Tuesday, February 7, 2017

We are a nation in existential crisis

1. We are a nation in existential crisis.
Are we going to be a land of freedom, liberty, and justice; or are we going to continue to decline into capitalistic greed and an American flavor of fascism (tight coupling of state and private business interests, using the state as the bully stick to force workers into line for private for-profit interests against the will of we-the-people)?

2. This IS NOT NEW.
We've been going down this path for a very long time now - certainly since WW2's expansion of the Military Industrial Complex (MIC), which was vastly ramped up with Reagan and continues to this day - with every - single - president & congress in those intervening years supporting and expanding the power of the MIC and, more recently, the Surveillance State - the CIA, NSA, Homeland Security, and etc.

3. President Trump is NOT an ABERRATION.
He is merely the next in a long series of flip-flops between the Republicans and the Democrats holding power - almost like clockwork, going back to Reagan.

Every 8 years, the populous is sick and tired of the current party's excuses for not doing almost anything whatsoever of its promises of hope & change - and instead has delivered endless more-of-the-same - sellouts to big money.

Whether we're a Democrat or a Republican, the bottom line is we see that the administration has failed us.  Many of us become disgusted by this, and we don't come to vote for our party - which allows the other side - which has become enthusiastic about ousting our side during the interim - to come in and garner enough votes to swap an R for a D, or a D for an R.

4. This CYCLE allows for continuation of American POLITICAL evil.
It wasn't President GW Bush who was truly at fault for the problems of American Imperialism.  Nor was it President Obama, who continued the same policies - in fact - expanded on them for his eight (8) years in office.  Nor was it congress fault entirely, who overwhelmingly went along with expanded wars, and surveillance, and expansions of executive powers during these past 16 years.
No president is solely to blame.  And no congress, no matter how obstructionist, is entirely to blame.  Not even a significant minority to blame.  They're just doing their acting roles in a larger play that is being put on for our endless entertainment.

5.Our willingness to believe in these actors and this play as being real - having real power and mattering - or of us having some real - meaningful degree of influence over this charade by being active in the system - voting, campaigning, advocating for (D) or (R) candidates - that is a huge part of the problem.  This charade is being performed to keep us interested in "The days of our government's lives" daytime soap opera and not out in the streets refusing to allow this to continue.

6. Trump is bad.
7. Obama was bad.
8. GW Bush was bad.
9. Bill Clinton was bad.
10. H. Bush was bad.
11. Reagan was bad.

These presidents all expanded executive power, set precedents of corruption, executive dictatorial power grabs, expansion of the MIC and Surveillance State, the erosion of privacy, of individual liberty, of perversions of the constitution to enable greater latitude in being openly corrupt and pay-to-play.

Every single president here is guilty of going along with, or actively wanting to create, the global capitalistic dominance of the planet and hand-in-hand the global militaristic dominance of the planet by America's corporate and military might.

This, folks, is the actual textbook definition of "Fascism."

Not racism, per se, not jack-booted thugs, not burning Jews or other pogroms - rather, the intimate conjoining of private business interests with the military and governmental powers of the state.

America is Fascist and has been for quite some time.

Trump has only made it minutely more so - expanding on a vast set of precedents and foundations laid by his predecessors.

These same actions that many democrats are now decrying were actively done by Obama, and all prior administrations, especially including (D) administrations.

In fact - many of the most pivotal moments have happened during (D) administrations.  The vast expansion of the incarceration of black and poor folks was accomplished by Bill Clinton, with democrats cheering him on.

The vast roll-back of entitlements that had previously greatly helped poor people and single mothers to make ends meet, was ripped out and gutted under Bill Clinton with Hillary Clinton being an instrumental wheeler and dealer in accomplishing this change. (This being one of the strongest criticisms of HRC as being very much NOT a defender of children, but rather someone who throws them under the bus whenever politically expedient to do so).

The dissolution of the Glass-Steagall act and passage of the "Commodity Futures Modernization act" by Bill Clinton with the help of the republican congress - removed the protections against global economy-destroying overreach and greed by Wall Street which had successfully protected us since the Great Depression.

Removing Glass-Steagall lead directly to the Savings & Loan debacle and recession, and the growingly massive recessions and depressions we've had since.

The housing loan derivatives market which was legalized by the "Commodity Futures Modernization act" directly lead to the housing collapse & recession in '08/'09.

According to statistics on the global economy - we have a recession every 4-7 years on average.  The last one was in '09, which means we are DUE for another RECESSION, and since we have failed to reinstate Glass-Steagall, it may bring the entire global economy to a state similar to the '30 Great Depression!

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To summarize:

I. We're a fascist, imperialist, colonialist, racist nation and have been from the start.

II. Trump is not an aberration, but a culmination of our continued denial of who we really are and our collective failures - especially as white people - to do a goddamn thing about it.