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30 in 30: Day 23 - YouTubeIt
Day 23→A YouTube video
Easy. Here's Part One:
Lengthy rant follows. If interested,
Yesterday marked The Day I Officially Gave Up on My Country.
I've been an open cynic about the political process for years. Growing up in Maryland, just blocks away from the Southeast DC border, the National news was my hometown news. I was raised on political scandals, in-fighting amongst the parties, Congress being every bit as gridlocked as the DC Beltway, it was all just the way things were to my young mind.
But some things had to be true, didn't they?. Naively, at 11, I even believed that Richard Nixon was telling the truth when he said "I am not a crook" because he was the President and Presidents wouldn't lie, would they?
It's been a steady decline of Disappointments to Jaded from Watergate to yesterday.
The only thing that hasn't changed is that those who have been working hard behind the scenes to quietly take over the country have become more brazen about it, caring less and less who knew what they were doing. Yesterday marked a high point in that "Whatcha gonna do about it, suckah?" attitude. In a stunning decision, the Supreme Court decided that Corporations were entitled to the same free speech that individuals are entitled to and, more importantly, those same corporations may throw as much money into an election as they care to.
I've seen a bumper sticker in recent years that reads, "Elections That Are For Sale Aren't Free". With a 5-4 majority, The Supremes put an end to the necessity to decry that injustice because it's just become the law of the land. And, with that, not only have the elections been sold to the highest bidder, but so have policy decisions (both foreign and domestic), the media and even who we go to war with. Think it was bad before? You ain't seen nuthin yet.
Here's a early prediction: (1) Obama will be a one-term president and (2) will be replaced by a Republican candidate who is all but unknown right now. He'll have an incredible (manufactured) story, a meteoric rise in politics and will, of course, be a wholly-owned subsidiary of a conglomeration of corporations.
(And, no, it won't be Palin. She's spent too much time believing her own press releases and is too unstable, too unpolished. She might have a wink 'n' a smile, but that folksy kind of schtick isn't dependable enough to sink that much money into)
I grew up with an appreciation for how lucky I was to have a free, public education and to live in a country that held so many possibilities. I understand that we're still looked up to and admired by many of countries around the world. All of that, however, means very little if we lack the ability, as a people, to chart our own course. The citizenry no longer even hold the pretense of dominion over this nation. We're just annoying, replaceable worker drones, working to increase a corporate bottom line.
I am also very sad for my country -- and simply do not see any way to repair it, short of undoing this injustice.
And with the ton of money that's going to be behind keeping this decision upheld, I don't see that happening in my lifetime.
Now they don't even need to take the new president into the smoky room and show him the film of the Kennedy assassination shot from the grassy knoll any more.
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the biggest problem with politics today, IMHO, is that neither side wants to actually do anything. the left has their laundry list of rallying cries (health care, no war, etc) and the right has their list (anti-abortion, anti-gay, etc) but given the chance, neither side is willing to do the hard work of acting on those supposedly key issues. why? because if they solve them, they'll have a smaller list of rallying cries with which to rouse the populace and bolster the coffers.
the only things that congress seems willing to do is to pass legislation that helps big business get richer. this, of course, isn't anything new -- Eisenhower wasn't describing something brand-spanking new when he described the Military Industrial Complex.
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