Maintaining the Main Drain

While discussing politics and the economy with my friend Pat, he got me started on something. "Are people blind?" he asked.

Yup, people are blind. More accurately, people see what they want to see. I'm afraid we're all a little like that. I'm like the rest, I'll admit; I want friends in politics too! I want a party that looks out for me, and I keep trying to find one.

But I can't find one.

 

The Republicans tell us that the Democrats are lying; the Democrats tell us that the Republicans are lying.

Who's lying?

We see what we want to see. We want the truth to be "black" or "white." It's hard to keep an open mind. It's easier the other way; but, my fellow Americans, our "friends" in politics are not always our "friends." We need to stop bowing to party lines, whether we're Republicans or Democrats.

I'm tired of politicians talking about their party "base." I think people who swallow the party's story, any party's story, are well named. They are "base" people indeed. Rich or poor, common folk or nobility, they're truly "base," because they allow themselves to be led around by the nose.

Instead of thinking for themselves, "base" people try to find someone else to figure it out for them. But politicians are not going to figure it out for us, because they're not on our side right now.

Those in power mostly see us as an obstacle to retaining their power, not as people to serve or even people who have anything of importance to say. All they really want from us is our votes. They'd like us to stay right where we are, under their thumbs. They have no interest in changing this economy. They like it "lean and mean." They want to continue siphoning off wealth for themselves. That's the main principle of business. That's the truth.

But neither party tells the whole truth. One says business owners build businesses. The other tells us business is built on the back of government. That little argument is a good example of the kind of bait that's often dangled in front of us. The story looks pretty good, so we swallow the one or the other; then we just look for more of the same stuff to feed on.

Business is built on our backs. No business is entirely "made" by the "makers" of business. No business is entirely "made" by the government. We, the consumers and customers, are the business. Entrepreneurs in this country accumulate wealth, build stuff or provide services, and "sell" us the story that their prices are worth paying. We buy their stories. That's what makes business go. We need to understand that. We are the business. How is it that the Democrats and the Republicans have found it appropriate to leave us out of their myths about "business"?

Here's part of the answer: Republicans, for the past couple of generations, have pretty much had their way arranging tax cuts for themselves and dismissing government oversight from their "business," but the Democrats have excused, and are continuing to excuse the rich Republicans from their misbehavior. They carefully avoid saying much about the 99% to 1% disparity in wealth today, and they don't mention that the disparity is largely a product of government policy over the past 25 years. Of course, the reason Democrats excuse it is because they're rich too. They're in on it. They overwork and overtax the middle class and the working poor, then sell goods and services back to us at the highest prices they can gouge out of us.

But they leave us out when they explain "business," because what they do to us is the dirty truth, and any admission of it would make them all look dirty.

Business is something imposed upon us, and most of time, we let it happen because we think it has to be that way, and we think it has to be that way because they say so. But we need to realize at some point that $4.00 a gallon for gas is probably a higher price than necessary, especially when a business sector is gouging us for billions in profits

It doesn't have to be that way.

We should be able to share some of that wealth. And maybe keeping some of it and spreading it around won't entirely solve our problems; maybe bus drivers can't collect full retirement benefits when they get old, and maybe waitresses can't have full health benefits. But we could do better than we do now.

Redemopublicrats are as blind as we are to that and a whole lot more. They wear blinders made of hundred dollar bills, and they do the best they can to keep us blinded too. They now have most of us convinced that there is no other way but theirs, whatever "theirs" happens to be.

When we accept that the Redemopublicrats' alternatives are the only solutions, we're all taking part in "maintaining the main drain" on the economy. The "main drain" they maintain is chiefly what keeps it down, not entitlement programs or welfare. The "main drain" is the most serious moral issue today, not illegal immigration or abortion, either of which could be easily and quickly made into a non-issue by people with half a mind and more interest in solving problems than in profits.

Why It Makes No Sense to Vote

Debt is indentured servitude (i.e. - enslavement). When the Redemopublicrats needed a bank bailout, they asked the American people to pony up a loan to rescue the financial sector from disaster. We rescued them, but we weren't given any choices. In our name, Congress saw to it that we provided the funds. As a result, the financial sector is now fat and healthy, and the health of the middle class and working poor is in decline. We're saddled with debt (i.e. - enslaved, some of us more, some less), and that debt will be here for a long, long time.

Obama and Romney agree that the financial sector should survive, despite its greed and errors. Their biggest argument, for the moment at least, is all about who should carry the greater burden of debt into the future for the errors of the past. But they're refusing to confront the errors that are being made today by those who hold the real power.

Romney wants the burden of debt to stay right where it is, on the shoulders of the middle class and working poor. He tells us that he wants us all to "grow the pie" and get rich together. But he doesn't mean that. What he means is we, the enslaved masses, will continue to work and create the wealth, and he and his affluent friends will continue to fleece us.

Obama pretends that raising taxes on the rich will shift the burden to the rich and provide a solution. It's a hollow argument, because that tax increase is going to happen anyway, regardless of who wins this election. And it will amount to nothing but a meaningless gesture. The shift in the burden will not be significant. It will not solve problems. The filthy rich will never see 90% tax rates as they did back in the 1950's. They are in power now, and they will not stand for it. All of the Redemopublicrats, including Obama, know this to be true.

Neither one is apologizing for how they, the Redemopublicrats, oversaw and facilitated the dismantling of the middle class for the past 25 years, the cutting of jobs and wages, the elimination of health benefits, the gutting of pension funds, and the shipping of jobs overseas, all of which spiraled communities deeper into financial pits of varying depths and forced people to work harder, do more, and get along with less. They made us all "lean and mean," and they were proud of it, because all of the reduction in pay increased profit margins and swelled stock prices. They made lots of money on the scheme.

It all worked until it became impossible to sustain. You can't sell things to people who can't afford to buy them anymore. But the smartest crooks, those who knew from the start that it was a Ponzi scheme, got out of the market before it fell. They are Redemopublicrats, they all have a big stake in the scheme, and they all have pretty good bankrolls. They protected themselves, and they remain fat and healthy. There are no apologies forthcoming.

While all of this is going on, the financial sector continues to make risky investments to the current day, just as they did before the big disaster. They're still growing their fortunes off the backs of people who are forced to do more for smaller wages. The one percent continues to strip the rest of us dry. But the top one percent (and even the top two or three percent, and perhaps even a large share of the top four) include many, many Redemopublicrats, and they're either continuing to participate in the scheme, or they are continuing to oversee and facilitate it. The petty argument over who will pay when people get sick and the tirade over education and even the disagreement about whether some people's taxes will go up or down are essentially diversions. On the whole, as far as the Redemopublicrats in the one or two percent or so are concerned, the system is humming along and doing just fine.

That's your real "recipe for disaster," and neither Romney nor Obama is talking about it. No political candidates are talking about it. The Redemopublicrats are impotent; votes mean nothing; the political landscape is barren. The financial sector is in control of this country, and our votes can't touch them.

When Barroom Politics and Christians Mix

Conversation in five parts, overheard at modern society's only remaining center for broad and general (although at times, a bit convoluted) intellectual exchange - THE LOCAL BAR! Offered for informational purposes only. No further comment needed:

Seven or eight folks, presumably all of them voters, seated around a big table, talking about the news - good, bad, and mixed. (Translations provided for the sake of brevity, contradictions included, most severe expletives deleted):

Proud Americans Engaged in Political Discourse, Part I:

During a reasonable state of sobriety before and during a first round of shots, conversation focused on the following:

"Condemning the privileged class (bankers and a myriad of others who control financial institutions) that don't listen but tell others what's right and wrong, people who busy themselves by gathering and spending the symbols of wealth (money) produced by others who actually produce the actual wealth of this country ("people like us, who MAKE the real stuff" instead of just collecting money), called "money-changers" in the Bible, people who define the gathering of money as "work" (which it actually isn't if you're not really making "real stuff"), and look after their own comforts, all promoted and defended and misguided by an amalgam of Democrats - and Republicans too, oh yes! - Who disguise their greed and tyranny beneath religious self-righteousness and patriotism. Further conversation on politics, fearful religious dogma, apocalypse, end of the world, war, world war, class warfare, terrorism, political corruption, deviance, sexual perverts, prostitution, intrusions on privacy, violations of rights by people who are exercising their rights beyond limits, etc."

Proud Americans Engaged in Political Discourse, Part II:

(New round of shots, growing state of inebriation) Attention turns to the good news:

"Calm down y'all, cause Jesus is coming and he'll have it all figured out when he gets here, so relax! Pray a little bit and quit feeling responsible. We have nothing to worry about. It's God's fault. (Expletives and laughter.) Oh! Well! OK, I didn't mean that. It's not really his "fault," but it's his "business," and we don't have to feel responsible. Nothing is permanent. But sunrises are lovely, and oh, look at the pretty sunset out there right now, and the birds and rabbits are busy, and spiders and insects are buzzing, and my daughter's new prom dress is so pretty, (extended conversation about numerous other trivial but happy little items of interest), etc., and people here are going to be fine if they get out of the way, because the oil is flowing in North Dakota. (More general laughter)"

Proud Americans Engaged in Political Discourse, Part III:

(Another round of shots.) The answers emerge:

"It's in the Bible, somewhere. And I know it says love "your neighbor" and "your enemy," but I know that doesn't apply to me. I have a special right to hate some things, and I'm going to heaven anyway. Yes, usury is supposed to be a sin too, but we're immune to that, even though some of us make dividends on the big banks that impose usury. And I really shouldn't want anyone dead because the Holy Book says I shouldn't, but man, we gotta kill people that deserve it, like really bad people in our prisons, cause they're living off my money every day, and if there's a little "collateral damage" in foreign countries, well, maybe the "innocent ones" will get out of the way when we bomb them next time (laughter). I mean, they gotta get out of the target areas, you know? That's their lookout, not mine.

"It's like some jerk in this bar who lost a twenty out of his pocket last week and walked out of the bar, and I saw it and bent over and took it. That's not really stealing. It's his lookout, not mine. And when a numbskull like that gets sick and runs to some emergency room and tries to get in there on my money because he's lost his own, or because he can't earn enough, well, he's just gonna have to die in the gutter.

Proud Americans Engaged in Political Discourse, Part IV:

(During and after yet another round of shots.) Justification from the Bible and History:

"And there's something in the Bible about taking care of others, and something else about not eating pork, and a lot of other bogus stuff too. But I know exactly what the Bible actually means, and I know what's really evil, like gays, and people taking away my guns, and socialists (except I get to have my Social Security - That's mine! Don't try to take that away from me!) and that's all covered in the Bible somewhere, and I know it because I think maybe I read it once, but more importantly, I've been told by people who know (and I know they really, really know because they told me they really, really know), and they got it from a previous generation who really, really, really knew how to sort out the crap in the Bible from the holiness, who got it from another generation who got it from another one, and somewhere back there, were these people who really, really, really understood. And we gotta trust history! (General agreement about the importance of history around the table.)

"So I don't have to ponder the "Holy Word!" It's all been pondered for me. I can forget about doing unto others as I would have them do unto me, because I've decided to rephrase it: Do it to them before they get me! (more laughter)

Proud Americans Engaged in Political Discourse, Part V:

(Near closing) Parting Shots:

"Ya! That's the way it really is. So come to church with me this Sunday and get on your knees and get saved again with me, and take Holy Communion with Jesus H. Christ Almighty look at them !! - uh, and get ready to go to heaven, or don't, I don' t care. But as far as I'm concerned, I'm an American Christian, take it or leave it, just as you will. And here's how this here American Christian feels: As long as you're alive, get out of the way of my military and my own independent little army, which I operate with my own 30-06, and go to Hell when you die." (more laughter)

The remainder of the conversation was unintelligible.

Redemopublicrats for Mediocrity

Some guy named Steve has been bragging about his business on facebook. Steve is a Republican, supporting Romney, but it doesn't really matter. Parties and politics, Republicans and Democrats, they're two sides of the same coin. Behold the Redemopublicrats' chorus for the modern age, sung by a businessman, not Steve himself, perhaps, but maybe, just maybe one like Steve, who might dare to tell it like it really is:

"OK. I'll tell ya! I got my stuff the hard way. I worked for it.

"Yeah, yeah, you worked too, but a lot of you are too stupid or too lazy to work smart, or you just don't have enough desire to get ahead, or you're such bleeding hearts for one another that you're always giving the best of yourself away, so you just work your ass off for people like me, and you ain't never gonna have what I have.

"I use you, and you let it happen. I transport stuff across public roads that you agree to build and maintain with your taxes. My employees are educated in public schools that you pay for. I even get people on Social Security to come in and buy my hot dogs.

"See, you're just like one of those sidewalks or streets you're taxed for: I have walked and driven over you for years in order to gather wealth. I have taken advantage of you and this mediocre system, but I am not criticizing the system, oh no! I am praising it for its mediocrity. That system must stay mediocre in order for me to continue enjoying the advantages.

"I do not need more wealthy people in my community. I need poor people! I need people in desperate financial circumstances who are willing to sling my hot dogs at the lowest possible wages so that I can make a modest million. And I am delighted to say, our two political parties are both doing their very best to maintain a good supply of them. So when we tell you we'll get richer together, please understand, that's not about to happen.

"We need poor people in this country in order for me to be rich. We ain't never gonna all get wealthy together. If we did, who'd make our hot dogs? If we all owned yachts, who'd fix 'em when they broke down? I wouldn't fix boats or sling dogs for a living. I'm better than that. Hell, I made a business!

"Now, I'm not in the one percent club yet, but I'm getting there. So the rest of you 99%, or whatever you call yourself, or the 94% or 95% who are beneath me, you stay right there for now. Do as you're told and give me a boost up. Then after I join the elite one percent, maybe one or two more of you will understand how to take advantage of the misery and desperation, and then you can climb over the rest of your kind and become one of us.

"Politicians got lots of money too; of course they do. Democrats and Republicans, it doesn't matter, both of 'em gotta have lots of money to be in politics nowadays. And they get lots of money from people like me. I pay for ads to convince people like you to vote for them and keep them in power.

"That's why they're with me, not with you. That's why you never really have much to vote for in this country. That's why our country ranks low in education and health in the world.

"They won't tell you the whole truth like I will, but they'll serve people like me, who give them money. And I'm telling it plain, since I'm just a little-bit rich guy now with a small business, but I'm gonna get a lot richer, and somebody's got to tell ya, 'cause you're obviously not well invormed.

"I feel sorry for ya. You poor, poor desperate people. I used to be a little like you, and I feel just a bit sorry for you sometimes, but I'm not gonna waste a lot of time on that. You just stay poor and desperate for a while more. Bite the bullet and vote. Vote for the only party available, the Redemopublicratic Party, any one of them, I don't care, and keep this wonderful country just the way it is, especially for people who are still among the pitiful 99% but on the way up, like me."