Think and Choose

Introduction
Conservatives are pushing the agenda further and further to the right, because there is no effective opposition. Democrats are in confusion, because they exchanged their principles for holding office (a Faustian bargain, which Faust always loses). Greens and other liberal elements are too poorly organized to resist, and just don't know opportunity when they see it. Now is the time for a third party, a progressive party, to pick up the pieces and enter Stage Left. In order for that to happen, people have to understand political philosophy, and make firm choices about their principles. Temporizing and compromising will not do.

Introduction

Conservatives are pushing the agenda further and further to the right, because there is no effective opposition. Democrats are in confusion, because they exchanged their principles for holding office (a Faustian bargain, which Faust always loses). Greens and other liberal elements are too poorly organized to resist, and just don't know opportunity when they see it.

Now is the time for a third party, a progressive party, to pick up the pieces and enter Stage Left. In order for that to happen, people have to understand political philosophy, and make firm choices about their principles.

Temporizing and compromising will not do.

Americans are being pushed into making some basic choices about their form of government. At least, anyone who is concerned about what is happening in the Federal government must also think about political philosophy. This is because a Fascist coup d'etat is being pulled off before our very eyes. Most people don't recognize it as a coup because it is being run in slow motion; it is not the overnight palace revolution that happens so often elsewhere. Nonetheless, the Great White Bandit and his followers are changing the United States government into something once thought unAmerican: an authoritarian entity complete with the blessings of an official religion.

So, just as at the very beginning of the United States, 1775 and 1776, each person is forced to think about political philosophy; about how the United States should be constituted. This is not Civics class and not a game: as the Founding Fathers understood, we stake our lives, our fortunes and our honor on the result. There will be winners and losers in the hustings forced on us by the Great White Bandit. As it was in the American Revolution, 'We must hang together, or surely we will hang separately' (to paraphrase Ben Franklin).

Revolutionary times are the appropriate reference, since the Great White Bandit proposes to reinstate many of those abuses which were causes of the Revolution. The English King, George III, and his Parliament considered the American colonials lesser mortals. The British system included an Aristocracy, established religion, and strict social separation of the classes. The revolutionary colonials explicitly rejected all those features (and many more) of British society. In the first American city, Boston, Tories -supporters of the Crown and all that implied - went to Halifax, rather than suffer American equalitarianism. In leaving Boston, Tories were dispossessed of their property, titles and social station, but they were not executed (as in the French revolution). Revolutionary America was unwilling to suffer those who thought themselves superior to the run of ordinary men in any way.

If you think America should never have thrown off the yoke of the Crown, if America owes allegiance to the British Empire, and if the way things were is the right way, then you should support the Great White Bandit. Otherwise, you should oppose him, and oppose him for all the reasons the Adams, Franklin, Jefferson, Washington and all the others rejected British colonialism. Saying this may seem strange, but the clock really has been turned back that far.

Here are some (eventual) results of the Great White Bandit's counter-revolution:

	The abolition of Estate taxes will alllow the creation of Estates; i.e., a permanent bourgeois aristocracy, best described as 'English country gentlemen.'
	The abolition of affirmative action will reduce minorities to secondary citizens, subject to the will of the Anglo minority; i.e., WASP rule will be made permanent. This is the point of the "nativist" and "english only" movements.
	The reduction of women's rights will reinforce the concept of Paternalism; i.e., the right of males to rule over women and children. The most superior males will, of course, be White Males.
	The limitation of worker's rights, usually embodied in "Right to Work" laws, destroys Unions, thus destroying any bargaining power workers might have had. This leaves workers at the mercy of the multi-national corporations, which are engaged in a "race to the bottom." The large corporations are using tools such as moving offshore and outsourcing to break the back of American labor, resulting in a reduction in the standard of living for most Americans. (This has already been happening since GWB was elected in 2000.)
	The introduction of religion - specifically born-again, or Evangelical, Christian religion - into government functions and government sponsorship is intended to supply an ethos for the foregoing social and political institutions. That is, the Bible and 'Jesus says' are used to provide justification for creating and solidifying economic and social classes, depriving women and minorities of their rights, and enserfing workers.
	Gerrymandering of State and Federal election districts with the specific purpose of guaranteeing a permanent, conservative majority in all branches and levels of government. This may seem a difficult task, but it has already been done in Texas and several other so-called Red States. California conservatives, led by a Governor pretending to be a "moderate," are trying to undermine the political structure of the largest opposition State. If California is neutralized, it will be impossible for any left or center opposition to gain control of the Federal government, short of a major population shift or a political revolution.
	Changes in the tax code will guarantee that the lowest half of the population by income will pay almost all the taxes. The upper classes will be freed of any significant responsibility for government. However, by changing the system of financing the government's debt, the upper classes will be guaranteed an income paid by the State and Federal governments. This essentially creates in America the system of supports for French Aristocrats in effect prior to the French revolution. This system involves the creation of bonded indebtedness which is paid off by taxes, amounting to a transfer of income from the taxed lower classes to the untaxed wealthy upper classes. (Who is wealthy is a matter decided by those in charge, which is now in progress.)
	Reduction and elimination of Social Security - the New Deal - eliminates the largest liability of the upper classes to the lower. Undermining Social Security actually reduces the wages of labor, and reduces consumption of the lower classes. The shifting of taxes to the lower classes is also explicitly designed to reduce mass consumption. Supposedly, all these changes will increase savings, but the affected classes have nothing to save; so, they will just be impoverished. The conservative program involves a revolutionary change in the economics of our society: an end to production for the benefit of the masses, and a shift to production that pleases the Aristocrats. In case you follow what's been happening in retail sales for the last decade or two, you know this transformation is already in progress. This is why WAL*MART and NIEMAN MARCUS are business success stories, while suppliers to the middle class are in a downward spiral. This years' holiday sales exemplify the trend.

We all know WalterB is nuts, that none of the foregoing can happen here. Just keep on believing that, and the load of BS the government sends your way everyday. Or, you might read Animal Farm or Brave New World, and compare to present happenings.

It's easy to lose it all; it is very hard to win it back. People who don't like politics are about to find out why democracy requires an educated citizenry, as Thomas Jefferson said.

Politics should be your #1 interest at this time in American history.