Democracy

The Wisconsin Disaster And What It May Portend

Ronald 2 Comments

The failure last Tuesday to remove Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker from office by recall is a major blow to the labor movement and to progressivism.

It is a warning sign that workers, whether union or non union, whether public service workers or those employed by private employers, can expect that many of the hard won reforms of the 20th century could be taken away by Republican Governors, a Republican controlled Congress and a Republican President in the future.

It is a sign also of the power of wealthy corporate interests to destroy our political system, with the assistance of the right wing Supreme Court which allowed the Citizens United decision in 2010, which has now led to the right wing takeover in many states, in the House of Representatives, and was able to help Scott Walker survive, despite the abuse of power by him and his Republican colleagues in the state legislature. The ability of wealthy individuals to contribute large amounts of money without limit distorted the whole political process!

The fact that Mitt Romney was able to raise more money last month than Barack Obama for the first time is another danger sign that everything progressives and liberals have fought for could be going down the drain!

It is hard not to be very pessimistic about the short term and long term future, but those who believe in the rights of workers, women, minorities, children, the elderly, and wish to promote education, health care and the environment, cannot sit back and mope over the results!

If the forces for democracy decide to give up, instead of mobilizing for the upcoming campaign, and if they do not convince citizens how important it is to vote for their own futures, then indeed the country will be moving closer to a form of corporate fascism that will destroy the great progress made over a long period of generations of hard fought struggles!

The Dangers Of Proposed Amendment One In North Carolina Constitution: Denial Of Equal Rights Returning To The South!

Ronald 3 Comments

There is great fear that the majority of voters in North Carolina tomorrow will institutionalize discrimination, prejudice, and hate in the state constitution with the expected passage of Amendment One, endorsed by Franklin Graham, and his distinguished father, the Reverend Billy Graham, who should be totally ashamed of themselves!

North Carolina and other Southern states used to deny racial intermarriage, and institutionalized hate, prejudice and discrimination in the state constitutions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

One would think we are beyond this in the 21st century, and that we should not allow the ignorance of people to become law!

It is shameful to let people VOTE on basic human rights, including gay rights and gay marriage rights.

When it comes to personal human rights, there should NOT be any vote, as those personal human rights should be guaranteed in the “land of the free and the home of the brave.”

If we had a vote on whether women should be denied the right to vote; blacks should be segregated; job discrimination against Jews, Catholics, and others should be reinstituted; workers should be denied collective bargaining; and many other social advancements that people gave their “blood, sweat and tears” for, it is possible that the masses would vote to deny basic rights.

But that is not what a democracy is, to allow prejudice, hate, and discrimination to rule the day!

We have come too far in our national history to allow this to happen, and to sit idly by!

If North Carolina adopts Amendment One, we all should hold our heads in shame and weep!

47th Anniversary Of Lyndon Johnson Signing Civil Rights Act: The Most Important Moment In Our Domestic History In 20th Century!

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Forty seven years ago today, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, arguably the most important moment in our domestic history in the entire 20th century!

It is impossible to imagine what America would be like had not this occurred when it did under a Southern President!

It is highly doubtful that any other President could have accomplished what LBJ did, and one has to wonder if EVER this legislation would have passed into law, had it not occurred when it did!

The sad thing is that a substantial minority of this country would be very satisfied if African Americans, and by implication, other minorities, had continued to be second class citizens!

But it was the right and the moral thing to do, to end the racial discrimination that was a cancer in our society!

Of course, it does not mean that there is no racial hatred and prejudice today, but it is far less, and at least, it is reality law suits can and have been brought to fight remaining vestiges of racism and discrimination!

The battle for civil rights and human rights is a never ending struggle, not only for racial minorities, but also for immigrant groups, women, and gay Americans!

We cannot rest as long as anyone is the victim of discrimination and prejudice, but our history is one of constantly improving conditions fought through court decisions and legislative action, as well as direct involvement by the people under the First Amendment!

This is what makes America a great nation, and a beacon for the world, as the greatest democracy which has existed!

And it is great that we celebrate this event on the same time frame as our national holiday, the Declaration of Independence, the document which most marks our concept of freedom and democracy to the world at large!

The Privatization Of America Will Lead To Plutocracy, Instead Of Democracy!

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A very disturbing trend emerging in America is the growing privatization of government functions on the local and state levels in many municipalities and states.

An example is Chicago, which sold control of its parking meters and parking lots to private interests, and the result has been rising costs for travelers, consumers, and businessmen, making the cost of living much higher for the average resident or visitor to Chicago–all this for a quick fix on budgeting, but affecting parking for the next 75 years!

This is a horrible development, and it must be prevented, simply by people taking responsibility for higher taxes and lower services, but not just lower services!

If we continue to allow our infrastructure, as a state road in Indiana as an example, to be sold to private banks and corporations, it means that eventually all or most public services will be under the control of private business, which basically will be able to “blackmail” all of us, and destroy our democracy!

Many think already our country has become a plutocracy–rule of, by, and for the few–and this MUST stop, or else we risk a massive public uprising and riots on the level of what is going on in the Middle East!

Progressives want a return to democracy and the goals of progressivism, originally enunciated a century ago by Robert La Follette, Sr. and many others–political democracy, social justice, and economic regulation and intervention in the public interest!

What is going on today is the antithesis of everything this country is supposed to represent, and the movement to privatize everything must be halted dead in its tracks, as it is private corporations and banks and financial interests on Wall Street who have put us in the mess we are in, and now wish to finish the job of strangling American democracy!

The Tea Party Movement Revealed: Radical Anarchists Of The Far Right!

Ronald 2 Comments

The Tea Party Movement has now been revealed as what it is: radical anarchists of the FAR Right, a dangerous group that will brook no compromise, and now plans to challenge Speaker of the House John Boehner in the 2012 primaries, because he had the gall to make a compromise deal with Barack Obama and the Democrats to avoid a government shutdown at the last possible moment last evening!

Obama and the Democrats agreed to about $39 billion in budget cuts from the original budget sent by the President, a record amount, which Barack Obama claimed was a victory for common sense.

Actually, the Democrats and Obama gave in too much, but they held out for protection of the environment, the funding of the President’s Health Care law, and continuation of miniscule funding of Planned Parenthood.

Boehner has been in an impossible position having to deal with House freshmen who are totally irresponsible in their demands for massive budget cuts, and have been, unfortunately, assisted in their recklessness by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who has been undermining Boehner all along, as he and Congressman Kevin McCarthy have been working to push Boehner into an untenable position as Speaker.

If one thinks Cantor and McCarthy are “friends” of Boehner, one has to be absolutely blind! We will now see a large negative vote on the permanent budget for the next six months, when it comes up for a vote next week, and Boehner is in great danger of a revolt led by Cantor and McCarthy, and he might wish he had not been elected Speaker! To imagine that John Boehner might be seen in a sympathetic light by some shows how far right the GOP is going!

And if there is a true “Rasputin” of the Far Right, it is Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, who has recklessly and irresponsibly promoted a radical attack on Medicare and Medicaid in the fiscal year 2012 budget and beyond, in his role as Chairman of the House Budget Committee!

What Ryan proposes is to make Medicare a voucher system, and put Medicaid under block grants that state governors decide how to dispense, all of which means the total destruction of both programs for future generations of elderly, sick, and poor people, all this at the same time as the plan to defund the President’s Health Care program for all Americans not covered under either plan now!

All this while tax cuts down to 25 percent top rate from 35 percent for the ultra rich top two percent, and also cuts in corporate taxes further, which means an attack on the middle class and the poor, as America is transformed more than ever into a plutocracy, rather than the image of a democracy, in which we have government of, by, and for the people, not the elite rich!

With the concessions made by Obama and the Democrats this time, in the next round there can be NO concessions, as this is a battle for the future of the entire nation, and the plutocracy that has developed MUST be stopped dead in its tracks!

And realize finally that this is not just an economic struggle, but also a social struggle, as the Tea Party Movement has its ugly desire to intervene in people’s private lives, as related to abortion, gay rights, and women’s rights. This is a battle for economic and social justice, the battle fought by progressives and liberals for more than a century, and a constant struggle that one can never rest from, as the far right continues its determination to dictate the continued dominance of an evil, selfish, greedy plutocracy!

An Absolute Outrage: Top 400 Families In America Own As Much as Bottom 60 Percent Of Entire American Population!

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In the midst of outrageous budget cuts in many state legislatures for education and health care and other essential needs of the American people, and with the suggestion of Congressman Paul Ryan of the House of Representatives Budget Committee that future taxes on the top incomes be lowered from 35 to 25 percent, while privatizing Medicare and Medicaid, we see the further acquisition of America’s wealth by the very super rich of our population!

The top 400 Families in America, including all relatives, owns as much total income as the bottom 60 percent of all Americans, about 200 million citizens!

America is more stratified in the past 30 years since the administration of Ronald Reagan changed tax policy to favor the wealthy, and surpasses the most stratified society before 1980, Great Britain!

Great Britain has always had an aristocracy based on heritage over a thousand years and more, but we have now managed to create a greater aristocracy based simply on greed, selfishness, and materialism than our former colonial masters!

Is this something to be proud of, that we claim to be a democracy with equal opportunity for all, and yet the truth is that such statements are a total fabrication, and that we have become a plutocracy controlled by a class that loves to perpetuate the myth that anyone can strike it rich, just to keep the masses happy in their dreaming of a reality that is not possible?

America is on the way to future civil war based on the masses eventually realizing that they have been lied to, and income levels will cause a reaction that the super wealthy will fear to see, if we do not have those most fortunate among us to start realizing their social, moral, and religious responsibility to pay a fair share of their income to better the lives of the rest of us, and make us what we claim to be but are not, a democracy of, by, and for the people!

94th Anniversary Of America As A World Power: Time For Reflection!

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On this day, 94 years ago, the United States declared war on Germany, the Austro Hungarian Empire, and the Ottoman Turkish Empire, as President Woodrow Wilson took us into the First World War on the side of Great Britain, France, Russia and Italy, in a war to promote “democracy”!

Ever since, this nation has debated the virtues and shortcomings of entering that war, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the Afghanistan War, the Iraq War, and now the Libyan War.

Many have said that we have stretched ourselves thin, seen hundreds of thousands of Americans killed, gone into a tremendous national debt, and yet have not created a safer world for democracy, which is still rare around the world!

This past 94 years is seen by many as an era of the “American Empire”, but which has been detrimental to our national prosperity and growth!

As we recall the sacrifices of our men and women in all of these wars, it is necessary to say we cannot return to “isolationism” as we tried to do in the 1920s and 1930s to our detriment!

But we also cannot be the world’s “policemen” and have troops and bases in more than 100 countries and manage to promote democracy and opportunity at home!

We must realize as a nation that we can only have limited commitments to overseas military adventures, and not allow the “military industrial complex” to promote commitments that we cannot sustain!

We must always remember that while we are the beacon of democracy in the world, we cannot expect everyone worldwide to want to emulate the United States, and we must work to better our own democracy while trying to promote the concept overseas as an ideal, but not one whereby we keep on committing American men and women to die for a cause that is not wholly supported by the people in other nations!

Danger To American Democracy: The Power And Influence Of Billionaires!

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The recent recall of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez is, in one way, encouraging because it means politicians can be held accountable to the people they serve.

But in another way, it is a very disturbing development, as the charge against Carlos Alvarez was led by a multi billionaire car dealer, Norman Braman, who used the power of his fortune to accomplish the goal he wished, the removal of the mayor.

How is that different than the Koch Brothers helping to put into office such people as Scott Walker in Wisconsin, and using their money and influence to promote a political attack on labor unions, environmentalists, and others interested in promoting progressive goals?

Of course, conservatives would say that the billionaire George Soros is a major influence on MoveOn.org and is a dangerous threat to American values.

But what is the difference on the other side from Soros? At least, Soros promotes the advancement of progressive values.

But, honestly, the whole concept of billionaires having so much influence, on the left or on the right, over government in America in the 21st century is troubling, as in either case, the promotion of democracy is harmed by the wealthy participating in promoting their agenda.

Unfortunately, there is no easy way to transform our system, where money talks in American politics! Plutocracy rules, rather than the voice of the people through democracy!

The Dangers Of Highly Educated Unemployed People In America!

Ronald 2 Comments

The United States is facing a major crisis in unemployment, with millions of young Americans going to college, expecting rewards in the form of job opportunities and career advancement after years of preparation, and instead being forced to take part time work, often outside their fields of preparation, and losing valuable years of career building experience.

After beginning to assert their independence from parents, many are forced to move back home, or live in poverty, with little hope of advancement, which would allow them to plan to marry, have children, and live the “American Dream”!

The danger of frustrations building up in these young college graduates is that it could lead to such disillusionment, that it leads to violence and bloodshed in the streets, not all that different than what happened in Egypt and other Middle East nations in the past two months.

The image of America as the “land of opportunity” is being damaged, and desperate people who see no future could rise in anger, and strike out against the society that promises them hope and opportunity, and then fails to follow through.

We have government leaders now in the states and in the House of Representatives, mostly Republicans, who seem to only care about the rich and the privileged, proving themselves to be uninterested in economic opportunity, but rather only in the perpetuation of what has become, in many respects, a plutocracy, rather than the democracy that is part of the political propaganda that students learn about in political science classes.

Failure to understand that educated unemployed people will only take so much abuse before striking back leads one to fear the future, and a possible return to the turmoil and riots of the 1960s. We could be facing the horrors of a civil war, of the unemployed masses and the discontented educated class against the plutocracy that never is satisfied in its maniacal seeking of fulfilling their greed and materialism!