Re: McClellan's Book
[quote=toasty;608851]I agree that having a government that doesn't just pass legislation at the drop of a hat, where it is tough to pass new laws, is a good thing. The worst laws are made when one party has sole control and just rams shit through, and the best are made when the parties are forced to work with one another.[/quote]
Agreed. As for McClellan, he is a patriot for speaking out. Perhaps he was suffering from "Stockholm Syndrome" when he was employed by our occupying regime, uhh administration. Perhaps living outside the administration bubble has caused him to realize the absurdity of the logic that pervades that bubble. Good for him for having the courage & unmitigated gall to blow the whistle. Hopefully he follows through when Congress calls on him to testify, if only for posterity.
:roll:
As a small but not trivial part of our administration's last eight years, this situation has led me to ponder the following [I]potential future political scenario (b[/I][I]ear with me for a moment and read on).[/I]
It seems to me that we are stuck with two parties who have become largely reactionary and without any real leadership. The Republicans are basically [I]"obstructionists"[/I] whose only purpose is to deny any new gov't programs that actually serve the people through [I]public means[/I]. They don't believe in gov't but cannot reduce gov't because of the great and admitted difficulty in doing that. So their chosen alternative is to render gov't powerless and destroy it by bankrupting the federal gov't to the point where [I]at least half the federal budget goes to servicing interest on the national debt and remains that way [B]indefintely[/B][/I][B],[/B] by [I][B]not ever raising taxes[/B][/I] high enough to reduce the national debt. Meanwhile this growth in federal spending through the privatization of gov't services (i.e. mercenaries like Blackwater, undercutting public school funding through school choice, No Child Left Behind used to justify further reductions in public school funds, the prison-industrial complex (privatized), etc.) is being & will be accomplished by using the federal gov't [I]solely as a tool[/I] to funnel the maximum amount of funds to private corporations as is possible.
When most of the federal budget goes to servicing the debt (the other portion will fund [I]a mostly privatized military with nothing left over for any other sector of federal gov't[/I]) and the government's hands are effectively tied, these obstructionists will have their wish: a powerless federal government, a greatly reduced bureaucracy, and a small super-wealthy corporate class of citizens, call them a [I]bourgeoisie[/I], who run society (and "government"), pay little or no taxes, and have a large poor working class or [I]proletariat[/I] to do the hard work and service the debt through their high individual working tax rate.
[I]The Democrat's place in this?[/I] A continuation of the ever-so-gradual slide to the political right where they eventually join the Republicans as one party. "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." Let's face it; no one can get elected in our system unless they can garner[I] large corporate and wealthy individual donations[/I]. And when every federally elected official is by [I]status-quo[/I] forced into [I][B]perpetual campaign mode[/B][/I], all legislation and business conducted by these officials becomes tainted by a [I][B]perpetual campaign mode mindset.[/B][/I] A mindset that is by definition, above all else, [I]interested in re-election and obsessed with obtaining the means to retaining the personal prestige attached to their re-election. [/I]
Lets call this government a [I]"corpocracy;"[/I] [I]a government that dually serves as a wholely owned and "publicly" operated [B]subsidiary & administrator[/B] of private industry[/I] where the privatiers themselves take turns at the helm ([I]the Presidency[/I]) using this "puppet government" as both an [I][B]administrator[/B] who funds industry[/I] and [I][B]subsidiary[/B] that utilizes gov't as a repressive tool to control the masses[/I] (through taxes & repressive edicts or "laws" based [I][B]not in reality[/B][/I] but in [B][I]conservative ideology)[/I][/B]. Imagine a "Terminator" type world that doesn't [I]overtly[/I] destroy its citizens, but [I]"sustains"[/I] them by selling food, water, oxygen, & the most minimal healthcare to its inhabitants who must conform to the corpocracy's edicts & political philosophy in order to be granted [I][B]"the privilege"[/B][/I] to be able to continue to [I]"purchase"[/I] these biologically required items from the [I]government protected[/I] [I]mega-monopolies[/I] that control the planet's[B] [I]remaining [U]corporately owned[/U][/I] [I]precious resources[/I][/B] (in a failing ecosystem affected by overpopulation and global climate-change) by demanding the relatively small remaining portion of the individual's income that does not already go to taxes, as [I][B]payment for survival.[/B][/I] [I]What a brave new fascist & corporate world we all can [B]"live"[/B] in. [/I]
:shock:
[I]:idea:And btw, no, I am not a Marxist, just a person who believes that [B]government has its place in helping to create & sustain a civilized society with a [U]vigorous middle-class.[/U][/B][/I]