More than one tenth of the members of Congress are directly related to current or past office holders. The majority of the rest are related by marriage, former employees, or derived from successful political families, long term military, and those otherwise connected with wealth and privilege.
Whatever the surname, the awful truth is that there is a wealthy, ruling class that sends the sons and daughters of the rest of us to die for their political positions. Now this might have been a good thing when the majority of Americans believed they that had a vested interest in the country. As it stands now with falling middle class wages, falling numbers of middle class jobs, high interest rates, poor schools, poor health care services, failing infrastructure, and high cost of living (It always costs more to be poor than it does to be rich), people are waking up to the fact that they are probably being used.
It may be an old song but "Fortunate Son" by Creedence Clearwater says it all. Once enough people started to believe the lyrics they started protesting in the streets and throwing people out of office with the power of the voting booth. Unfortunately, today, they have come to believe that their vote no longer matters. It will either be stolen by Diebold et al, betrayed by a Presidential signing statement or outweighed by non thinking sheeple from the extremes of the political parties doing as their talking points tell them to do. Something has to change to restore faith in the government and the power of the people or we may be watching the end of America.
Fortunate Son
Some folks are born made to wave the flag,
ooh, they're red, white and blue.
And when the band plays "Hail To The Chief",
oh, they point the cannon at you,
Lord,It ain't me, it ain't me,
I ain't no senator's son,
It ain't me, it ain't me,
I ain't no fortunate one, no,
Some folks are born silver spoon in hand,
Lord, don't they help themselves? oh.
But when the taxman come to the door,
Lord, the house look a like a rummage sale,
yes,It ain't me, it ain't me,
I ain't no millionaire's son, no, no.
It ain't me, it ain't me,
I ain't no fortunate one, no.
Yeh, some folks inherit star spangled eyes,
ooh, they send you down to war, Lord,
And when you ask them, how much should we give,
oh, they only answer, more, more, more, yoh,
It ain't me, it ain't me,
I ain't no military son, SON,
NOIt ain't me, it ain't me,
I ain't no fortunate one
A trip through time and history with stops along the way.
4 comments:
We have anoxious ruling class every bit as corrupt and disgusting as the old Soviet nomenklatura.
We also have a war of clhoice bleeding us dry and a huge foreign debt, just like the old USSR. See where I'm going here?
As Anne of Green Gables would say, "We are kindred spirits". :-)
Pretty dark picture. Do you remember my post on the Bushes and Clintons and how far back they go and how far into the future they might go? C. Wright Mills and, of all people, Dwight David Eisenhower, warned us of the military industrial complex. Add to it the half dozen names as power families and, viola, the American democratic experiment is on thin ice. I was heartened with Tuesday's election returns in CT, even though Lamont is a zillionaire with a family that goes back through the history of Yale. We the people are, seemingly, caught between a rock and a hard place. We want to believe in democracy while knowing full well that the rich control most of our political lives. The recent Republicans have just pulled back the curtain letting us really see how the rich run things. As an example, the minimum wage bill attached to deleted the inheritance tax for the richest 1,900 Americans. Great exchange. And, the Republicans will hammer the Democrats for not abolishing the "death tax" and for holding back the minimum wage. Wonderful strategy by the wealthy.
thanks - i was humming that song as i read it..so true so true
i believe the people are waking up - as long as we can keep them away from "big brother - TV" we can come out of this..
other wize we are will be dead...
i like the analogy to the soviets...very true
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