Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Time for a Change

As alluded to in my post supporting John Edwards, it is time for drastic change in America and her politics. Our most obvious problems, things like the Iraq War and the economy, are merely surface manifestations of a much deeper malignancy. Our true ailment is the ever increasing power of elites to determine the shape of our society.

This power manifests itself in our government and in our economy. Powerful elites have always held much sway over America. And to ignore their historical power would be folly. However what we have witnessed in the past thirty or more years has been a centralization and consolidation of that power. Moneyed interests have not only gained access to our public institutions (government, universities, media), but they have, in some instances, purchased them.

Elites have come to amass so much power through a series of incremental steps. Little noticed provisions in spending bills or reauthorization bills or the tax code. On the surface they may seem benign to the average citizen, but their cumulative effect has been enormous. We now have a democracy that is enslaved to corporate and elite interests. Just take a look at our lack of universal health care or high-quality public schools or a truly progressive tax system.

Progress towards each of these three policy goals has been held up by corporate elites, whether it is Big Pharma and HMOs blocking health care reform, or multinational corporations more concerned with a steady supply of drones rather than informed citizens, or very wealthy CEOs demanding ever more tax cuts at the expense of those who labor. All of this has been wrought by a political system for sale to the highest bidder.

This bought and paid for government provides us with crony capitalism, no-bid contracts, and a yawning gap between the haves and the have-nots. And it is well past time for average Americans to take our country back from the elites. Let us not be ignorant of the reality of class warfare, for it has been with man since the dawn of time. It is being waged against the middle class and the poor, as it has been for over thirty years. And it will continue to be waged until either we all succumb or we fight back.

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