Frank O'Brien hits out at the political elites. Frank O'Brien is a long time resident of Troy, NY, USA, and former head of Clan na Gael in same city, and area.
The inbred Eugenics loving Powers That Shouldn't Be have held sway in this country ever since the Robber Barons of the late 19th century decided upon who would get to rule the country, just as today, only now it is more stream line and fraught with the chances of election rigging, mainly through the Super PACs[political action committees], and elitists being in charge of both political parties.
When I was growing up we still had the local "political machines," as they were called, who through bribery, and lopsidedness faired really, really well, with one party staying in power sometimes for decades. In a number of nationwide constituencies this old boys network way of doing things has given way to slightly more above board democratic ways of it being decided who will take hold of a political office, one of the better ones I can think of being here in my own Rensselaer county, which is right across from New York state's capitol of Albany.
The real enemy of what democracy we do have is from corporate monies and monies from the ultra wealthy having a sizable effect on who gets picked to run, and who winds up getting the party nomination to run in the general election. At the end of the day only about 30% of eligible voters actually turn out to vote, with it being then a small, yet slightly sizable minority ultimately deciding who will or won't get into office. Even though there have been third party presidential candidates like Ross Perot, and Ralph Nader, the coverage of their campaigns literally gets ignored by the supposed 4th Estate, or our not at all free press, which is now merely an appendage of corporate power and interest.
Part of it is that until granny government breaks up the corporate monopoly control of the various networks and cable news channels, the only real bastion of free press is in the hands of what has become known as the ALT press. Real people power is the only way forward, with our demanding government to rid the political system of massive corporate donations, and giving us back a more populist press.
De-industrialization, "out sourcing" of domestic jobs and the 2008 realty bubble burst has set us back economically now, with the cost of living exceeding what used to be affordable back 30 years ago, when one bread winner could still provide for a small to medium sized family. With both a mother and a father having to work just to make ends meet has meant that working families rarely have any time to even look at politics in a concerted way, since all they have time for is hearing sound bites about what a certain candidate stands for, which of course is usually always the elite and corporate America.
Even if Bernie Sanders makes it into the Oval Office, with his plan, similar to mine, of pulling our troops out of other countries, bringing them back home, and having them say guard our borders against illegal immigration, we still face the monolithic corporate interests who will fight tooth and nail to continue avoiding paying their fair share. In-spite of elite resistance to taxes, under Sanders there will be a guaranteed public wave of support for Sanders to put these elites in their place, and be made to pay up for all the decades that they've gone without having to pay almost anything.
With a dwindling to basically nonexistent middle class, we have a long road ahead in which policy decisions will need to be made, securing enough legislative leverage to bring back our once much vaunted middle class, which was a point of pride for America after WWII. Getting rid of the Federal Reserve is one good idea, besides forcing banks to cater to people in more beneficial ways, and forcing them to stop gambling with the retirements and savings of the average people. Retirements should not be dependent on the ups and downs of financial markets, cause this is people's survival at stake, and not some bingo or lottery to see who can come out on top. We all must be able to benefit, and for starters, forcing corporations to bring back jobs from the countries that they got sent to is a must, even if we have to literally freeze all a corporation's assets to bend their arms in to getting it done.
Political freedom is integrally tied to economic wellness, so seeing how economically devastated we all are from the games that Wall Street plays, it is no wonder that we've begun to turn into an almost dictatorial plutocracy, where the will of the few out weighs the will of the many. We should all make a major effort at becoming more politically active, sharing our voices in the political process, drowning out the huge power bloc that big business has accrued.
A Velvet Revolution, or in other words, non-violent political revolution needs to happen in order to grab back the power that is rightfully the people's power. Only by a popular, majority driven electorate will we have equity again in a system that so depresses most people, that they long ago stopped participating in it. Not only does our political system need a major overhauling, but also our economic system needs to be equalized, using some of those ideas that Karl Marx first talked about, but we also must keep competition, and a certain level of there being the up and down in markets.
More people should get into opening up their own businesses, which through demographic studies and consumer desires being evaluated before hand, such businesses can not only thrive, but also become economic giants to fill in the gaps that were left when the automobile and heavy industrial sectors tanked out. Renewing our Constitution and Bill of Rights, possibly even having a Constitutional Convention could help bring back the kind of country that so many were once proud of.
We have become the greatest single empire that the world has ever known, but we are way over extended beyond our financial reach, and need to focus for a decade or more on merely issues and things at home. Our greatness comes from our being one of the first democracies ever to appear on earth, and second, it is our being a melting pot of so many varieties of people, religions and so on that makes us representative of almost all the world's people. To be that example again of being the shining democracy we once were is paramount to our survival, and our learning to get along with other nations, and not doing things like supporting tin pot dictators, or deliberately causing coup d'etats in countries that are by right sovereign, and demanding of our respect.
To get respect you need to look beyond merely accruing power, and playing "Monopoly" with other nations, using them or abusing them to serve our own whims. Power is one thing, but it can be had by other means than those so famously used by our CIA, such as giving foreign aid to needy countries, and showing them how to build up their country to being of a first rate degree. At the rate we are going we will be a third world country soon, with a totalitarian government fixed on controlling people and keeping them in line. The latter to a great degree already exists, which is why we've seen the rise of "Black Lives Matter," "Occupy Wall Street" and even ANONYMOUS. The free and open Internet is the great equalizer for those who know how to use it, and mold culture through saturating it with our opinions. The New World Order wants you to be stuck at being on the Left or the Right, so as to conquer and divide you....the famous Hegelian Dialectic!
The future is only ours if we set aside our differences, finding instead our commonalities, and familiar ways. The same goes for all the world, where it needs to be the will of the people that wins out at the end of the day. It won't be so meager as it will be bountiful if we only learn to stand up for ourselves, and holding our politicians to account.
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