Given the slightest opportunity, people everywhere talk about their most pressing concerns. It may be baseball, sex or the best beer. Sometimes even critical social and economic issues health care, pharmaceutical costs, the banking and financial crisis, the demise of free and independent media, arrogant telecommunications oligopolies, agribusiness abuses, the “Free Market”, excessive government and unfair taxation, wars, energy and global warming, and of course jobs, jobs and jobs sneak in.
Regardless of their politics, virtually all are passionate “single issue” advocates with well-founded fears and clearly defined goals. Unfortunately, single issue votes only work when large numbers agree on which ONE to support, and until they do, it is the perfect recipe for a dismal failure. The observation "Liberals fall in love, conservatives fall in line" brilliantly showcases the point. Ironically, the sheer number of vitally important issues has fragmented us to the point of paralysis. Clear and fair analytical thinking on our part, enlightened listening and leadership by our government, and laser sharp FOCUS is the only effective formula for turning this passionate but powerless anarchy into a formidable force for change.
The secret unifier, embracing the common good, is so simple it's nearly invisible. Everyone has to be willing share ownership in an imperfect solution, even if it only partially meets their individual needs and beliefs in the short term. The answer is reducing complex formulas to their simplest form; in this case, one which fits clear thinking patriotic Americans, be they liberals, independents or conservatives. It is time to step back and objectively and honestly reevaluate the dogma of "its right for me" greed, that has become misidentified as Ideology.
We have to honestly reflect on what all of today's issues have in common that nearly everyone can agree on. Unquestionably, our most pressing issues grow from the unbridled greed and power enjoyed by many super wealthy individuals, huge corporates, organizations, legislators and our judiciary. All are rooted in wholesale exploitations by these runaway power bases. Huge size created the overwhelming power which is destroying our competitive free market system while corrupting our government. That is the common core which we all have to focus on overcoming in order to reclaim control of our country and the lives of our families. Who can disagree with the concepts that "good competition creates great businesses", and "corporations are not people".
These behemoths are massive beyond comprehension; just for starters, 4 or 5 agribusiness giants control the entire WORLD’S food supply from the farm to your table, and we as individuals are so insignificantly small that we sincerely believe there is nothing we can do about it. The same is true everywhere a super powerful giant exists. In truth, all we need to do is unite upon a single, easily defined, target in order to effectively fight back and win. Still, we have proven time and again that we each have our own personal single issue which fragments and cripples our ability to function as a group, while the predators stand united on their finely tuned target and consistently win the war of the few against the many, regardless of the apparent odds.
Through mergers and acquisitions made possible by collusion with many of our nation’s legislators, and aided by our failure to pay attention, these monopolistic monsters have grown like noxious weeds while squashing the “free market” they so hypocritically extol. Simultaneously, they totally redefined its meaning.
They are on the verge of totally overpowering our democracy through government sanctioned monopolistic practices and widespread oligopolies. “Too Big to Fail means too big to exist” is a mantra which drifts out of the shadows endlessly, but falls on the deaf ears of our legislators and law enforcement agencies.
While isolated attacks such as removing the health insurance anti-trust exemption and supporting the small dairy farmer against the giants are great and courageous places to start, we need to go much further and pursue these marauders quickly and aggressively with every tool in our tool box. Clearly, the majority of our Congressmen and Judges have proven they will not help; what we need is a powerful set of weapons which can circumvent the Congressional/Judicial/ Monopolistic Complex and that already exist. Although seriously out of date, Teddy Roosevelt’s anti-trust laws were designed for exactly that purpose; they worked then, they broke up ATT, and they will work now. They are in place today and represent what may well be our last, best, hope for saving our society; but only if we unite to force our elected leaders to use them.
The Justice Department only needs to enforce them, and President Obama can order them to do so tomorrow. Unfortunately, although the President has spoken of using this ultimate defender of the people and “Free Market”, so far it has only been talk and a murmur at that.
Although little people can defeat giants, even David could not defeat this modern day group of greed driven Goliaths on his own, but if we take a real life lesson from even more overmatched defenders like the killer bees, we can! These bees are not the aggressive killers they are normally portrayed to be; rather, they are fiercely committed, patriotic and protective defenders of their environment. They only attack when there is a threat and when they do so, they attack relentlessly in large numbers as a totally united colony to overcome it. Scientists call this aggressive protectiveness “hyper-defensive behavior”. The effectiveness of this focused team defense has earned them the well-earned, real life reputation of being the ultimate giant killers.
Most intelligent people realize that our society is in jeopardy, and they are ready and willing to fight to save it. Unfortunately, they are fighting against an army of enemies far bigger, less principled, more sophisticated and powerful than the biblical giant, and we have allowed this enemy to become legally fortified and to dictate the terms of engagement.
For any army of principled people to open battles on a dozen fronts and on the enemies’ terms is pure folly. It is far wiser to learn from the bees and focus our resources on crippling the enemy’s key weapon, its sheer size. The bees use lethal force because that is their only weapon, we can use unrelenting passive resistance and the power of our voices, pocketbooks and our votes.
To see a clear example of the blatant corruption of our fore fathers vision we need look no further than the Supreme Court. Although there are many recent examples to illustrate the point, none is more telling that giving rich and powerful corporations and organizations the right to spend as much money as they wish to promote or condemn whatever candidate or cause supports their goals. And they can do it anonymously. We fought for "one man, one vote" and stood by while they changed it to "one dollar, one vote". Although the Founding Fathers were scared to death of the damage corporations could do to "natural" people, we are misled into believing they meant for them enjoy the right of free speech guaranteed by the constitution.
Perhaps that would be fine if "freedom of speech" was defined as words, not dollars, and they were limited to the levels of financial donations you and I are, but the Supremes allowed them infinite and anonymous spending limits. They created a super class based upon wealth and power by simply legislating from the bench. Look into Chief Justice Roberts eyes and tell me you would buy a used car from the man. Take away corporate size and it unlimited power, and we can rein in this world class perversion of our system of government.
The only realistic way to achieve our common goals is to fight a focused and unified “Single Issue” battle against the servants of the core problem – the Congressional/Judicial/ Monopolistic Complex. The Congress, with a few clear exceptions, supports them at nearly every turn, while our Courts legislate on their behalf by judicial decree. By passing legislation benefiting “the Complex” the system has been legally, but immorally and quite possibly fatally corrupted.
The same Supreme Court said it was legal for Nike to lie and deceive their customers. They are now in a position to deceive, obstruct, confuse and stall their way into advancing their agenda. And they do it every day while the huge majority of Americans sit idly by unable to analyze and debunk the claims and actions of these ultra-sophisticated and effective liars. They thrive on the muddled, confused and disorganized citizenry they have created through brilliantly deceptive marketing campaigns and we have allowed them to fight their fight in the arena where the biggest lie wins. They hide behind the banner of “free speech”. Meanwhile, we forget Oliver Wendel Holmes’ famous quote "free speech does not give anyone the right to falsely shout fire in a crowded theater".
It cannot be repeated often enough, we must circumvent their actions and inactions by revitalizing and aggressively using the truth in advertising and trust busting tools we already have at hand. Helping our friends and neighbors understand the basic truths is key; informed citizens are their worst enemy. With rare exceptions, huge power bases have never served those whose sweat and toil built them. Monopolistic businesses have never achieved anything but higher prices, poorer quality and service, and lost jobs; while syphoning off the profits to benefit the very few.
Until someone can explain the errors in my logic and analysis, and no one has even tried, it’s obvious that a loud and strong common voice demanding what is right is our only defense. “It is right for me” is the most dangerous phrase in the English language, it justifies “hooray for me, to hell with you”.
Aggressive enforcement of antitrust regulations is the single best weapon we have against these predators, through them we have the power to erase “it’s right for me”. There is only one “right” and it is neither conservative nor liberal.
Any fool can see that we cannot hope for a “top down” solution, so we need to do it from the bottom up, starting at the dining room table. First, we have to learn from the debilitating shout down “political debates” we see on the TV and realize they achieve nothing but to turn important opportunities for exchanging ideas into smoke screens of non-productive, emotion based verbal fist fights. This is one of the neurotoxins paralyzing our ability to fight back, and conspiracy theorists might argue that is a masterful way to cripple effective decent.
If the polls are right in saying we nearly universally detest what is happening in our government, then we have to act decisively to correct it and the opportunity is ripe. When we as a group recognize that this is the ONLY realistic way we have to revitalize a truly competitive free market system and a government that truly works for all of us, we can win back our country and what it represents. All we have to do is do it – from the bottom up, one carefully chosen step at a time!
October 2011 - The Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street clearly show what passionate and committed people standing up for what is right can do. The diversity of people "Occupying Wall Street" is mind blowing, but they all share the core values of our Founding Fathers.
