Like many people I was not paying close attention when Citizens United was passed in 2010. Today we are feeling the repercussions of that legislation - dark money in politics, massive sums being paid to politicians without public scrutiny, undue influence of corporations allowing the super wealthy to amass unimaginable fortunes, while the wages for working class Americans fall further and further behind the rising cost of everything.
Have we lost our ability to think and reason for ourselves? Did we forget how to compare and contrast as soon as we left the school house door? Maybe that ability has been stolen by those with the power and money to rig the system for their own benefit. We've all been duped and yes, we were complicit in the duping. Many folks believe that buying things will make them happy, or at least keep the neurosis of never having enough at bay.
We Americans, seem to be infected with insatiable greed and an ever increasing lust for things that add little to the quality of our lives and often do much to degrade our lives. We are captives of a media driven culture that tells us what to want, what to buy, and what to go into deep debt for. Many people's houses and apartments overflow with stuff that they haven't touched in years, yet we buy more, thus enriching the ultra wealthy. Consumerism Run Rampant may be the title of a book, yet to be written, about our country's economic status since 1945.
Now we have government leadership (or shall I say a regime) that is rapidly changing our government from one that has been for the people to one that is only for a few very wealthy people.
Think this is not possible? Read Earnest Frankel's book, The Dual State. (Frankel was a German attorney who saw the creation of the Nazi culture and how the German people were divided into essentially two states one to be treated well under the laws, the other folks much less well with different interpretations of the law.) Find lawyer, economist, professor, and former US Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich's speech in 1994 (now on You Tube) where he speaks about the increase in economic inequality in our country, and how the wealthy oligarchs might support the rise of a fascist dictator to run the country for them, at the expense of everyone else. Read the Republican's 2025 Playbook based on the techniques that Victor Orban used to turn Hungary from one of the world's most democratic societies into a fascist state. It is real, and it is happening to the United States.
Greed, lust for power, degrading of human rights, trampling laws and ignoring the US Constitution and setting record lows for the lack of decency and compassion have given us Donald J Trump, acting as President of our country.
As much as he'd like to be the causal force of everything, Trump is merely a disgusting symptom of the illness that infects our government and our nation. He is a tool of the extremely wealthy people who use his narcissism to peddle their wares to a gullible public. He openly admires dictators, the enemies of our country and the super wealthy. Many of our country's people of course see Trump for what he is, but many also believe his lies of a better economy for all, and have fallen under the spell he weaves of hate for so many.
His greatest sin against our country may be that of destroying national relationships with our allies and friends. Why should Canada, Europe, Mexico, Australia or any nation trust the United States after the economic wrath and propensity for war that Trump has unleashed on the world.
We the people are not powerless. Our power comes from our collective voices and our right to vote. Will that power be enough to right the ship, to rid our beloved country of the inane policies, and practices of Trump and the millions who follow him and thousands of his sycophants who have taken positions of power in governments across the nation? Will the mid term elections be fair and untampered with? If not what other options must we employ to enable liberty and justice for all to flourish.
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