YOUR FREEDOM, HEALTH & WELFARE DEPENDS ON RESPECT FOR THE U.S. CONSTITUTION AND A GOVERNMENT THAT WILL ENFORCE IT
By:
Dave Kingsley
Without Government You are Without Protection from Self-Serving Corporations, Techno-Plutocrats like Musk, and Fascists.
Thanks to both major political parties, a phony government hating movement has been able to fester and eventually capture the levers of power in the United States. Indeed, hating government is fashionable these days. A shallow, faddish, libertarian political philosophy – unleashed by a doltish President in 1980 – has become de regueur.
A public distracted by trash entertainment has been moved by corporate media’s penchant for disseminating misinformation (e.g., Social Security has created a huge budget problem) as well as political propaganda (e.g., asylum seeking immigrants are a threat) to put a self-serving oligarchy in control. A very potent government hating, financier-industrialist led political apparatus has incrementally managed to engage major “news” outlets and political parties in furtherance of their economic interests at the expense of the freedom, welfare, and health of the very people who voted their candidate into office.
Blaming Social Security, Medicare, programs for poor people, economic equity/DEI, and the like is a scurrilous but effective mantra for promoting a “government bad, corporation good” narrative. Ronald Reagan instilled that incantation in the body politic throughout his eight years as president with little opposition from the Democrats. By the time the next Democrat ascended to the Presidency in 1992, the Democratic Party – now the “New Democrats” – were on board with the Reaganism and Ayn Randism that had taken hold. President Clinton said that the “era of big government is over.” What he meant was that poor people needed some tough love and that cutting safety net benefits and Social Security would be one way to carry that out. Enough Democrats were all in on that to change grants-in-aid to block grants that would allow state governments to humiliate and abuse poor people.
The Clinton Administration – with prodding from the venomous Newt Gingrich – did cut Social Security through a devious, back-door means. Conservative economists were put in charge of a commission – the Boskin Commission – that promoted and eventually won the day for recalculating the SS cost of living increases, which dampened the increases in monthly payments to beneficiaries. Along with both parties’ support of Reagan in pushing back eligibility for full benefits by two years – a massive cut – the statistically invalid reconfiguration of COLA increases insured that life would be harder for the majority of SS beneficiaries.
The next Democratic President, Barack Obama, tried to give away massive cuts to Social Security and Medicare but was rebuffed by the Republicans who thought he wasn’t giving quite enough away. Or perhaps they really thought that the Democrats could sell it as some kind of victory. So, the feckless and weak Democrats, garnering little respect from the masses, blamed Jill Stein for their loss in 2016, which is rather silly when you think about it.
Radical Government Haters and the Reductio Ad Absurdum
Now the government haters are in control and taking government hating to its logical conclusion. Sociopathic, narcissistic billionaires have been handed the right to dismantle the portion of our federal government that protects us from them and the fascists beholden to them. The real power now resides with super-rich techno-plutocrats such as Thiel, Bezos, Musk, and others who are in control of the entire digital communications infrastructure and, in cooperation with government, are sucking up information without regard to 4th Amendments rights against search and seizure. It was their data capabilities that allowed them to hand the last election to Trump.
Industrial behemoths such as UnitedHealth, Exxon, CVS, Walmart, Chevron, Monsanto/Bayer, and others now have an opening to achieve extreme deregulation, monopolistic market power (price fixing), excessively low to no taxes, and the right pollute our air, water, food, and building/manufacturing materials with toxic chemicals conducive to poor health and a shorter life expectancy.
Because of theocratic fascists of the Baptist, Catholic, and the “get down, holy rolling fundamentalist, government hating” varieties, the 1st Amendment separations of church and state provision of the constitution is in tatters. Attacks on 1st Amendment freedom of speech rights have intensified in the form of public policy (e.g., attacks on media outlets and journalists by Trump). Members of Congress who speak out are threatened and harassed. The few courageous House and Senate members who do speak out are sort of hanging out there alone. For instance, Congressman Eric Swalwell and his family have been going through hell while so many of his fellow Democrats stay in hiding and maintain a low profile.
Overwhelmingly, the elected representatives in both parties are cowards willing to slink into hiding rather than incur the wrath of a psychopathic President. Senate Minority Leader Schumer maintains that the Democrats can just wait for Trump to sink and the public polls to turn against him. Unfortunately, most Democrats have been relying on opinion polls for decades rather than standing up for what they believe.
It Will Get Worse Unless We Can Change the Democratic Party
Life expectancy will continue to move backwards as the plutocratic wrecking crew continues to disassemble the government and protections we rely on for a healthier life and environment. The people in power now care about only this: money and power. To the people running the U.S. today, the masses are merely fodder to be manipulated and fleeced. Those government services for which the middle and lower income strata pay disproportionately will be taken away for the purpose of enriching the rich.