A Woman’s Response To Our Current Politics
More and more I feel like crying and shrieking and rending my clothes. It gets clearer daily that our democracy has been stolen right out from under us by rich bozos who care nothing about America. They don’t need the rest of us to get richer and richer any more – which is the only thing they seem to care about. They are, after all, “World Citizens.”
Of course this view, visceral, impassioned, not neatly parsed and balanced, too damn direct, might take away my credibility for some people. Too emotional. Too like a woman. Guess that’s because that’s what I am.
Or maybe not because of that. Maybe I am simply a human being having a reasonable reaction to what is going on in today’s America.
And what else can you think, how else can you say it, when you finally come to terms with the fact that since the Eisenhower administration our democracy has been consistently and increasingly run to benefit the rich at the expense of everyone else. This trend has grown exponentially in the last 20 years until we are now a country run by the rich for the rich. We are no longer a democracy. We are a plutocracy with a vampiric aristocracy of the rich bleeding the lifeblood out of the country.
Don’t take my word for it. The information is out there. It’s finally, finally coming out in all sorts of media in all sorts of ways. And it’s not just us wishy-washy bleeding heart liberal woman types saying it anymore.
The managers of the very hedge funds that are instrumental in stealing from the poor and middle class to give to the rich know it, too, of course. They even say as much in their memos, say we are no longer a democracy. We’re a plutocracy. Heck they invented a term for it — “Plutonomy.”
So what are we to do? How do we deal with such massive betrayal of our country?
I’ll tell you what we can do. It’s really simple. We can stop taking seriously the swill that passes for “conservative” political discourse these days and look to our own friends and families.
We can organize.
We can vote these right-wingers right out of office. That’s what we can do. And we darn well better do it this time around if we want to survive as the people we deserve to be.
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Mike Lofgren was a Republican insider for years and he’s gotten disgusted with the corrupt money influence in DC.
“The Party is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted”
Donald Barlett and James Steele wrote a new book telling how we have all – except for the super rich – been betrayed.
“The Betrayal of the American Dream.” By Donald Barlett and James Steele. (Public Affairs, 2012)
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505125_162-57358331/the-american-dream-rip/
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2012/07/don-barlett-jim-steele-the-betrayal-of-the-american-dream-free-trade
http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/inq_BarlettSteelePart1.html
http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/162581096.html
http://www.npr.org/2012/08/06/157063512/american-dream-betrayed-by-bad-economic-policy
http://americawhatwentwrong.org/Barlett-and-Steele/
If you like you can still get a full copy of the Citigroup memos here:
http://www.mygreencard.com/downloads.php?file=CitigroupPlutonony_October2009.pdf
Right. Nice rant. Just vote the buggers out. That would mean you’d have to have enough non-right-wingers to win in local, state, and federal elections. An admirable ambition, but we’re fighting 30 years of Reagan economic policies which have only recently come to full fruition. The worm is buried deep, deep, in the electorate apple and we will be lucky if we can dig it out in another 30 years. Doesn’t mean we can’t try, but don’t look for immediate relief.
You’re right – but we have to do what we can.
I’m one of those “neatly parsed and balanced” people, and I thank you for venting my own repressed emotions!
Yours is a sane response to an insane situation Kay. Let’s not forget to blame the voters in all this though. They prefer distractions and entertainment by far to anything remotely akin to citizenly responsibilities. Of course those citizenly duties require actual thinking and we know how well that’s going in the 21st.
Another book that goes directly to the problem and debunks the absurd (but ever popular) “both sides” meme (came out last May) is by Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann, “It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism”.
Thanks for your comments. That durn thinkin’ thing is just so so old fashioned.
@zephyr
Let’s not forget to blame the voters in all this though.
Really?
Thanks….Kay there are lots of women and men, right and left that are saying and feeling very similar sentiments…
Hyper, we have to go back no further than 00 and a few years later the TP influx into congress to see the failure of thinking ability among the voters, so yes, they deserve blame too. Powerful, wealthy and influential con artists will always exist – as will clueless but fiery ideologues, but if they don’t get voted into office their power will be limited at least to some degree.
Yes do blame the voters – we’ve got a lot to answer for – but don’t forget this has been a well orchestrated concerted effort to fool the populace. Ike warned us and for a time politicians weren’t so craven when faced with moneyed interests. The rich have always and will always fight for their interests – just as we will. They just have more ammunition. So we have to wake up and stop swallowing the poisoned Kool-Aid of misinformation pushed at us day and night. Gee, maybe this should be another post?
Cartoon I did April 2011
http://themoderatevoice.com/wordpress-engine/files//2011/04/MegaRichVs-72ppi.jpg