Opinion Editorials, October 2013

Al-Jazeerah, CCUN,  October 18, 2013

These days Sheriff-America [US Government] is finding itself at an impasse… without authority or even a vigilante posse to get the nation out of political greed-lock.  The two robbing hoodlums have now decided that the spoils’ distribution amongst the two must be renegotiated, that Peter is getting too much from Paul, or that Paul is perhaps getting too much from Peter.  An apparent dilemma which has partially shut-down the government and menaces to bring financial chaos soon to the people of Not-give-a-damn!

Perhaps we citizens of Not-give-a-damn are getting our just deserts; after all, isn’t it our fault that we have placed our trust in Republicans and Democrats – the Tweedledee-Tweedledum robbing hoodlums – to run our affairs?  Time and again we are reminded that our nation is not a democracy but a republic; and that we are being governed via representatives that we, democratically, elect from a selection by the two robbing hoodlums: specifically 2 executives and 535 legislators.  [We are taking the liberty of including in the numbers 1 self-professed independent… well, not a hoodlum.]

Our robbing hoodlums have been so busy representing their politically-specific financial interests – Republicans, most prominently via regressive taxation and corporate welfare; Democrats, advocating union welfare and entitlements for the lower economic classes; and jointly by maintaining an imperial military – that neither party has put serious thought to make sure that the nation is governed in a viable manner: financially; socially; and in global harmony.

Our robbing hoodlums, in concert, have sadly allowed much of our hard-core economy (that which produces and maintains industrial jobs with living wages) to be dismantled in just a single generation through lack of planning for the obvious soon-to-be side effects of globalization.  Such jobs-flight is not being properly represented in the current meaningless unemployment figures, quantifiably or qualifiedly (in earnings). It has created a parallel unemployment-limbo which houses the number of people now receiving disability (more than twice the percentage of the labor force from that of three decades ago), and those in an educational pyramid that mostly (if not solely) produces wealth and lucrative jobs for the “educational entrepreneurs.” It is apparent that neither of the two political parties has the stomach to cut waste in these two areas since people who run out of unemployment benefits find applying for disability or educational loans their only recourse in the present economy.      

It is obvious that the checks and balances built into our system of government, no matter how beautifully they resonate in the body politic or the halls of academe, are nothing but bunk, no different from the myth that we have a representative republic in these United States; perhaps representative for special groups of people, but not the well-being or overall interests of the citizenry.

An overwhelming majority of Americans, no different from the majority of people in the planet, want a government that represents the interest of all in a fair and equitable manner, not the special interests of groups; at least, ideally, we would like to think that we do, superimposing equity, peace and brotherhood over our own personal interests.  Unfortunately, our present two-party system of government is nothing but a babel of special, selfish interests… starting with the personal interests of those we elect to represent us.  Unless we slay this two-headed monster of lifetime-career Republicans and Democrats, 90 percent of our people will end up within a generation in undisguised economic servitude.

So we know, and accept the fact, our government is riding a bus that is in dire need of a complete overhaul.  That, however, is no reason to bring the bus to a complete stop (shutdown) and set it on fire (refusing to up the nation’s debt ceiling).  That is a destructive reaction by entrenched Tea Partiers, safe in their gerrymandered districts, to a legitimate fiscal claim they have, one which needs to be dealt with.  But not by setting the bus on fire!  Yet, the majority of Republican robbing hoodlums must abide by the wishes of the Tea Party bunch, for without them the GOP would be at its political dead-end.  Boehner and the old Republican guard must live with the intransigence of the Fiscal Right (Tea Party) as they had to in a not-too-distant past with the uncompromising demands of the Religious Right (Newborn Christians).    

Robin Hood may have been a heroic legend in English folklore, but there is no heroism in this bi-cephalic monster of robbing hoodlums: Republicans and Democrats.  We know they’ll negotiate an agreement before October 17 to avoid America’s credit doomsday.  But we also know that this monopolistic political power these robbing hoodlums share will eventually bankrupt this nation… financially, socially and militarily.

Opinions expressed in various sections are the sole responsibility of their authors and they may not represent Al-Jazeerah & ccun.org.

editor@aljazeerah.info & editor@ccun.org