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The circuses propping up our leadership have been spectacular to say the least. If they spent half the money thrown away dressing up campaigns, like all the astroturfing from 2010 for example, on getting people back to work, perhaps the economy would be growing at the pace it should have been. Perhaps if all the energy put into accusing each other of ruining the economy, of corruption, of treason, etc, was put into fixing all those things and more, we may have made some headway on some of those issues.
Perhaps we'd have been on a solid footing regarding our economy. Instead of self centered finger pointing, we might have consensus based bills. Instead of loud mouthed fools running around saying, “my idea is the best and if they would come to their senses they would just do what I say” we might have legislation of substance. Perhaps instead we'd have, what the framers of our government had in mind regarding the vetting process all legislation introduced into Congress is supposed to go through.
If only representatives working three to four days a week in Congress spent less time focusing on the next election and appearing as though they were doing what we wanted publicly while doing what they wanted privately, perhaps the consensus of the nation would be we have been moving forward over the last two and a half to twelve and a half years instead of back. If that were true maybe we would have had the kind of legislation only real coming together in a time of desperation brings. Perhaps both sides of our perhaps antiquated two party system could have struggled until a solution had been reached. Instead we had overcooked stubbornness and limp noodled cave-ins.
Perhaps if our money was spent wisely on investing in the nation and building a strong future like all the most rapidly expanding economies are doing instead of nation building elsewhere, we would not have a country stuck in a failing gear. We invest in wars and conflicts with no connection to an economic future for the majority of Americans, except that every day spent continuing to invest in those conflicts we subtract from our ability to stay competitive globally. There are many nations vying to take our place and though we have more guns than anybody else, the minds behind them aren't being fed, enriched, enlightened or expanded.
The guns will be worthless and will be all we have left if we allow the way things are going to continue. We need to change. Currently, our nation's future is being left in the hands of people willing to kick the can down the road until it's their children or grandchildren's future problems. Being the sort of politicians many of them are proving themselves to be right now, perhaps at that point they'll star in political ads attacking their children or grandchildren for their negligence and incompetence that sold out our futures in an attempt to make sure they die fighting for their image.
While people full of anger and frustration over the way things have been going in our nation demand real change from a system that has proven how outdated it is, elected leaders scramble for a foothold. Patriotic Americans stand in streets holding signs reflecting pain and a desire for change. Instead of saying, “we need to pass bills to really address those issues” the politicians say, “I'm tapping into that.” Didn't we just watch that and get all talk no actions?
In fact, people venting their frustrations in the streets over a failed political system purposefully haven't invited or advocated any political party, although already politicians are vying for angles to paint it as a movement of people that support them. What those politicians really mean is, “I'm stealing that idea and making it a campaign slogan until I get elected.” At that point they will do just what they did previously. If they did not keep promises before they won't the next time. If they did then their track records will speak roundly for that now.
“I broke my promises this time but I will keep them next time” or “they made me fail last time and next time they won't, because even though I'm still actively doing the same disappointing things, I now have the key as to how to do things differently” won't be enough to usher in real change. What will is proof of the ability to bring about change through evidence. Currently neither party has wrought change or demonstrated an ability to do so. Neither party has done much, aside from being so counterproductive the nation has been in limbo, and our credit rating has been downgraded. They really should be issuing apologies for that.
Yet, we have not heard them saying how sorry they were for failing to produce the change promised or a significant portion of the rest of list. Without owning up to their failures of the past, how can we know there will be a true effort for them to change in the future? The nation's direction is worse than it has been in a long time - that's America's consensus. Yet in spite of that our leaders have been so unwilling to come together, they've gone from not aiding progress to actually worsening things.
They are so self centered and focused on themselves, they have allowed some of the most shameful things in our history to occur. For example while our elected leadership has been focused on each other, the State Department allowed children in Afghanistan to be abused, and what's worse the suffering those children had to endure was paid for by our dollars. They know about it and have done nothing about it except to hush it up.
“An intelligence website, Wikileaks recently released a cable from Afghanistan revealing U.S. government contractor DynCorp involvement in boy play business. DynCorp is a company of private militia training Afghan police force. According to recent reports, more than ninety five percent budget of the militia comes from the US and part of that is being spent on child abuse parties and sex trafficking in Northern Afghanistan.
“To meet the sexual needs of the Afghan police officers, in December 2010, as Wiki Leak Cable reported DynCorp purchased young boys for Afghan policemen. The boys were to be used in Bacha bazi. DynCorp members and officers have already been engaged in sex with 12 to 15 year old children, and sold them to each other as slaves in Bosnia. After the WikiLeak revelations about the DynCorp involvement in sex trade in Northern Afghanistan, Afghan Interior Ministry carried out a thorough investigation against the private militia company.
“The investigation resulted in the arrest of two Afghan police and nine other Afghans for the crime of "purchasing a service from a child." The US State Department began its own investigation whether DynCorp had ignored signs of drug abuse among employees in Afghanistan or not, but Inspector General of the State Department in its report concluded that dancing boy incident is no criminal activity in Afghanistan.” (http://www.humanrights.asia/opinions/columns/AHRC-ETC-035-201) (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/213720) That private military contractor still works for the US in Afghanistan even though their employees have done this before in other countries.
Although it doesn't have to be like this, it is right now. It's symptomatic of a system that no longer functions for the people, just a few. Instead of fixing the economy and pulling out of wars serving only wealthy corporations looking to benefit from what our government spins as “stabilizing” of the governments of those nations, our elected officials are clamoring over each other to appear as if they are the ones that have been willing to halt progress more than the other by blocking compromise.
They behave this way in the hopes they can prove how much they deserve to to be trusted with the nation's future. Instead of working for the majority of people they spend their time working to keep campaign coffers full by keeping us embroiled in conflicts. Their blind ambition is so far from what's good in this world it has tax dollars going towards the facilitation of young boys experiencing rape in Afghanistan.
But it doesn't have to be that way. We can have a good positive system for 99 percent of Americans, we just have to change it. We must build it. We have to do that through the process of elections and not just continuing the cycle of what doesn't work, but starting to think in new ways with whole new parties. That fruit is still low hanging. It's just waiting for us to pick it.
To read about my inspiration for this article go to www.lawsuitagainstuconn.com