Well I have been too busy to rant about politics lately even though there has been a tremendous amount to talk about. New information from the Census Bureau about the increasing poverty and financial disparity in this country; politicians gearing up for a new election; historic grass roots protests; record profits being made by the oil industry, yet again (while their tax payer subsidies have been protected at all costs by the Republicans in Washington), and general gridlock in Washington with the Republicans refusing to allow any problems to be solved for as they said "why we would we hand Obama a win?"
I could go on about each of these but first consider the latter - if the government solves any of the major problems we face it will be considered a win for Obama and this is exactly what the Republicans don't want to see. And ironically if Obama loses because he has failed to solve the problems the Republicans have promised to do more of what caused the problems in the first place - deregulate and cut taxes.
The main thing I want to weigh in on today is this notion that the government and taxes are bad. This idea is killing this country. First of all our education and infrastructure are dismal and these are the investments that we need to have a future as a nation. Second the world is at a turning point right now, we are seeing limits in our corporate capitalistic system, new technologies promise clean and limitless energy, global climate change driven by our burning of fossil fuels is causing expensive and devastating damage more and more frequently, and many of the world's food and water supplies are on the brink of collapse. Yet there are solutions to these problems.
Reagan was the catalyst for the downfall of America with his famous quote "The government is the problem, not the solution" and this idea lives on strong today in conservative politics with Rick Perry yesterday in the Republican debate saying when he becomes president he will completely abolish three government agencies: the Department of Commerce, the Department of Education, and well he could not for the life of him remember the third! He later said the Department of Energy.
So let us look at this conservative philosophy. The mission of the Department of Commerce is to: "promote job creation and improved living standards for all Americans by creating an infrastructure that promotes economic growth, technological competitiveness, and sustainable development." The department of Education - obvious what it is concerned with, and the Department of Energy is in charge of domestic energy production and protection of our nuclear facilities and waste.
So in a time when we need jobs, we need to improve living standards (our country has by far the largest number of people living in poverty out of any developed nation), we are falling behind in technological competitiveness, sustainable development means we won't be unsustainable as a nation, our education is absolutely terrible, and our energy policy is fossilized and leading us to extinction as a world leader and has us fighting wars around the world to protect our energy interests; the conservatives want to abolish the government agencies that are in charge of fixing all these problems!
I want people running our government that believe the government can help solve these problems!!! And for the folks who believe the conservative talking points that private industry can solve these problems without government help - this nation became a leader in technology, production, middle class growth, education, etc BECAUSE of the government. When private industry has been put in charge without regulation they have shipped jobs overseas, created tax shelters in the Camen Islands, ignored infrastructure, and created economic bubbles that destroyed the economy which has hurt the majority of people while the rich actually have continued to profit.
Right now the 12,000 wealthiest families in America have as much money as the bottom 25 million families!!!!
In order to navigate the new world of emerging technologies, new promising forms of energy production, globalized markets and manufacturing, and increased threats to our global life support system we need a smart government that believes that what they do is essential in guiding and protecting this country. In a world of globalized corporations is it actually un-American, un-patriotic, treasonous even, to suggest that we should put them in charge and get rid of or make ineffectual our government. The government is supposed to be
by the people for the people and corporations do not have that mission statement. They exist for profit and they increasingly benefit the small class of corporate elites who control them.
The problem is not the government, it is the control of our government by the corporate class. The occupy protesters have a ton of very good issues they are concerned about but number one on their list for getting this country back needs to be getting the money out of our political system.
In case anyone wants to help take a small but essential step toward that they should contact all of congress and the White House and tell them to support the constitutional amendment that would overturn the Citizens United ruling (that allows corporations to give unlimited amounts of money towards political campaigns under the guise of free speech). This amendment was put forth by the following brave senators: (all Democrats of course) - Tom Udall (NM), Michael Bennett (CO), Tom Harkin (IA), Dick Durbin (IL), Chuck Schumer (NY), Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), and Jeff Merkely (OR)
