{"id":41656,"date":"2011-07-16T04:53:31","date_gmt":"2011-07-16T08:53:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=41656"},"modified":"2011-09-24T15:57:52","modified_gmt":"2011-09-24T19:57:52","slug":"creating-firmer-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/by-judith-gayle-2\/creating-firmer-ground\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating Firmer Ground"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

We live in a time of serious crisis, and it’s a damned good thing we’ve finally noticed. We’ve drifted so far away from our integrity and essential humanity that standing with our toes over the edge of the abyss, staring down into the fearful void of civil chaos, offers the only chance to break our lethargy. The decline started out slowly, unwitting slip by calculated compromise by deliberate allowance, as noted by Paul Krugman<\/a> who asked this week if the GOP has lost its mind. After years of courting this meltdown, we’re finally on the downhill slide. Dennis Kucinich<\/a> is another voice decrying the deliberate transfer of the nation’s wealth, not to the underprivileged or government workers or union members as the Pubs suggest, but to a jaded corporate culture fronted by Wall Street.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Political<\/a><\/dt>\n
<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

If we needed a crisis to slap the hubris out of us, we’ve surely got one, so let’s get on with it. Scaring ourselves witless seems to be the way to proceed into this new era, and now people are waking up to painful and unwelcome truths, trying to clear their heads of collective fear, social confusion and political conditioning. Oh, I know it doesn’t always feel like it, but I believe the majority of us are well-meaning, decent people willing to rethink our way forward into this new century. A smaller number are reaffirming their narcissism and nihilism, intent on fighting the headwind of evolution. They seem to wield an inappropriate amount of power, don’t they?<\/p>\n

Our differences are stark, but here’s happy news: the outcome is a done deal. We cannot enter the Aquarian Age without the collective ‘We’ taking precedence over the self-interested ‘Me’ of the egocentric Piscean Age, but timing is important, and this moment really is critical. If American citizens insist on sleepwalking right over the cliff, it’s going to happen with a growing Greek chorus of us standing with arms linked, lifting our voices for a return to sanity and common sense.<\/p>\n

This week saw increased hysteria over the debt ceiling deadline, and with good reason. In a game of congressional chicken, party leaders opened with entitlement cuts, raised with tax increases, bluffed with high rhetoric, and eventually threw in their cards, miffed. Meanwhile, the clock ticks and the world anxiously awaits the outcome of the game. Baggers argue that dire predictions such as those issued by the Treasury Department are just fear tactics, which leaves me astounded at what jackasses these people truly are.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We went to war on conservatives’ fear tactics, slipped and slid into a near-fascist state on their suspicions of aluminum tubes and yellow cake uranium, occupied more of the Middle East than anyone in their right mind would have attempted, all in terror of phantom WMD. Then we stayed for years to assuage conservatives’ fears of a growing Iranian presence. And now, as we face a real internal emergency, one with far-ranging ramifications, conservatives call it a ploy to frighten the children? That they do not see their reflection in this mirror should be the only argument necessary against their continued leadership.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the zeitgeist will begin to change now that Mr. Murdoch’s shell has cracked like a bloated Humpty Dumpty, so completely fissured that no king’s horses or men will be able to put him together again. Perhaps now FOX News, a swamp of an enterprise, will begin to drain off its muck. It’s pretty obvious that there is no integrity at the center of Murdoch’s empire, so it cannot hold. We could say that about some areas of our own government, as well. Again and again we’re offered a glimpse inside the strongholds of power to find corruption and abuse, and far less intelligence than we gave credit for. I think that’s a sign of the times, the thing we need to watch for now: that which is not designed for the public good can no longer sustain itself.<\/p>\n

Even though it doesn’t seem so, we’ve already begun a renewal process. We are seeing clearly for the first time in decades, and we must be careful rebuilding when the time comes. We cannot gloss over corruption or special interests that seek to separate us from each other or victimize our citizens. But while we must discern what is no longer allowable, we must guard against blanket rejection of those who come to the table late. We’ve all shared in building our flawed past, and there are those who would join us in rebuilding an uncorrupted future if we extend an open hand rather than a clenched fist. The culture wars that divide us from our many commonalities are cynical and deliberate. Our activism must be as loving as the future we’re ushering in; it cannot be built on polarization, judgment and rejection.<\/p>\n

But confrontation is not the same as rejection. For instance, how is it that the Baggers stand knee-deep in hypocrisy without anyone calling them out? The majority of their “no spend, no tax” philosophy is false equivalency. Spending isn’t their issue. Republicans have ALWAYS been big spenders and are STILL disciples of big spending in corporate and military welfare, along with tax benefits to the wealthy. Yet now it’s all a battle of the deep pockets, with senators who should know better<\/a> haranguing the poor for being unwilling to sacrifice in order to help the overburdened wealthy. Now that’s what I call a what-the-fuck moment, when even some Republicans are beginning to notice that two plus two really DOES only equal four.<\/p>\n

Another example of disconnect: resting on the Palinism that “proved” Obama wanted death panels for Grandma, the conservative plan to do away with Medicaid should rightly be called what it is: throwing Grandma into the street. Very few of us have $7,000 or more a month for a nursing home, and most of us know the stories of those forced to spend down to their last penny before Medicaid would place them in long-term care. Is the Pub base so dumbed down that the average middle-aged couple doesn’t realize that their kids, unable to collect unemployment, will join their parents, unable to afford living assistance, in needing a hand?<\/p>\n

What will they do? Put the old folks in the attic, the kids in the basement? Those who say that’s the way it should be are either too rich to care or not sandwiched between two politically fragile generations. How do they sell such a notion over at FOX, I wonder? How do they throw seniors under the bus and still blame Obama? Gratefully, national polls confirm that Grandma has noticed the disconnect between her needs and those of the Grand Old Party.<\/p>\n

Clearly, what we invest in as a nation is a moral issue and today, an ethical fight. When Bush signed off on torture, the left went ballistic about losing the moral high ground but, hell, we’d already lost it. Ask Pat Tillman’s parents. Ask the Iraqis that we butchered in the name of liberation. When the Supremes gave personhood to corporations with fat checkbooks, the left screamed corruption and loss of ethics, but it was too little, too late. Lobbyists had been writing legislation for years. Tax loopholes had already spared two-thirds of corporate entities from paying ANY taxes to their government, creating a permanent imbalance in revenue. The growing power of insurance companies and the privatization of public institutions had already skimmed an immoral amount of the public good into private pockets.<\/p>\n

Now, here’s the part that’s down the rabbit hole: we all know we’re being had. We know we’ve been plundered, assaulted and manipulated. We know not to expect a fair shake from business or the laws that protect it. We know and do nothing about it. And now we’ve come down to the bare essentials of a nation whose directive was “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” only we can’t agree on what that means. The argument is over public vs. private good. The wrangle is over We the People vs. Me the Individual. This is a fight over our vision of the future: the commonweal directed by a benevolent and ethical government, or the rights of property owners and the full ascendancy of predatory capitalism.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake, proposed austerity programs are the GOP’s ‘final solution,’ as dear to their hearts as getting the black man out of the Oval Office. There is no sharing of the wealth in this philosophy. Driving a stake through the heart of entitlements has been a conservative goal ever since FDR betrayed “class lines” to promote the common good. Conservatives will never see the common good as an asset, nor do they trust anything but an unfettered market to regulate financial security. In the Republican playbook, the future is a place where the public is increasingly marginalized, social problems are criminalized, the poor punished, and safety nets weakened until they vanish. This is not yer daddy’s Republican party we’re discussing now. This is the radical right of a party gone irresponsible and vengeful. Ayn Rand would applaud.<\/p>\n

My disdain for Rand is no secret, and in her case, I have no problem speaking ill of the dead. On the contrary, anyone who mixes ego, greed and selfishness into a toxic cocktail to salute those ruthless enough to take advantage of others earns no respect from me, nor do those who follow her, including generations of conservatives and most of the Republican leadership today. If Rand defined their Super Wo\/Man for them, it’s no surprise that they have followed to the letter, even duplicating the covert hypocrisy she displayed at the end of her life.<\/p>\n

Chronically ill, Rand secretly secured health benefits from the government she despised by applying under her married name. I suspect it didn’t prick her conscience a nickel’s worth, and after her death, her secretary defended the action by commenting that writing books didn’t make Rand wealthy enough to afford protracted illness. Indeed. Very few people ever reach the level of wealth Rand enshrined as the due of superior wo\/man, including Rand herself. She is the dead queen of a self-serving, anti-government movement that, hopefully, will itself be dead soon.<\/p>\n

All government redistributes wealth; that’s its purpose, and who gets the benefit defines its ideology. In a democracy, the people are served. Clearly, we can no longer claim a democratic Republic. As the nation renews itself, repressive politics can no longer be a part of that vision if we are to survive the challenges ahead. Too little government is as debilitating to a secure nation as too much. Ultimately, we do know how to do this, don’t we? It’s called the Golden Rule. We were not born at this time and into this nation to make sure the bankers remain wealthy and the land we love becomes an ecological wasteland. We know the outcome of this great experiment because it is the only one our hearts can accept. We must create a firm ethical platform upon which to rest our bones. We must retake the higher ground.<\/p>\n

This nation was created for all who show up, not just for the few who hold power, then or now. At the moment, the core issue of our schism in consciousness — Me vs. We — is being argued by fully 300 million souls, and ultimately, We wins. The only question is how ugly and vicious and disheartening will be the shenanigans that lie between now and that moment when the full humanity of this nation bursts forth. We carry within us the seeds of a loving, sustaining form of governance. Now is the time to plant them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves We live in a time of serious crisis, and it’s a damned good thing we’ve finally noticed. We’ve drifted so far away from our integrity and essential humanity that standing with our toes over the edge of the abyss, staring down into the fearful void of civil chaos, offers … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1744],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41656"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41656\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}