Those who think an Oligarchy, or a Plutocracy, perhaps even dictatorship are not possible in our future need to take a little look at recent events. It is not a short term picture, but a long con game being played upon the American people. A confidence game, not any well planned conspiracy. Conspiracy takes what it wants. A confidence game sells it without a whimper.
1994:
The GOP offers us a "Contract with America." Full passage of it, and becoming the law of the land would ahve seriously affected the "checks, and balances," placed upon our three supposedly equal branches of Government. Congress would have gained new powers to affect both the economy, and war making powers. The executive would have been weakened, and deeregulation of the political financial system, would ahve begun much earlier that the recent SCOTUS decision.
1997-98:
We witnessed the totally PHONY attempt to impeach the President. It was never designed to get that result. What was it? An absolute rush to blatant partisanship. So blatant, and harsh, that it ruined impeachment as a serious tool. Republican against Democrat. How many strict party lone votes were taken? The leaders of the GOP knowing the effort would fail. However the bitterness would rmain, opening the door for a later President to do exactly as Bush 43 did. Pushing abuse of power to limits not ever used before, fully knowing that Congress would be paralyed to act by partisanship.
2001-2006:
Unfettered deregulation og BIG BIZ first. Creating taxpayer subidized, and in some cases, totally FREE new production plants in foriegn countries. Alcoa Aluminum got a huge processing plant built in Ghan, Afica, absolutely free. Value? TEN BILLION DOLLARS. Thsu began the total corruption of many free trade treaties, including NAFTA.
Deregulation of financial institutions, that allowed Wall Street into the Real Estate biz. The bundling of, and resale of the "paper value of YOUR Mortgage. Freedom to sell each many times over, in both National, and International markets. Subprime was just as easily inflated as any other mortgage. These "speculators," made trillions of dollars. They took business away form the more comon banks, and Savings, and Loans. Hell, they used the gaudy profits to buy these little mortgage outlets. One big executive was asked why he bought a small S&L. "Congress could change it's mind at any time, and we WANT to be able to stay in the mortgage buisness.
WARS and DEFICITS:
The ballyhooed tax cuts for the wealthy was not creating jobs. Considering thousands of the jobs were already going overseas, the Bush folks did exactly what old Reagan allowed. Deficit spending will create jobs. Or it will if the bankers, and Wall Street chose to let it happen. Sadly the whole damn scheme of tax cuts, and deficit spending didn't really help much. Today's updated statisitics show that the years 2001 to 2004 brought at best a neutral growth of jobs. That's FACT.
9/11 was exactly what the Bush folks wanted. An excuse to vastly increase defense spending. The new Homeland Security also increased the deficit budget. They sold us safety, however the little Afghanistan war, created little that was new. Bush attempted in several ways to blame Iraq for the attacks. As we now know the target was always Iraq. There was MONEY to be made in the rich country of Iraq. Profits, and corruption came in great amounts. Young men and women became "casualties." Perhaps 250,000 Iraquis became daths of wounded. TRILLIONS of dollars were created in the world economy. Bush gloated in both his "victory," and the now truly humming American economy. We also saw the total incomptence of the civilian leaders who ran the war, and the "peace." A prelude to Katrina.
2007 and 2008:
The HOUSE MADE OF PAPER collapsed. The poor billionaires lost a few billion dollars. The American people lost a great deal more. Seemingly sucked into a vortex, nobody could control. We came within a whisker of total financial collapse. Breadlines? No money at all to buy ANY goods. Bush printed more money, just as Germany did after WWI. Billions spent to bailout billionaires, Auto companies, and financial big biz. Yet not one iota was said about paying for it all.
Ok, enough for now. Today the billionaires are back in good $$ days. Hoarding fortunes in hopes that we the poeple will turn to the same deregulation, warmongering wolves in 2012. No investments in job creation, but plenty for political campaigns. One other event of history will be profoundly felt for years to come. Big Biz got it's "packed" Federal Court system. The score since the Bush appointees, stands at BIG BIZ, 15-0 in cases against common consumers. The ride to big wealth ain't over, and the Oligartchy/Plutocracy is just around the corner. Walt
--- In Politics_CurrentEvents_Group@yahoogroups.com, patrick mc govern <mcgvrn_ptrck@...> wrote:
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> -------- Original Message --------
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> Democracy or Plutocracy? A Chart
> Friday 28 January 2011
> by: Dave Johnson | Campaign for America's Future | Op-Ed
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> DEMOCRACY
> PLUTOCRACY
>
> We, the People
> Wealthy Few
>
> One Person One Vote
> One Dollar One Vote
>
> Government
> Limited Government
>
> Majority
> Supermajority
>
> Information
> Propaganda
>
> Taxes on the Wealthy
> Tax Cuts for the Wealthy
>
> Budgets
> Budget Cuts
>
> Jobs programs
> Bank Bailouts
>
> Welfare
> Warfare
>
> Express Lanes for 2 or More People
> Express Lanes for 2 or More Dollars
>
> Security Lines at Airports
> Special First-Class Security Lanes at Airports
>
> Public Schools
> Private Schools
>
> Public Investment
> Private Investment
> Updates:
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>
> Public Transportation
> Private Jets
>
> Accountability
> Impunity
>
> Rule Of Law
> Above The Law
>
> Transparency
> Secrecy
>
> Sustainable growth
> Polluter Growth
>
> Medicare-For-All
> Healthcare For Profit
>
> Clean Elections
> Rigged Elections
>
> Savings Accounts
> Offshore Accounts
>
> Credit Card Debt
> Credit Default Swaps
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> Union members
> Serfs
>
> Layoffs
> Payoffs
>
> Homies
> Cronies
>
> Grassroots
> Astroturf
>
> Pensions
> 401Ks
>
> Honest Brokers
> Self-Interest
>
> Free Will
> At Will
>
> Citizen
> Consumer
>
> Citizen
> Employee
>
> Participant
> Observer
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> Actor
> Acted On
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> Doer
> Done To
>
> Majorities
> Markets
>
> --
>
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