I have a son who I believe is becoming entrenched into what I see as a “permanent underclass” of disenchanted young Americans who are not able to process why things seem so hopeless.  He’s not the “cookie cutter” young person who’s going to find the socially acceptable “pathway” (which is way too narrow as it is) appealing at all and, despite my efforts to explain what’s “happening” as I see it, motivating him to participate in “society”  is extremely difficult.  He’s one of the MILLIONS of young people in today’s world who gain their satisfaction in the world of video games and obscenely provocative graphic presentations (movies, games, music, etc.) and shows no sign of wanting to join the “mainstream.”  Government, to him, is a misnomer.  It’s true he brings much of his dilemma upon himself, but as a parent, it’s frustrating to feel as if I’m climbing a steep uphill battle as I attempt to convince him he has a part in the future of this great nation.

In our latest conversation he commented that when he goes back to school (I really hope he does that) he wants to learn a foreign language so he can move to a different country.  I’m formulating in my mind how to address this (underneath it all, he’s a very gifted young man – someone who should be able to find a place in our society) when I get an email about how Jeff Merkley, the US Senator from Oregon – one of the few members of the Senate in Washington I feel my son might be able to look up to – got redressed by HARRY REID because of his (Merkley’s) aggressive push to get the senate rules regarding the filibuster changed.  That one was almost too much for me – not only was Merkley attacked (and probably disciplined) by the democratic leadership, but the filibuster essentially was NOT CHANGED!  This news is beyond discouraging, it’s DEPRESSING.

I’ve written piece after piece about the damage being done to our political system by the right wing republican party, but there’s always been the undertone of democrats who lack the spine to do anything about it.  And, now Reid has publicly told us all that if anyone else in the Democratic party wants to push for REAL progressive change, this is what they can expect.  The reality is that Reid is every bit the Washington insider who’s been bought and paid for by the corporate elite many times over.  Just as in 2008, for me, the election of 2012 is immediately being followed by a series of red flags suggesting that the democratic party is not “up to the task” of changing the environment in Washington.  When you think about it, why would they.  Democratic congresspersons are just as likely to hold lucrative lobbying positions once they’ve been “outed” as are republicans.  It just kind of gives all of us who are naive enough to think there might really be a change of direction in this nation a quick dose of REALITY.

Division and dysfunction are proving to be very profitable to everyone who’s got a place on the inside.  Think about it, in the last election media companies were the recipients of BILLIONS in spending on political advertisements – do you really think they want that to stop?  And, the dysfunction seems to be driving America’s wealthiest individuals and corporations to be willing to spend unlimited amounts to protect their interests (no matter whether their interests are in the interest of the rest of us).  Where is that money going?  Well, aside from the political advertising (which is a sufficient threat to people like Merkley because of the enormity of the potential “backlash” as punishment for being truly “progressive” – just ask Sherrod Brown who was hit by almost $50 MILLION in “attack ads” during his previous senatorial campaign as a “reward” for standing up against “big oil” and standing for “single payer” health care in America – the reality of the situation here is sick) which can work for or against different politicians depending on what kind of “stand” they’re willing to take it’s also going straight into the campaign “coffers” of those congresspersons who “cooperate.”  Republicans are very COVERT in their expectation that EVERYONE  in their caucus “toes the line,” (unless, of course, you want a “primary challenge”) but I don’t see the democrats as much better.  We’ll see how this plays out for Senator Merkley, but the clear message is – don’t challenge the party leadership – even if they’re clearly “stuck in the mud.”

Think about the 3+ BILLION spent on lobbying for the “Affordable Care Act.”  Where do you think that money went?  I can guarantee you that if you look closely at the “coffers” of the congress people in the center of that fiasco (republicans OR democrats)  A LOT OF MONEY went from corporate interests into the campaign treasure chests of the people voting up or down on the legislation.  Here’s the bigger rub:  We all KNOW what’s going on, many of us want this corrupt system CLEANED UP, yet this crap just keeps happening OVER AND OVER.  Now, not only do those of us who consider ourselves “liberal” feel we have no one to turn to (the republican response to Reid’s actions regarding the filibuster was: we’ve defeated the liberals again!), but we’ve got another two years of watching republicans block EVERY attempt to move America back toward the New Deal with one filibuster after another.  The word I used earlier is still appropriate:  DEPRESSING!  (here’s another part of this that just shows how sick our “system” is – as with the so-called “public option” element in the Affordable Care Act the repeal of the filibuster garners public support from about 3 out of every 4 American voters – yet. our congress doesn’t hesitate to thumb their noses at “we the people”)

I keep telling my son that this corporate raid on our government is nothing new.  It happened in the late 1800’s, the parallels with what’s going on in America today and what was happening in the 1920’s are startling, and I believe we will, as a society, evolve past this and end up in a better direction.  It’s just that we also have histories of “lost generations” and I’m trying to get him to understand he’s got to fight his way out of the depressing state where you feel as if you have no future.  I just can’t bring myself to believe America will ultimately choose the way of Ayn Rand over the way of Thomas Jefferson or Abraham Lincoln.  And, no, I haven’t read “Atlas Shrugged” beyond brief summaries, but I don’t see America as a “me” society.

In the 1980’s I could see this present dilemma  on the horizon.  Even though Ronald Reagan was far from what I guess you’d call a “Randian” he ushered in the “Young Republicans” who have evolved into today’s Karl Rove, Grover Norquist, Jack Abramoff, and others who seem willing to do or say anything provided it moves the selfish interests of their wealthy donors forward.  I remember thinking back then, “these people are all about ‘me’ and turned off by ‘we’ when they talk about the role government should play in a society. (One thing I’ve found very curious over the years is that – from what I’ve read – Ayn Rand was an atheist – yet, many of my acquaintances who seem to have leanings toward her thinking are Christians)  In fact, Rove and Norquist seem to be the leaders of the group that professes to hate government – yet, wants to control it.  The only thing I can take from that is they want to make sure they squeeze as much wealth out of the “system” as they can “while the gettin’s good.”

Here’s another part of the scenario that makes it seem depressing.  These republicans just lost another national election – they’ve lost 5 of the last 6 national elections (remember Bush v Gore – Gore won a substantial majority of the vote) – this despite a HUGE advantage from the money standpoint.  But, the people behind this movement have been losing elections for many many years (we’re talking now about the Koch Brothers and some of their peers).  They won’t even slow down to take a breath.  The amount of financial resources at their disposal is unending.  And, they’ve got sufficient control of the “liberal media” that it’s unlikely the general public will wise up to what they’re doing anytime soon. Additionally, they’ve become EXTREMELY sophisticated.   They’re not only making a play in the national scene, but they’ve got their fingerprints all the way down to local municipal governments.  The damage being done across the nation to unions from right wing governors who are working somewhat covertly from the nation’s attention (except for Wisconsin and Ohio) could be damaging for many years.  I even went to a “free” presentation on the economics of poverty – presented as professional development by my school district – designed for teachers to take back into the classroom – that was put on by one of the offshoots of the Koch’s Heritage Institute.  I was the only person in the room of about 35 teachers (mostly high school) who even questioned the reliability of the presentation – which came across to me as propaganda.  The Kochs (and others of their ilk) are finding very creative ways to get their message out on an unsuspecting public.  I would have had no problem with what they were doing had they only been willing to be up front with who they were representing (according to the presentation, there is essentially no poverty in America – because our “poor” are so much better off than, say, the poor in Africa).

As stated above, unfortunately, those of us who want this LIBERAL push-back to the previous right wing movement America has experienced in the past 30+ years have to depend on people like Harry Reid to make it happen – and, that’s not an encouraging thought.  It’s like everyone in Washington DC espouses “change” but they all seem terrified of it.  I’ll end this by saying:  Harry Reid’s reluctance to end the filibuster is just a symptom of the bigger problem.  And, the “bigger problem” is very complicated and will never get resolved with intransigence on one side and fear on the other.  The saddest part to me is watching so many gifted young Americans essentially saying screw it – there’s no place in this society for me.  Without a concerted effort to fight back from the “left” the Ayn Rand thinkers will continually get closer to their goal and there will be more “riff raff” thrown away along the road.  What I don’t think they realize is that eventually their philosophy will be in direct conflict with Marxism.  And, eventually, people like my son will be saying “there’s way more of us than there are of them” and the “lid” could “blow off.”  I hope it never gets to that but people like Harry Reid need to figure out who’s side they’re on.

I just posted another in my long line of rantings about how the republican party, in my view, is undermining this nation.  Those in the background of that party, the ones “pulling the strings,” have little interest in anything more than their own wealth.  This has been clear for years, but they have such a stranglehold on the “messaging” that takes place in America, that they’ve literally gotten away with “murder” over the years.  I’m saying that as I read “A Family of Secrets” for the second time, a book following the “Bush dynasty” as none other I’ve read, and while documenting the life of George HW (Poppy) Bush it sheds enormous light on the machinations of the American government’s “insiders” over the past 60+ years and leaves an alarming concern in my mind as to the “real” United States of America.  This book gives what appears to be a well thought out scenario of how the CIA, the oil industry, the eastern “elite,” and a group of right wing thugs have steered America in a direction that is almost opposite from what they’ve been able to foist on the public through the so-called “liberal media” and a Goebbels like propaganda campaign.

People like George HW Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, and others (many no longer with us) keep “popping up” and essentially making themselves wealthier and more powerful while spinning a sham on the rest of us that may never be totally uncovered.  The evidence, as I see it, is overwhelming that HW Bush spent the first half of his adult working life (after his Yale “Skull and Bones” years) as some type of agent for the CIA.  As opposed to Valerie Plame, it appears that “Poppy” Bush has managed to avoid being “outed” by the above mentioned “liberal media” that seems devoid of real investigative reporters.  As you read this book it’s hard not to come to the conclusion that both JFK and Richard Nixon were victims of our own CIA (which has been “connected at the hip” with the oil industry since its inception) – not to mention Martin Luther King, Jr. and RFK.  While it was hard for me to understand how they would “out” Nixon, the outing of JFK was not hard to understand.  In fact, the way that murder was “covered up” – officially with the anemic Warren Commission (which was stacked with Kennedy haters including, of all people, Allen Dulles who Kennedy had fired as CIA chief following the Bay of Pigs fiasco) shows that the problems with our investigative journalists goes way back farther than I had imagined.  When you see that Dulles (who was a certified Kennedy “hater”) was leading an investigation into an assassination that was probably pulled off by the CIA (which he had been in charge of) you can see why the murder is still “unsolved.”

The shocking part in all of this, to me, is the role that “Poppy” Bush seems to have played in this assassination.  And, more shocking is how he managed to cover his “tracks” to avoid scrutiny – and, as I think of the years following, how he has managed to avoid even investigations in subsequent untoward adventures that include CIA skullduggery.  I have to believe, for example, that Bush was right in the middle of undermining Nixon along with the Iran/Contra scandal of the Reagan years and hardly faced a question regarding his role in that illegal scandal.  This country has a history of allowing an elite group of people to operate outside the law for years, and I believe it continues to this day.  With the acquiescence of Bill Clinton and Barrack Obama I believe both Bush 41 and Bush 43 will never have to answer for their misdeeds – along with Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Karl Rove, David Addington, and I could go on and on – these are the “contemporary” members of this elite group of lawbreakers.  It’s like a government mafia (In fact, there’s ample evidence that this cabal – and their associates, many who are still probably totally covert – have many times enlisted the help of true mafia personnel to “handle” some of their more “unpleasant” duties – like assassinating foreign leaders such as Fidel Castro (obviously they failed on this one) and other “leftists” – with many “successes,” for example – Allende, Trujillo, Iran’s Mohammed Mosaddegh, and others  [click here for an alleged list of CIA atrocities] – beyond the shores of Cuba)

Another “must read” in my mind, Naomi Klein’s “Shock Doctrine,” gives a stunning accounting of the number of people who have disappeared as the result of alleged CIA actions and the methods of this “cabal” that is now operating on our own country.  Clearly, the CIA was set up to “fight fire with fire” in response to the KGB of the Soviet Union post World War II, but it has gotten so far out of control that we (Americans) have inherited the role of the Russians of the cold war – I guess in the name of national security.  Kind of the same mentality as what I heard today from the head of the NRA in response to the aftermath of the Connecticut massacre of small children by a person brandishing an easy to purchase assault weapon:  “The way to stop ‘bad people’ from killing with guns is with more ‘good people’ having guns.”  I’m not kidding you.  Also, it’s been suggested that teachers be armed and trained with guns.  I’m a teacher.  Are you kidding me???!  This, I believe, is the mentality that says that the CIA going around the world assassinating leaders who are “unfriendly” to the U.S. –  especially when they have natural resources that we want to usurp from them, or they have a business climate that doesn’t support American corporate interests – is acceptable. (not to mention mind altering experimentation of “expendable” people – what does this remind you of?)  The same mentality that says torture is OK in the name of “national security” – which, of course, has become the “stock” excuse of every U.S. administration in my lifetime for actions which they wish to keep from the public domain.

The CIA has become, almost since its inception, “aligned at the hip” with barons of the oil industry and the military industrial complex which Dwight Eisenhower so prophetically warned this nation about as he was leaving office.  The Bush family, led by George HW Bush, has been connected to the CIA since before its inception.  Prescott Bush, HW’s father, was affiliated with “intelligence” before it was officially a government bureaucracy and showed his willingness to put profit ahead of principle as he was selling armaments to the Nazi’s prior to our involvement in WW II.  In fact, the only thing that stopped him was a strong reprimand from FDR.  His grandson, George W Bush, showed us again that there are many in this “upper echelon” of the secret society who are more than willing to profit handsomely from war (people like Rumsfeld, Cheney, Feith, and others in the Bush/Cheney administration made HUNDREDS of millions from the Iraq fiasco – their “no bid” buddies like Halliburton and KBR made BILLIONS)  We’re talking here about the insiders who’ve gained a stranglehold on the republican party over the years and I can guarantee you they won’t “let up” until they’re forced out of “power” by the voters.  (They’re so incredibly rich at this point, that it will take years to make them go away – if that’s possible.  This recent display of “conservatism,” to me, is eerily similar to the late 19th century and early 20th century of the so-called “Robber Barons.”

The Bush “dynasty” represents only one of the elite “eastern establishment” families who seem to feel enabled to live above the law and believe the rest of us should be thankful for whatever “scraps” come our way.  In my mind, they confuse “The American Dream” with the possibility of getting rich as opposed to simply owning a home and being a functioning member of a strong middle class.  A perpetual society where families feel they’re part of a structure which gives their children an opportunity to do a little better than their parents – but, in the process, never losing their empathy for the less fortunate.  Being driven by a sense of empathy and thankfulness as opposed to greed.  Never losing track of the connection between whatever level of success they achieve to the society which makes it possible – and, in the case of extreme success, the obligation to give back to that society.

Many of these “rich” families, in my mind, have been more than willing to profit off of the great national infrastructure which was created post WW II, but seem to be unwilling to do their part to maintain that very infrastructure which, as I’m writing this, is crumbling in many parts of this great nation.  During the “Bush 43 years” the estimates I remember, to bring our infrastructure “up to code,” ranged in the 2 plus TRILLION range.  A daunting figure, yes, but also an opportunity to put so many unemployed Americans to work fixing the problem.  And, as I’ve seen in my lifetime, a sound infrastructure allows for a growing economy for all.  The special interests of the families (and people) mentioned above center on oil and defense spending.  And, as most people have come to realize, the American government is pretty much at the mercy of the lobbyists who are each fighting for the American taxpayer’s dollar (many while complaining about how much they despise the government – go figure) and busy buying off one politician after another.  This is why the struggle to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff” is so difficult – first, it won’t happen without republicans violating their “Grover Norquist” pledge and second, there’s always someone to argue against “cutting spending” because of the plethora of lobbyists who seem to determine the “bottom line” legislation coming out of Washington DC.

For some reason, the debate has turned to issues such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment, food stamps, etc. when the republicans are talking about spending.  How often do we feel obligated to put defense spending “off the table” when these people are talking about reduced spending and put the focus on the programs the help “the least of these?”  Yet, we’re a “Christian” nation, right?  The “fiscal cliff” debate will continue to “show its ugly face” in different forms as long as we allow the republican party to be run by these right wing, greedy corporate elitists who seemingly have no limits on how much wealth satisfies them.  When you consider that people like the Bush family have been pilfering our society for at least 3 generations with absolutely no consequences for their greed and misdeeds, and you look at the others at the “top” who are squeezing every last penny they can from America’s taxpayers – all the while claiming how bad government is – it’s hard to feel positive.  The sad reality is that those who are perpetrating this fraud on our nation won’t be deterred by a few election defeats.  We’ve (with the complicity of the Obama administration) allowed the Bush/Cheney administration to get away with torture, war profiteering, lying to congress, outing a CIA agent, undermining established government agencies after allowing the misdeeds of the Reagan administration.  The people behind this “movement” believe the “liberals” don’t have the “stones” (as Bill Clinton puts it) to hold them legally accountable, and I’m thinking they’re evidently correct.  JFK warned us that the only way this nation could be undermined was from “within,” and these right wing republicans are proving him prophetic.