WE SURRENDERED OUR MORALS
What we say and write about the United States is patently untrue. We are not the great nation or people that we love to think we are. This is not a partisan view. The vast majority of Americans want our nation to be good, to be moral, to be ethical. We are not. We have surrendered to war and greed. This is not a new development. Both political parties share in this organized conspiracy.
When Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, was the President of the United Sates of America he tried to hold onto a moral compass, to do what was morally and ethically right. Our democracy has changed bit by bit since that time. With all the fear and criticism of government today, it seems that Lincoln held a different idea:
"The legitimate object of government is to do for the community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all in their separate and individual capacities." Government was seen by Lincoln as an instrument to serve the people, and to up-lift the rights of all people. Today those concepts are being trashed.
"There are always too many Democratic congressmen, too many Republican congressmen, and never enough U.S. congressmen." -Dr. Laurence J. Peter Yes, this is not a partisan viewpoint. Politics in the U.S. is always too partisan, and for a politician to be elected today he/she must promote the trashing of the other political party...even if it means destroying American society and its principles in the process.
"It makes no difference who you vote for---the two parties are really one party representing 4 percent of the people." -Gore Vidal
President Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican, was an advocate for progressive ideas. He strongly supported an overhaul of America's health care system so that all people could have an equal shot at being treated adequately regarding health care. Health care was NOT seen as a way for big insurance companies and their puppets and partners in medicine to take in ungoldly profits. Later, when it became clear that the Republican Party left him, he ran on a third party ticket and was proud to be called a Progressive. Even 100 years ago there was no room for honesty in either political party.
Major media in the U.S. has always had a segment that did the bidding of the big corporations, and advocating for the best and easiest way for them to realize huge profit: war! William Randolph Hearst had a newspaper empire. The movie "Citizen Kane" was based on his life. In an effort to sell newspapers and deliver war for greedy corporate profiteers, he helped make this happen in Havana harbor to start the Spanish-American War. There are many similarity lines that can be drawn from the Hearst presentation of the news and today's FOX, hate and right-wing radio, the Washington Times, etc.
"You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war." -William Randolph Hearst to Frederic Remington
There are plenty of historical references about the huge profits made in Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, etc. by American war corporations during the trumped-up Spanish-American War.
During World War I, banks and European and American war corporations reaped in immense profits from a war that was more contrived than morally justified. And the humiliations foisted on Germany after that war created an economic condition that is somewhat parallel to what we now face in the U.S. In this economic turmoil in Germany, a democratically-elected Weimar Republic fell to the outlandish economic promises of the Nazi Party. And the Nazi Party was seen as an response to the socialism that was threatening the huge corporations in Germany. So, the German corporations banded with the Nazis to use trumped-up excuses to invade innocent nations or nations that had done them no wrong. And for years the war corporations, in bed with the Nazis, reaped huge profits for I.G. Farben, Krupp, banks, the steel industry, etc.
After the next war, World War II, it became very clear how huge profits could be made by having immense war corporations manipulating politics for its own ends and its own profits. The American war hero of World War II, and then President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican, over and over warned Americans about how corporations and the military were calling the shots in American politics, industry, and life.
"In the councils of government we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." -Dwight D. Eisenhower
That is one of the most important quotes in American history. A Republican president and former general of the Army, warned us. Ike was honest enough to tell is like it is. He was the last president, Republican or Democrat, to do that. And thus we have the mess we find ourselves in today.
And the huge greed and war corporations have spent literally billions of dollars to convince you otherwise. You have been lied to, deceived, misdirected, and manipulated. The German people voted for Hitler, the American people have voted for less obvious puppets of big industry and big finance.
There isn't a politician in Washington who is not afraid of the greed and war corporations. These corporations have purchased much of the media, have purchased much of the way news is presented, have purchased public relations leaders, have purchased politicians, have purchased elections, and have purchased you. There is little difference between the two parties. Without corporation support there would be no Tea Party. It has all been bought and sold by the war and greed corporations. Your vote has been purchased. You have swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. And who in all this contrived mess has benefitted most?
