On the Brink
I’m not really sure how to lead into this, so I’ll say it as plainly as I can. We’re in trouble. I’m not being sensational or irrational. You can turn on your TV most days and hear that “______ is destroying freedom” or “______ is destroying America!” Those screaming heads are correct, but only partially. Things are crumbling, but it has nothing to do with marriage equality, letting Trans folk use the bathroom, or allowing refugees to seek asylum. It has everything to do with lobbying efforts and a deliberate plan to privatize the functions and roles of government.
The pendulum is rocking, and this next election, the American populace will decide which way it swings. With the death of the baby mice eating, mutant-bullfrog Antonin Scalia, an invaluable seat opened on the Supreme Court and Republicans have already vowed to obstruct any nomination until the next President is elected. As important as the Supreme Court is in interpreting and modernizing the Constitution, there are far worse matters at hand that our leaders and legislators have let snowball into disrepair.
· The Return of Debtor’s Prisons
· Undercutting Minimum Wage Protections
· Punishing Women for Miscarriages
· Local Police Using NSA Data to Find and Incarcerate Citizens
· Corporate Lobbyists Writing Legislation
· Corrupt and Underfunded Courts
The cans have been kicked so far down the road and for so long, what may have been a slight inconvenience has become a colossal undertaking for anyone who might have had the legislative power to change course. How did we allow this to happen?
It’s part and parcel of playing “the lesser of two evils” come election time combined with the campaign finance system that blatantly allows corruption to take root. Republicans have gone so far off the deep end, funded by the Kochs and private enterprise, that compromise is a losing game. What room is there for compromise when their platform includes; repealing healthcare, no abortion under any circumstances and actually prosecuting women who miscarry, banning refugees and limiting rights for gay couples and trans folk? They’re basically one election cycle away from wanting to burn people for witchcraft.
It’s not a surprise to anyone, regardless of political leaning, that those we elect are supported by corporate money. Their re-election campaigns are fueled with the millions in campaign donations, dinners, vacations, and other legalized gifts provided by private business lobbyists. It’s “Mr. Smith goes to Washington”. Officials with honest intentions are twisted into taking part of the game and in the process, they become just another pawn.
‘I can do some good, if I save my seat, but as a result, I’m also selling my soul. Oh, but smell those campaign contributions… It’s like a cinnabon had sex with a pumpkin pie.’ — Elected officials on corporate campaign contributions.
Crony capitalism needs to end if democracy is to survive. That’s a cold stark fact. We’re witnessing the rot and decay of how our government is supposed to do its job. ALEC is writing their own laws, and voter rights are being stripped. The ability to govern ourselves will not be snuffed out in one fell swoop. Nothing ever happens that quickly, but with concession after concession, we allow a little less personal liberty for the illusion of security.
The walls get built higher, the screenings get more invasive, cops get more tactical gear, yet we’re not any safer. Mass shootings, white terrorism, and our own American brand of hysteria turns us into petrified, violent beasts because your new neighbor is gay, black, Muslim, trans, or from another Country.
Over the last 40 years, we’ve allowed economic disparity, and corporate deregulation to divide us into desperate, eager to work for less wage slaves, too busy arguing with each other to see the massive theft taking place. There is class warfare, but it has been against poor and middle class families.
How do we even begin to chip away at the iceberg we’re heading towards?
Closing corporate tax loopholes, ending private prisons, taxing Wall St. speculation hurts. Everything the monied interests that legally bribe our elected officials happily rail against, hurts. The financial faucet that dumps billions into our elections needs to get turned off, but it can only happen if we elect the those willing to do it.
The optimist in me desperately wants to believe more people speaking out against corporate fascism, environmental decay, and the soon to be Republican nominee, will sway voters into seeing what is going on. But we can’t do that while we’re busy shaming Kim Khardashian for naked selfies.
The realist in me understands that data, statistics, facts and hard hitting journalism doesn’t change things on their own. Facts don’t matter. Context doesn’t matter. News and opinion have become the same thing. They have been for decades. It’s like the movie Network. Except this doesn’t end with people shouting out of their windows “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”. The role of media was simply to shed light and then we were supposed to take action, and we have spectacularly failed.
We are all responsible for this. We let hate speech thrive in our political landscape. We failed to hold leaders accountable. This recycled brand of nativism was always bound to happen, especially when Republicans stymied every. single. attempt. to write a bill that would help people stay afloat or find employment. We failed to show up during midterms and handed control over to Republicans who are on record as saying they wouldn’t budge if it meant Obama could get a single victory. Most people cannot afford that type of inaction. People are broke. They’re desperate and angry at feeling left behind in a system that HAS left them behind. It’s driven voters to the fringe because everything else hasn’t worked.
“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.” — Sinclair Lewis
It’s already here, and it’s being met with thunderous applause. Nothing will be the same after this election. The Republican and Neo-liberal establishment laughed and Trump and at Bernie, but they both now pose serious threats to those institutions and they are now clawing over each other at the chance to shut them both down. Mass media is trying to protect itself from the very beast it created. Every wealthy person making over $250,000 onward and upward of billions of dollars a year WILL have their taxes raised if Bernie is elected. With Trump, we’re looking at a landscape that’s fit for George Miller and the murder-bots from Terminator. We’re on the brink of something, I just honestly don’t know if that something is good.
But we have a choice. We have the power to change it. We do not have to accept the system as it is. Silence and inaction are complacency. Willful disruption, protest, voter registration, and candidates that share our ardor, with the record to back it up, are the only way we can fight racism, climate change, and political corruption. Getting the money out of politics is the first step in securing those we vote for truly keep our best intentions in mind.
You can vote however you’d like, but understand that establishment politics thrive on voters being too busy blaming each other to realize we’re being screwed. If the United States is a ship, we need more than a 1 degree change in course because like it or not, we’re still headed towards the iceberg.
