privitization in Wisconsin if Walker get’s away with his scheme) while giving MORE huge tax breaks to corporations who are already at the head of the line when it comes to welfare.  Everyone knows (or should know) about the HUGE amounts of money the government funnels to the oil industry (people like the now infamous Koch brothers – who, I believe will someday be regarded similarly to Benedict Arnold in American history) but, just today it was announced that General Electric earned a WHOPPING $14+ BILLION last year while paying NO TAXES – yes, that’s correct – ZERO TAXES – but hold on to your hat, it get’s better, they received over $3 BILLION in government CORPORATE WELFARE!  And, we can’t afford to negotiate with our workers, or provide unemployment benefits to the long term unemployed. (this is obscene!)

America’s corporations earned $1.7 + TRILLION in the last quarter ALONE!  And, they will continue to use that money to creatively make MORE MONEY on Wall Street, while they thumb their collective noses at the “lazy” long term umemployed MIDDLE CLASS workers who will have to work for minimum wage or less if they ever want to get back into America’s work force.  I mentioned the word hypocrisy – well, let’s look at the behavior of the potential republican leaders.  I’ll start with Newt Gingrich who’s one of the few announced candidates for the republican nomination for president – and, a definite possibility.  I guess old Newt figures if McCain could pull it off, why can’t he?  Honestly, I kind of hope he does.  Now, I’m not a fan of Bill Clinton – especially, Clinton’s lying about his affair with an intern while in office (even though I pretty much believe our politicians private lives should be their own – Clinton did go over the line) – but, who was leading the impeachment charge but Newt Gingrich himself.  A man who probably outcheated Clinton – but, who was certainly “throwing stones from a glass house” while working for Clinton’s impeachment.  Gingrich was CHEATING on his second wife (the one he was cheating on his first wife with) with a staffer at the same time he was impeaching Clinton for doing the same thing (this was a repeat performance for Gingrich).  Gingrich is evidently now claiming that since he “converted” to Catholicism we should “forgive and forget.”  And, come to think of it, wasn’t the leader of the “tea party” – Dick Armey – having his own sexual harrrassment issues as well while claiming the “moral highground” during the Clinton impeachment?  This crap goes on and on with these people.

The Fox “news” syndrome will someday be looked upon as a SIEGE on this nation from what was supposed to be the “fourth estate.”  Newspapers are drying up all across America and (thanks to the Telecommunications Act of 1996) America’s media is being “gobbled up” by a few corporations who are all “on the same page” when it comes to the support of a corporate takeover of our government (which is in possibly the “final throes”).  Our “liberal media” isn’t liberal at all, but organizations such as Fox will continue to BASH America’s viewing public with that “line” because they have all bought into the Goebbell’s “big lie” theory of propaganda (again, several previous posts with details).  I run into educated adult after educated adult who know NOTHING of what’s happening to this country.  They don’t know what Citizens United is, they don’t know that Fox “news” is run by a republican “operative” (Roger Ailes), they don’t know that our CIA has been abusing people and countries for MANY DECADES, they don’t understand the level of CORRUPTION in Washington DC, and they don’t understand that seemingly leaders of both political parties enable the illegal behavior of the other because, evidently, they’re ALL doing it!

Right now we’re watching state after state in America attacking public sector workers as people who need to be vilified.  School teachers for God’s sake!  Are you kidding me?!  Yes, I’m a school teacher, but I’ve been many things in my lifetime.  I started teaching school very late in my working lifetime, but I’m watching the effect of this “TEACHER BASHING” on a group of young BRILLIANT teachers who’ve mostly been teaching for less than 10 years, and I feel very bad for them.  I’ll give you one example (which I hope will demonstate, despite the accusation to the contrary by Michigan’s governor, that these teacher’s are not part of the “privileged elite”); A young lady I know who is a MARVELOUS science and math teacher, has been teaching less than 10 years, is still paying lot’s of MONEY to get her graduate degree, is paying back something like what was originally (when she started teaching) $30 – 50,000 in school loans – so she could get through school and TEACH, and makes around $40,000 – I’m worried she will find the outside induced STRESS to be too much and will pursue more lucrative employment elsewhere.  I work in a high poverty school where the students really need teachers like this and it makes me angry that people who have no idea what they’re talking about – they have their own private political agenda’s – are attacking outstanding individuals (albeit through stereotyping – but, their attacks are effective) and turning them away from this honorable profession.  Believe me, TEACHERS are not the problem in America and the people who are vilifying them are ignorant!

So, what are we to do?  And, here I’m talking about those in America who feel as I do that the very fabric of this nation is being destroyed by a group of GREEDY corporate executives who feel as if the rest of us can’t exist without them.  As long as I live I won’t forget all the Wall Street bankers taking HUGE bailout BONUSES and claiming the bonuses were designed to keep them on the job as if what they do is so important that it would be a bigger disaster for America for them to suffer financially for all the ruin their misbehavior put on others around the world.  What a BAD joke!  These people make money by gambling with other people’s money.  Honestly, what are they producing that we can’t do without?  The problem is that they make so MUCH money that they can afford to spend a lot of it to convince the unsuspecting public that they really are that important.  And, here’s the rub – these corporate exec’s have put the fear of God in our national legislatures to the point that one thing “bipartisan” in Washington DC is a government afraid to take on the corporations.  They (national politicians and corporate executives) are now at a place where they are “working together” – which is the recipe for fascism! (Don’t believe me? The CEO of the above mentioned General Electric – one of America’s largest corporations and a leader in offshoring profits and receiving CORPORATE WELFARE – is one of the leading economic advisors to President Obama – and those of us fighting this corporatocracy were planning on Obama leading the “charge” against this very kind of partnership)

“We the people” are going to have to defend the rights that our parents, grandparents, and great grandparents fought so valiantly to obtain witout this president as the leader.  The forces who opposed the New Deal at its inception have “trudged” along all these years and have never given up their hope to “turn back the clock.”  Since the days of Reagan, the shareholder has become far more important than the worker.  Despite their claims of being the party of “family values,” the republican agenda has slowly led to the demise of the traditional American family.  This eating away of the benefits of the New Deal has finally gotten to the point where if we don’t put a stop to it, we’re going to have to relive another “Great Depression.”  We were close in 2008 and people like me felt that President Obama was going to lead the way for a “New New Deal.”  Instead, what many of us think we got was a republican “lite” administration.  An attempt to make things look better from the “left,” but with a clear agenda to protect the corporate interests who caused the 2008 meltdown in the first place, with all their excesses.

I finally realized why President Obama didn’t allow investigations of the Bush administration – he had no intention of reversing the power grab that took place during GW Bush’s two terms in the White House and which was orchestrated by Dick Cheney.  The evidence of this continues to mount – and gives us a clearer picture of how severe the problem really is.  Take the bombing of Libya, for example.  Whether or not you agree or disagree with the notion that the United States needed to intervene in another middle eastern country – our president did so without even consulting Congress.  I’m guessing he thought this would please the “right” who have continually claimed he’s a weak “commander in chief,” but the way I see it, President Obama very likely committed an impeachable offense by authorizing America’s military to attack another soveriegn nation without the consent of congress.  I’m almost thinking his thought process is like that of my sixth graders (if they (republicans) can do it, then I must be able to do it).  The fact that I voted for Obama makes all this much more discouraging to me.

I’ll end this rant by encouraging anyone who reads this post to get involved in an American “protest.”  I’m in my mid 60’s and I recently participated in a protest designed to show solidarity to those in Wisconsin fighting for workers’ rights to collectively bargain.  It felt great!  I’ve given as much as I can to the recall effort in Wisconsin, and will continue to look to give more for “grassroots” efforts designed to fight the corporatists.  I encourage anyone who’s a “working class” American to participate.  As stated above President Obama is “tight” with the corporate welfare recipients, and – I might add – he’s carrying on the tradition of allowing torture as a means to an end in America. (don’t believe me, Google Bradley Manning, and I hope you’re as disgusted as I am with our president’s unwillingness to reign in our military industrial complex) 

I wrote before how it’s hard for me to believe that Obama and his Attorney General Eric Holder could “look the other way” at all the republican lying, cheating, and lawbreaking during the Bush years and then aggressively try to prosecute Julian Assange of “Wiki Leaks” for publishing the TRUTH about America’s diplomatic “mission” in this world.  If those of us on the “left” want a leader who’s a true social progressive, we’re going to have to look for someone besides Barack Obama!  Bob Herbert of the “New York Times” put it best when he ended a recent column (you can read it by clicking here) with, “New ideas and new leadership have seldom been more urgently needed.”  I couldn’t agree with him more!