MB Civic

The American Experiment

The American Experiment, based on the Enlightenment, proposed that a People should rule themselves.  This example spawned hundreds of attempts in other countries.  The basic premise is that the needs of the whole people will trump the desires of any small group that would want to seize back that power.  That is socialism.  In socialism, working people receive a share of the wealth created by their labor.  The wealth of the nation is shared and the citizens contribute in a proportion to earnings to finance their government.  The first job of the government is to see to the welfare of all citizens.

The wealthy elites do not, and have never, subscribed to such a system.  They have since the founding done all that they could to change the system to provide them maximum wealth and power.  So the battle lines have been drawn.  And the elites are winning, more than they have in decades.  Not just in the US, but they are attacking socialism in Europe and wherever else it exists.  The IMF and World Bank have long sought to sabotage “leftist” leadership and practices worldwide.  “Austerity” measures are the main weapon of choice.  Or “deficit reduction” in the US.

In this larger context there is no middle ground.  There is no “extreme left”.  There has been no extreme left since the 50’s.  The strategists of the right have created an environment that is so distasteful that millions of Americans are turning away in disgust.  Just as planned.  This is a wholesale across the board assault on American civil and economic life.  They are attacking voting rights, driving cultural wedge issues, log jamming congress, stacking the courts with right wingers, inventing endless wars, overwhelming the media, flooding the political contests with money, sabotaging left leaning social organizations, attacking and eliminating left leaning politicians, stymieing  all attempts to revive the economy, attacking public education, attacking and removing whole city governments, rigging the oil and gasoline markets, destroying unions—the list goes on.

The so-called Democratic Party has been reduced to fighting a retreat; and they are doing that badly.  They look more like rats fleeing a sinking ship.  Obama, the leader of the party, promised to fight the good fight for the people, then showed his true colors.

Occupy Wall Street is born of the frustration, and the betrayal.  It is no wonder that people are demonstrating in countries worldwide.  In many countries, the right wing tyranny was supported by our very own government and allies.  Saying one thing, but secretly doing another.  As the Wiki leaks cables prove.   Nothing new there.  Where there has been a social contract, like Greece, it is being torn apart; like here.

A prosperous, well educated middle class will defend itself against the power elite.  Not so a people desperate for work that will keep their heads down and take whatever crumbs they can get.  This is class warfare.  It is take no prisoners.

When asked what kind of government they had created, Ben Franklin said:  “A republic…if you can keep it.”

It may take another revolution.

Patrick Hunter