Lets take a moment and consider something...there is a deep and seemingly uncrossable no-man's-land between the priorities of the American People and our entire Political Leadership, both parties, local or national.
The American people want peace, economic opportunity, financial security, physical security, and general stability. The American people want to have a nice home, decent car, good and plentiful food to eat, affordable entertainment, employment that treats them with some respect and pays a living wage. They want to be free of ruinous medical bills by having full medical coverage, preferably like Medicare used to be. They want to be able to retire and spend their remaining years watching their grandchildren grow, and their children prosper. The American people are no different that the Iraqi People, the Iranian People, the Israeli People, and every group of humanity on this globe. They want the freedom to live their lives in some comfort and with a reasonable expectation that the immediate future will be better than the immediate past.
On the other hand, the Bush Administration and the entire political leadership of this country want unlimited personal power, wealth beyond imagining, and no one to tell them 'no'.
They are narcissistic children demented by illusions and delusions of grandeur. They are insane by every definition of the word.
Is there a point at which the American People rise up and with violence wrench back this country from the oligarchs and wealthy elite who have taken over? Is there a point in which Americans will realize that they no longer have power at the voting booth and that their wants and needs are totally ignored by their political leaders?
I don't know.
I would like to believe that the American people are not so far subjugated that they couldn't rise in physical rebellion, but I don't think it is possible in reality. There is a naive belief in this country that 'things will somehow work out'. That somehow Bush and his minions will turn out to be the good guys and that they aren't really as demented and deranged as they seem; that the economy is poised on the verge of a gigantic growth and good jobs will be everywhere; that the environmental degradation is really ok and that we really didn't need all those pesky plants and animals that are going extinct anyway; that energy problems are entirely solvable with modern technology and that soon there will be plentiful cheap energy for all; and that the middle class lifestyle so beloved by Americans will continue on, uninterrupted, forever.
Fat chance.
Americans, by and large, are damn fine people who are honest and caring and 'salt of the earth' type people, but we have allowed a coup de'tat, and the wants and needs of these fine Americans is no longer a concern of government. In fact, America is no longer a concern of government. Government is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Multinational Corporate Business Interests.
Think of this: The cost of the Iraq War, a war that is clearly unnecessary, illegal, and certainly immoral, would be sufficient to:
- we could have hired 4,972,551 additional public school teachers for one year.
- we could have provided medical insurance for 171,815,152 children for one year.
- we could have provided 13,909,806 students four-year scholarships at public universities.
- we could have built 2,583,548 additional housing units.
- we could have fully funded global anti-hunger efforts for 11 years.
- we could have fully funded world-wide AIDS programs for 28 years.
- we could have paid for 38,004,200 children to attend a year of Head Start.
- we could have ensured that every child in the world was given basic immunizations for 95 years.
Like I said, a deep and uncrossable no-man's-land between the American People and American Politicians.
(info on costs of Iraq War from The National Priorities Project)
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