We remain at the mercy of greedy, powerful and disrespectful leaders in government and commerce. The groups in Washington DC form a Legislative Mob. They are viciously pillaging American citizens and are destroying our once-great nation
Note: We picked up this quote from an essay on the history of the two-party system in the Intellectual Conservative blog: "In his Observations on History, Benjamin Franklin wrote that parties engender confusion. Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay warned against the evils to the general public that a “spirit of faction” would cause. And George Washington refused allegiance to any political party during his eight-year service as first president of the United States."Send your respectful and common sense comments and news tips to roundup.editor@gmail.com, to Mr. Stern at pstern@austin.rr.com, or click on the "comments" button at the bottom of the story
By Peter Stern
Guest Commentary
"We demand that big business give the people a square deal; in return we must insist that when anyone engaged in big business honestly endeavors to do right he shall himself be given a square deal."
– President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt
Letter to Sir Edward Gray, November 15, 1913
Politics has become a Main Street cancer among America's middle class. It is like a 2-Party Failure Reality Show, and Lord knows we do not need another reality show – especially in Washington.
There is an ancient saying, "The people are a many-headed beast," and it must be appropriate when we consider that approximately 90% of propositions on ballots get approved by a mere 4 to 6% of the total number of registered voters.
The Republicans and Democrats together initiated the U.S. wars in the Middle East (Iraq, Afghanistan) under the double Bush administrations and now Obama, instead of cutting our costs over there, is continuing an ever-lasting Afghan assault.
In some ways, it is reminiscent of German and Italian forces during WWII plunging blindly headfirst into Russia, into Siberia and freezing their Nazi logos and collective butts due to the harsh sub-zero rugged terrain, just wasting lives and money in a no-win situation. In many ways, we're doing the same thing in the Middle East.
Look at the sheer waste of taxpayer dollars versus the enormous profits being made by U.S. approved contractor services. Where is the trickle-down to us domestic citizens?
AND THEN . . . the government promises jobs, but does NOT keep that promise and then based on some obscure and absurd statistics, disallows a cost of living adjustment (COLA) for all those on Social Security, Disability and Veterans benefits.
What does our government do to help the unemployed? It's increasing the unemployment tax for businesses and plans to stop extensions for those running out of benefits again, sometimes for the 5th or 6th time. What happens to the masses of unemployed NOT getting their benefits?
Objectively, what is going to happen to the middle class in the U.S.? The middle class once held the largest number of American citizens. Today, it is nearing extinction.
Furthermore, job outsourcing is killing average Americans, along with lax immigration laws that continue to permit employers to hire legal and illegal immigrants at a fraction of the cost of hiring American citizens.
Obama wants Americans to cross-train into other fields. He wants single moms to return to school. He wants returning veterans to go to college. We should be asking Obama, "Why?" What good is doing that if there are no jobs with or without a degree?
In short, plain and simple: we are a mess as a nation.
We remain at the mercy of greedy, powerful and disrespectful leaders in government and commerce. The groups in Washington, DC form a Legislative Mob. They are viciously pillaging American citizens and are destroying our once-great nation.
We are out of control. We are becoming more like the biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Historically, such cities and civilizations crumbled and decayed. They vanished from the face of the earth.
It is questionable whether we can return to some semblance of stability and normality. Look at our TV programs and even how we drive. Look at our impatience, hostility and disregard for one another.
Look at all the political and corporate games that enable governors like Sarah Palin and Rick Perry, or Senators like John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi to gain such power and control over our lives. These people have myopic vision and it trickles down to middle class voters – at least, the ones who vote.
I'm sorry to rant here, but where the heck did our nation go? Where is our self-respect and respect for all of our American virtues and priorities? Where is the respect we used to show for one another? Reality shows are causing us to lose sight of our reality!
I wish we could get rid of the Two-party system. It is killing the U.S. and is driving the middle class over a cliff to its extinction, much the way cavemen used to hunt Woolly Mammoths, which also became extinct.
In closing, I believe that the state GOP organizations AND the National GOP need to rethink more intelligently a new platform and direction, to climb out from the self-made muck that is consuming and defeating the Party's success and survival. I think the Democrats at the state and national levels should do the same.
We are scraping out the barrel for candidates who never should be considered for the offices they run for. We need to find higher quality candidates, people with brains and who care about American communities.
I also believe that the two-party system is failing most Americans and our economic well-being. The middle class is vanishing into the significantly wealthy and the extremely poor.
I further believe we need to get rid of all parties and simply vote for the BEST person for each position.
We need to limit significantly or eliminate excessive campaign contributions so that wealthy lobbyists, corporations and/or individuals can NOT purchase the best government money can buy.
Then, we need term limitations. Any elected official gets 2 terms max! After 2 terms THEY ARE GONE! Like crop rotation. Call it my LIP - Legislator Incentive Plan!
Think about it. All these suggestions will ensure that we can maintain a continuous flow of fresh, honest and ambitious slew of elected officials who will NOT be bought and who will perform their duties in the best interests of the community they serve within a 2-term limit!
Foremost, Americans need jobs!
If we continue to do little or nothing, the middle class will remain a doomed species, with its extinction in the near future.
Peter Stern, a former director of information services, university professor and public school administrator, is a disabled Vietnam veteran who lives in Driftwood, TX.
Letter to Sir Edward Gray, November 15, 1913
Politics has become a Main Street cancer among America's middle class. It is like a 2-Party Failure Reality Show, and Lord knows we do not need another reality show – especially in Washington.There is an ancient saying, "The people are a many-headed beast," and it must be appropriate when we consider that approximately 90% of propositions on ballots get approved by a mere 4 to 6% of the total number of registered voters.
The Republicans and Democrats together initiated the U.S. wars in the Middle East (Iraq, Afghanistan) under the double Bush administrations and now Obama, instead of cutting our costs over there, is continuing an ever-lasting Afghan assault.
In some ways, it is reminiscent of German and Italian forces during WWII plunging blindly headfirst into Russia, into Siberia and freezing their Nazi logos and collective butts due to the harsh sub-zero rugged terrain, just wasting lives and money in a no-win situation. In many ways, we're doing the same thing in the Middle East.
Look at the sheer waste of taxpayer dollars versus the enormous profits being made by U.S. approved contractor services. Where is the trickle-down to us domestic citizens?
AND THEN . . . the government promises jobs, but does NOT keep that promise and then based on some obscure and absurd statistics, disallows a cost of living adjustment (COLA) for all those on Social Security, Disability and Veterans benefits.
What does our government do to help the unemployed? It's increasing the unemployment tax for businesses and plans to stop extensions for those running out of benefits again, sometimes for the 5th or 6th time. What happens to the masses of unemployed NOT getting their benefits?
Objectively, what is going to happen to the middle class in the U.S.? The middle class once held the largest number of American citizens. Today, it is nearing extinction.
Furthermore, job outsourcing is killing average Americans, along with lax immigration laws that continue to permit employers to hire legal and illegal immigrants at a fraction of the cost of hiring American citizens.Obama wants Americans to cross-train into other fields. He wants single moms to return to school. He wants returning veterans to go to college. We should be asking Obama, "Why?" What good is doing that if there are no jobs with or without a degree?
In short, plain and simple: we are a mess as a nation.
We remain at the mercy of greedy, powerful and disrespectful leaders in government and commerce. The groups in Washington, DC form a Legislative Mob. They are viciously pillaging American citizens and are destroying our once-great nation.
We are out of control. We are becoming more like the biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Historically, such cities and civilizations crumbled and decayed. They vanished from the face of the earth.
It is questionable whether we can return to some semblance of stability and normality. Look at our TV programs and even how we drive. Look at our impatience, hostility and disregard for one another.
Look at all the political and corporate games that enable governors like Sarah Palin and Rick Perry, or Senators like John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi to gain such power and control over our lives. These people have myopic vision and it trickles down to middle class voters – at least, the ones who vote.
I'm sorry to rant here, but where the heck did our nation go? Where is our self-respect and respect for all of our American virtues and priorities? Where is the respect we used to show for one another? Reality shows are causing us to lose sight of our reality!
I wish we could get rid of the Two-party system. It is killing the U.S. and is driving the middle class over a cliff to its extinction, much the way cavemen used to hunt Woolly Mammoths, which also became extinct.
In closing, I believe that the state GOP organizations AND the National GOP need to rethink more intelligently a new platform and direction, to climb out from the self-made muck that is consuming and defeating the Party's success and survival. I think the Democrats at the state and national levels should do the same.We are scraping out the barrel for candidates who never should be considered for the offices they run for. We need to find higher quality candidates, people with brains and who care about American communities.
I also believe that the two-party system is failing most Americans and our economic well-being. The middle class is vanishing into the significantly wealthy and the extremely poor.
I further believe we need to get rid of all parties and simply vote for the BEST person for each position.
We need to limit significantly or eliminate excessive campaign contributions so that wealthy lobbyists, corporations and/or individuals can NOT purchase the best government money can buy.
Then, we need term limitations. Any elected official gets 2 terms max! After 2 terms THEY ARE GONE! Like crop rotation. Call it my LIP - Legislator Incentive Plan!
Think about it. All these suggestions will ensure that we can maintain a continuous flow of fresh, honest and ambitious slew of elected officials who will NOT be bought and who will perform their duties in the best interests of the community they serve within a 2-term limit!
Foremost, Americans need jobs!
If we continue to do little or nothing, the middle class will remain a doomed species, with its extinction in the near future.
Peter Stern, a former director of information services, university professor and public school administrator, is a disabled Vietnam veteran who lives in Driftwood, TX.
14 comments:
All one has to do is watch Michael Moore's movie "Capitalism: A Love Story." Conservatives need to be open minded for a change and watch this movie. It is what the Tea Partiers would believe if they were intelligent and willing to look at the real cause of America's economic problems.
Instead, we blame each other's politics while the Republicans and Democrats act as agents for Wall Street and rip us off with their alternating power structures and support of corporate fascism.
Get real folks. Obama or Ron Paul. It makes no difference. But please, don't accelerate national suicide with Palin (or even Romney). That would be the pinnacle of ignorance.
Did Goldman Sachs say they would leave the country if there was increased financial regulations? Gee, who would run the US Treasury?
I generally like the comments Stern makes but to use a quote from an e-rag called ""intellectual Conservatism" (IC) to promote Stern's position is an oxymoron.
IC is hardly intellectual. After reading some of the articles in IC it reminds me more of Tea Party conservatism with writers who have writing skills. McCain is dead but IC says JD Hayworth is a better candidate for McCain's seat. Hayworth is a nativist nut who exploits uneducated conservatives by feeding their anger with his radio show. He is a much more attractive Russ Limbaugh
For true intellectual conservatism, read "Dollars and Sense" instead.
And once again, Stern uses good language and strong logic to offer no solutions for anything. You are correct, Peter. You deserve respect. Now what?
"We remain at the mercy of greedy, powerful and disrespectful leaders in government and commerce. The groups in Washington, DC form a Legislative Mob. They are viciously pillaging American citizens and are destroying our once-great nation."
The truth lies in this Stern statement. Liberal progressives already know this. Conservative Republicans are afraid to admit this truth. It would mean they would have to give up their cognitive lie that Wall Street is run by government, not the clearly accurate reverse.
The Tea Partiers should be calling out and threatening corporate executives. The politicians are just employees of these private sector criminals.
Which is why conservative intellectualism is still mostly an oxymoron.
Sorry, Mr. Stern but you do rant and you do not make a persuasive case. Quit pulling your professorial chin whiskers. You need to get mad at your own lost party, the Republicans. The problem in America is not the two party system. The problem is that the Republican party is gripped by extremists, led by Limbaugh, Beck and Palin. Mr Stern always suggests that both parties share equally in the deterioration of the country. Let me ask you Mr. Stern. Did you and your fellow Republicans get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President? Did you get mad when Cheney allowed Energy company officials to dictate
energy policy? Did you get mad when a covert CIA operative got outed?
Did you get mad when the Patriot Act got passed?
Did you get mad when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us? Did you get mad when we spent over 600 billion(and counting) on said illegal war?
Did you get mad when over 10 billion dollars just disappeared in Iraq?
Did you get mad when you found out we were torturing people?
Did Republicans get mad when the government was illegally wiretapping Americans?
Did you get mad when we didn't catch Bin Laden?
Did you get mad when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed?
Did Republicans get mad when we let a major US city, New Orleans, drown?
Or what about when we gave a 900 billion tax break to the rich?
Or when the deficit hit the trillion dollar mark?
No, Mr. Stern, Republicans only got mad when the government decided that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are sick. Illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer, are all okay with you, but helping other Americans...oh HELL NO!
Amen.
Peter, Everything you said here is the truth and it is a shame that the intellectual vacant among us feel they have to tear you down since they don’t and likely can’t understand your meaning. The post by “Intellectual Independent” is a real knee snapper, how dumb. His moniker is at odds with his post’s contents. If he is independent it may be because he can’t find anyone alive that is far enough left enough for him. I hope you keep up the good work as your articles shame the liberal muck rakers on this Blog.
The last Anonymous proves my point. To see the real truth about our nation requires an intellectual or cognitive honesty that most conservatives simply cannot acheive.
Notice how I use one of Stern's most important and valid paragraphs to agree with its basic tenets yet Anon 3 is reduced to call me a far leftie since he has no mental ability to think outside his own little regurgative Republican mind box. My guess is he doesn't even understand why he agrees with what he calls Stern's "everything" truth.
Unfortunately, conservative intellectualism has too often been reduced to mindless free markets tirades and nativist anti-immigration rants.
The real problem, as anyone with courage can see, is the hard reality that our federal and state government officials are owned and controlled by Wall Street and regional corporate special interests.
Stern validly focuses primarily on a political solution by talking about term limits, etc. Those are part of the problem. Yet I believe the only way to change the direction of our failing nation is to break up American multinational firms into smaller and less intrusive political-economic entities.
A cataclysmic shift back to an economy run by small businesses (with much less focus on stock market performance through federal government interest rate manipulation) and a military used only for defense (not imperialist offense), combined with the modern day inmplementation of environmental and "sustainable "community" knowledge is the only solution that will save our nation from middle class to poor and rich to richer decline.
Sadly, the mental midgets like Anon 3 are the perfect example of faux conservatives who don't understand that the economic and social analysis of both progressives and conservatives actually join together on the circle of applied intellectualism.
Conservatives have been dumbed down so much now by their own leaders they have become the pathetic anti-intellectual movement. But not to worry, Anon 3, liberals are starting to go down that path as well as they mindlessly believe in "yes, we can" without seeing the reality that Obama turned our federal goverment over to Goldman Sachs, the drug companies, and, yes, the health insurance ocmpanies.
Worse, of course, is that the mainstay of the conservative movement cannot put forth intelligent solutions because they listen to Sarah Palin, Russ Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck - and Anon 3.
Well I.I., that's some pretty lofty stuff you present. I'd say you've captured all the BS being thrown around these days pretty well. Unfortunately, if it makes too much sense and sounds too Oxfordy at the same time, Bubba and his girl will be offended and flip you the finger, which is the case with most voters in Hays County and Texas. Many others who won't admit to the idiocy occurring right in front of their faces (and wish not to change the status quo) are interested in only one thing, and that's how to make a fast buck while the gettin's good. And the gettin' is looking pretty good with the current crop of candidates we have running for local offices. Too many of them talk about things and too few talk about principles, I mean principles that don't have some ulterior motive related to money or making money. Ole Moses and all his big name prophet buddies must be pretty irritated watching all this from high above.
Sorry, but most of you self-professed intelligent yahoos should have half the intelligence you want to believe you have.
Fact is, you know little and you do little. And then most of you attacked Mr. Stern, who is far from being a Republican like those we have in powerful positions. He is reality-based and grounded, which is more than I can say for most of you.
Shame on all of you. Stop criticizing and start to do something.
With all due respect to Editor Bob Ochoa and to readers, the IC quote at the top of my article is NOT mine. Mr. Ochoa determined on his own to insert that quote as a lead-in to my article.
In fact, the title of this article is not mine either. It was changed by the editor.
FYI, the title I had for this article is: "Predicting political beliefs among America's middle class"
So, point the fingers at Mr. Ochoa for those grievances. But I stand by the rest of the article and the Roosevelt quote.
Thanks.
P
You got it, Teddy. Although "Oxfordy"? Thanks a lot.
Most all differences between the two parties seem to emanate from one central question, and we can thank Theodore Roosevelt for setting the standard for the answer back in his day. The question is "What represents a Square Deal for the people?"
From the get go, TR had it right, that is, do right by the people, and we (government) will do right by the business community. In other words, the people's interests came first.
Today's conservatives have twisted the meaning so far over to the right and the greedy interests of big business that the people have been reduced to mere pawns and paupers.
We the people have allowed the original founding principles of our nation to stray far away from their original intent and I fear we may have traveled past the point of no return.
Our party leaders, and the two party system, are worthless to me and all common citizens if they are not working day and night together to reshape and re-implement a Square Deal for all the people.
It is interesting that when Republican W Bushed as President and Henry Paulson as US Treasury Secretary tried to get the bank bailout money appoved, Congress voted it down the first go around.
Then the Democrats came to Wall Street's rescue and went around the people's will to pass the bailout bill. All this time the
Republicans are standing in the photo-op background smiling, knowing that they wanted the bailout but knew if it failed it would be the Democrat's problem.
In retrospect the Republicans played it pretty smart to the ignorant observer. But to the astute eye, they are just as sneaky and un-democratic as the Democrats were.
That was the second time Bush panicked the American public into a big financial mess (the first time was the Iraq War). Both times the Dems acquiesced and we are where we are.
Anyone who thinks we don't have one party with two heads is simply living in a separatist American political fantasy world.
And until all Americans understand that truth, we are all screwed.
Anonymous 1, I agree Bush was about the most sleazy and ignorant man to be US President in the last 100 years. At least we only see the right wingers hate Obama and not defend Bush. They sort of know the truth.
But today is today. Obama is trying to do what he thinks is right but he has made numerous mistakes and he is showing everyone that he is not the progressive Democrat we all hoped for.
Obama had a mandate and blew it by first allowing the Clinton financial crooks run the US Treasury. His inexperience came out as he was initially out of his league dealing with this severe of a recession.
And Obama is getting bad advice about the wars. We cannot beat al quada in their land. They do not have a country that we can destroy with any good results. We destroyed Iraq and what good did it do?
But Obama may finally be getting the picture. Tell the Republicans to get f---ed and do what he thinks is right. In two years if the jobs come back, he will be re-elected.
To PI,
You make Bush and that Congress out to be saints. They approved the first bail-out packages for the financial sectors. I don't know where you got your information.
I agree that Obama and the Democrats screwed up by following in their footsteps by approving more bail-outs for the auto industry.
Both presidents and both congresses were wrong in doing so.
The truth is that there is not a 2-party system. It is a one-party system that is the Corporate-Military Party. It is ruling our nation's direction and slurping up mega-profits.
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