How Far Must We Fall?

How much further do we have to go before hitting rock bottom? How far do we go before we see more than just rhetorical wars of the words? When can we begin to have intelligent conversations about the direction that this country has taken? Will it be after another war is waged, or the economy has crashed, or the middle class disappears? How long must we let this failed conservative experiment play out before we can finally change course? Because that is what we are seeing right now. Everything from foreign to domestic policy is a failure that is continually getting worse.

I scour the blogosphere desperately looking for some semblance of serious discussion of important issues, usually to no avail. There are only a few blogs that even bring up these important issues. Unfortunately, too often, I see that these are the least commented on posts. And even when the posts do get attention, they quickly fall prey to a diversion troll. It almost seems that after the November elections, the nation went back to sleep.

People think that the stupid little victory in November is meaningful. Only slightly. While the democrats can bring some balance back to the government in some cases, the big problems that plague our country still exist and they are still festering. Health care costs are still rising. The "war" in Iraq is not ending anytime soon. (The newest estimate is that it will be another 10 years before we even think about leaving!! ) The gap between the rich and the poor is rising at a fast pace. Housing, food, and fuel costs are rising. The deficit is soaring. Meanwhile, we are giving tax cuts to the rich. The US is threatening Iran. Ships are piling up just outside their border. Our rights have been chipped away little by little. Religious fundamentalism is on the rise. How long can we sustain the current course we are on? What can we do to stop it? And how do we do anything when the rhetoric from both sides of the American political spectrum sound so much alike?

As far as I see it, there are two main groups that are shaping the rhetoric. There are the American centric nationalists on the right and the American centric populists on the left. (Not the true left. American politics is skewed to the right, so the "left" I am referring to is probably the middle in any balanced nation.) These two groups are made up of mostly the same type of people. They are both hurting and they have both been conditioned to redirect their frustrations on some foreign entity. Both groups are very similar in the targets of their frustration. The right is more fervent in their hatred of the target groups, but in general, both sides are guilty of projecting their frustrations. You will find the same American centric racist slant from both the nationalists and the populists in regards to Muslims and Hispanics.

For example, this week Rush Limbaugh was railing against the US allowing 7000 Iraqis take refuge in this country. At crooks and liars, there was a post about the democratic governor of Ohio who said that he didn't want the Iraqis in his state. I thought, for sure, that the comments would consist of disgust towards the callousness of the governor's statements. But, about 50% or more of the comments were in agreement with the governor and Rush. However, to be fair, the commenters on C&L are a new group of the populist democrats I mentioned above. I am not sure what happened to some of the real liberals that made that site great, but it has greatly deteriorated since they have left.

The scary thing is it seems that we have actually went a notch further to the right over the last few months rather than moving back towards the middle. And, yes, I said towards the middle. Right now, we are so far right as a country, that a large portion of the democrats can be characterized as right of center. Which basically means that we barely have a democracy, at least not a true democracy. It seems that if your ideas do not fit into a small window between center and extreme right, you are not seen as a true American. How is that democracy? How is it that so many of us have NO voice in politics? The way I see it, we nearly have a oligarchy. Businesses have more say in how the government acts than the millions of citizens. And, yet, we continually obsess over whether gays should marry or whether Hillary should be president? (NO. She should not! Are two families the only ones capable of running this country? Why not just declare that we are an aristocracy?)

We are screwed. We, as a nation, have let the wealthiest people and corporations completely take over our government and it will be damn near impossible to get it back. The corporations and the wealthiest people in the world are screwing us and other poor people in other nations, but too many of us take their cue and blame who they tell us to blame for the mess they made. CAFTA and NAFTA really hurt Central and South American families. That is one of the main causes in the increase in people over the border. Our companies made the families there destitute. Our jobs are then shipped off to China and India because the corporations know that they can take advantage of the people there. By doing this, they leave entire towns destitute here in the states. And who do they tell us to blame? They tell us that it is the Mexican's fault. Although, the Hispanic peoples are suffering from the same ills we are. And the masses eat it up. Our jobs have been shipped to China because of corporate greed, and the Mexicans are to blame. It doesn't make sense when you spell it out like that, but people will still eat it up.

And for another twist, China is now outsourcing some of the jobs that we have outsourced to them to poorer countries such as Vietnam. So, when does the chain stop? And what happens when it does? What is driving this whole corrupt machine is the need for quick, easy money. The corporations move their businesses to poorer and poorer countries and pay the people crap. We get somewhat cheaper crap than we were getting. However, we all need cheaper crap because the corporations took the good paying jobs away and we are all working in the service sector. Maybe when the republican dream is realized and we have shanty towns full of our own destitute people who are desperate for any work at all, they will move the manufacturing sector back here. Then China can buy some cheap American made products.