Political Events

Here on Political Events we are happy to provide you with articles from a wide variety of guest authors with a diverse range of political thought.

Party Politics
By Doug Wilson

Recently I’ve spent a lot of time on politically active sites. I signed up for the free memberships so I could comment on the articles. In doing this I’ve been able to get a good idea of what “some” people are reacting and responding to. Granted the whole population isn’t reading and commenting on the New York Times and the Huffington Post but a lot of people visit the sites. I read that around a third of the nation gets it’s news from the internet. I get my news from the net. I can read and watch all the network news. Watch cable channels like Democracy Now or Link.TV. I can read Greenwalds articles on Salon.com. I can read what Larry Summers says. So I spend a good deal of time each day reading and listening to people. The people I’m most interested in aren’t the ones writing the articles and making the headlines. After all, I never know who’s lying or what any of these peoples secret motives or ambitions are. But the comments, that’s completely different, they leave no doubt as to what they think and feel. That’s what I want to write about today.

As far as our government goes, as far as they might make things better, I have no faith. I think the best thing for the government to do is – Stop. Whatever you’re doing, whatever you’re thinking – just Stop. But what about – No. But we need to – No. Stop, No, No, sit down, be quiet, No. That wraps up my opinion of “The State”. But what about the opinions of the whole? The nation of people? What I see repeatedly with way too many people is their loyalty to a political party. With every single party adherent I’ve run across, critical thinking is missing. This is, no where more blatantly, obvious than in the recent transition from the last elections. My reaction to the gathering in the park on the night of the presidential election was the same as my reaction to the coverage of the Iraq bombing. I sat their and thought – wow, this is weird. Here they were, shoulder to shoulder, thousands of people with tears in their eyes, overwhelmed by the appointment of a total stranger. The self generated intimacy was baffling. In the end I can only find one reason for this behavior. It has everything to do with an emotional attachment to a political party. A political party that, in all but name, doesn’t exist. Political parties are irrelevant. We have a huge problem in this country.

A problem so overwhelmingly huge that it seems insurmountable. It’s not that the problem is not solvable. It’s not complicated. What stands in the way of eliminating this problem are political parties. Not necessarily the elected officials, but the public party partisans. I’m convinced that no Democracy can function well when it’s people are attached to a certain party. Not that we have a real Democracy but we have the ability, for now, to exercise democratic power. We as a nation still have the ability to save ourselves. What will stop this, as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, is public party advocacy. The party activist will bring the rest of us to ruin. Either it stops, or it’s over. We will be, a nation, no more. Here is the most fascinating part of the whole game. As a people, as a majority, we don’t disagree. Another thing I notice when I’m cruising these sites is the polls. More specifically, the poll questions. They are for the most part pointless, because they are unanswerable. They are at best, misleading in there results. There was a question on a particular article yesterday that read, “Do you think she should either apologize or resign?”…Yes or No? Huh? Most people, who think, can’t answer that. There are a few people who can answer it. They are the ones who agreed 100% with the author of the article. So the results will read Yes 95% – No 5%. So what? How many people couldn’t answer? Most? This is representative of most polls I’ve seen. Besides, I’ve never been ask to participate in any major polls.

I’ve read some and seen the numbers they poll. Not very many. You want a real poll? Put it on the internet and ask real questions and leave a box for writing in your answer. Here’s an example: When should Abortion be used: (Write your answer here). When should we go to war: (Write your answer here). Now if this poll was available we’d know something – about ourselves as a nation. But if you’re a political machine, this type of poll would be political suicide. Doesn’t matter what party you work for, it would still be suicide. As long as the government controls the people a poll of this type will never be officially recognized. As long as people belong to a political party – they will only follow what is approved by, what they believe to be, “their” government. I used to sell stuff. This is how I used to do it: Would you like to buy this…It will poison you…No? OK, how about something that will make you feel good?…Yes, great! The way that all good salesman get people to buy things is by getting people to say yes. They want the people to agree – on anything. Once we start to agree, we’re going to do something together. Something is going to get done. Government is not trying to do something with us. If they were they would let us see where we are in agreement. They would make it clear that the people from this party or that party didn’t – really – want different things.

What the “State” understands is this. You never ask real questions. You never, ever, allow the public to be united. You keep them fighting. Arguing. At each others philosophical, ideological throats. It’s not even important that there be a real ideology. No body needs to know what they want. They just need to be convinced that “those guys are different”, “They” are the opposition. It’s all their fault. It’s the exact same story from either party. We want to help you, but they are blocking us. This goes on constantly, year after year, decade after decade. That’s the part of the act they want you to see. Here’s the part that people don’t see. All of a sudden, out of no where, AT&T is getting tapped by the NSA. What? That’s not a .7% tax increase – that’s science fiction. If they can’t agree on the budget how did this happen? Here’s the deal, the majority of the people who have infested the government don’t disagree on anything. This is why the most meaningless drivel imaginable is screaming about, talked about on the news, discussed and argued and at last, with great pageantry accomplished. But historic sweeping constitutional changes are made overnight with barely a whisper. This is what I would like to say to all the people who get emotionally involved with parties, politicians, government: You don’t know them. For 95% of the population of this nation let me repeat: You don’t know them.

To think you know them is not rational. You cannot know them. It is an impossibility. In no other area in your life do you behave in this way. If you do – Stop. But you probably don’t. The places I see this are in politics and religion. The two places that it is the least possible to “know” anything, people have the most fervent “beliefs”. It has to be a belief because it is impossible to really know the people involved. But for now I am focused on the belief, the fixation with political parties. I’ll say this and wrap it up. This country has been heading towards bankruptcy since 1913. Google this: Graph of national debt. Since the 1950’s it climbed steadily till 1980 when it starts to race up the scale. What parties were responsible? From 1913 till now? Both, all, any and it has nothing to do with it. In 1913 “the government” agreed, on your behalf, to turn the country over to a private banking cartel. Don’t think that’s true? Why? What do you get to do without money? It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about fifty people or 5 million: whoever controls the money controls the people. Like a weed, it is the root of the problems we experience. The greatest detriment to the country today is the political activist. The person who has been “led to believe” that the problem lies with government.

That if they can change the government, sway the government, petition, plead, reason with or elect different people, it will solve the problem. When the idea that there are two parties in Washington, one fighting for you and one leading the country to ruin, is gone then the picture will start to become clear. That’s the first step on the road to reason. Because in order for this country to accomplish anything of worth we have to agree. We have to unite. Not on the small things. But on the most important things. The things that matter. At this moment there are a couple “issues” being discussed by government that matter. There are a few people in government working to get rid of the problem. The rest are working to fulfill promises to people who funded their campaigns and line their pockets. When there is no emotional involvement this is very easy to see. Like I said, this is the first step. It is a required step. It’s not an option. It’s not one of the ideas that could work. It is a step in a process. It can’t be left out, avoided, worked around, or made more palatable, because we hate to be wrong. It’s the pill we have to swallow if we want to live.

Bio: Doug Wilson is an avid student of concepts and has spent the last five years seeking out the structural aspect of unrest in human nature . The results of this study is being written out as a system for self discovery at Addiction: In the 21st Century

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Doug_Wilson
http://EzineArticles.com/?Party-Politics&id=2293133

Here on Political Events we are happy to provide you with articles from a wide variety of guest authors with a diverse range of political thought.

The Testing of a President
By Gene Lalor

Macbeth: “Is this a dagger which I see before me…” Macbeth (II, i, 33)

I doubt President Obama sees any daggers, real or imagined, but he hopefully sees tests before him, tests which could serve the same purpose as daggers at America’s throat.

Vice President Biden, before he was VP Biden, had warned that tests would happen. Back in October, the prescient Joe said, “We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember, I said it standing here, if you don’t remember anything else I said: Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”

Pal Joey apparently was muzzled, squelched, told to shut up shortly thereafter and never again spoke publically of testing “the mettle [the character] of this guy,” the President- Presumptive at the time, Senator Barack Hussein Obama.

Well, that test or tests, international and domestic, in political-speak, have now been “generated,” in real-speak they have “hit the fan,” and we shall shortly see the depth of Obama’s brilliance and character.

The domestic testing has been ongoing and is a carryover from the administration of Bush II. Mainly, but not exclusively, it has consisted of the banking, mortgage, economic mess. Only time will tell whether history assigns Obama, and therefore America, a passing grade.

At this point, Wall Street has evidently decided to give a resounding “F” to the new president and for his wonder boy, tax-cheating Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner. Their mindless profligacy in tossing around a trillion here, a trillion there, of taxpayer dollars have been met with a clear vote of no confidence and a drop of thousands of points on the Dow.

After being clued in by Bill Clinton, Obama suspended his very peculiar gloom and doom, crisis here, crisis there, approach to inspiring Americans in favor of the pep-talky, “Hey, we can do it, folks!” But the damage had already been done.

Main Streeters and Wall Streeters seem to be thinking, Will the real president please stand up and do something constructive? Both should be cautioned not to expect much in that regard since Obama has admitted that he regards the stock market as nothing more than a “tracking poll” and neither he nor Michelle Obama own any stocks, according to their tax returns. So, who cares?

Obama’s other testing fields are overseas, in foreign nations and in international waters and so far he seems to have adopted a very diplomatic, hands-off, do nothing, wait and see approach.

North Korea’s Kim Jong-il, maniacal loose-cannon extraordinaire, thrives on war and rumors of war and gets his jollies by launching missiles and threats, recently including threats to shoot down civilian airliners near his airspace and warning of all-out war if we dare to shoot down his satellite.

The latest news out of Pyongyang is that the paranoid Kim Jong-il has cut his military hotline with South Korea and is in process of mobilizing his million man army. The reason? Fear of invasion by the United States and South Korea.

It’s as realistic to expect a U.S. invasion of North Korea as it is to expect us to invade Angolia but realism never enters the equation when it comes to Kim’s thinking.

Iran’s equally unstable nutcase, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad makes similar threats, threatens missile and nuclear strikes-when Iran’s nuke facilities are up and running-and now demands the United States apologize for 60 years of wrongs against Iran: http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/a/mahmoud_ahmadinejad/index.html

Mahmoud’s very selective memory must have “dis-remembered” when his Ayatollah Khomeini ordered the illegal storming and seizure of our Tehran embassy in 1979. I have to assume that he does not consider imprisoning 52 Americans for 444 days as something worthy of an Iranian apology.

There is, however, another explanation, namely that Mahmoud clearly recalls President Jimmy Carter’s feckless response to that grave offense and he seriously does expect an apology from President Obama.

He may get it if Obama fails this test.

Iran and North Korea are comparative pipsqueaks on the world stage and their incessant testing could be ended within weeks, or days, if Obama summons the nerve to advise both nations that, starting with their leaders, they will be reduced to molten puddles should they dare any funny business.

Fat chance, but hope springs eternal.

More ominous tests, one clearly and intentionally “generated” by a wannabe superpower, the other the result of an inept government allowing drug criminals to go berserk on their own soil, are on Obama’s horizon.

The inept government is that of Mexico’s Felipe Calderon and his ineptitude is a test for Obama mainly because of Mexico’s 2000 mile border with the United States and the four states immediately adjacent to Mexico. Exacerbating the danger is the fact that Mexico’s criminal element now is overflowing into those states, and further north. Houston is already feeling the effects of the infestation of Mexican drug cartels in town; there are at least five such cartels operating in Houston and the gangsters who run them are wreaking havoc.

Mexico, of course, is a tough test for Obama because of its proximity and because of long-term plans for the eventual establishment of a North American Union with Canada and Mexico.

That NAU has been in the works since the Bush I years and involves a virtual surrender of U.S. sovereignty and an “amero” to replace the dollar as our legal currency. Our leaders, of both parties, have already been implementing facets of the NAU. Absurd? The NAU is anything but absurd and Obama’s challenge right now is to repulse this most blatant invasion from Mexico without offending our NAU partner.

Last but hardly least of Obama’s tests and challenges is the People’s Republic of China. Having secured international recognition and esteem with its highly-scripted, manipulated, but very successful summer Olympic Games in 2008, China has no further need to act civilized with the Tibetans or the Taiwanese, or with the United States.

Prefatory to repressing the followers of the Dalai Lama in Tibet and attacking Taiwan, a little evaluation of Obama’s mettle was in order and China began that evalauation on the seas off its coast.

Five Chinese ships surrounded, “shadowed and aggressively maneuvered in dangerously close proximity” to the USNS Impeccable, an unarmed ocean surveillance vessel, on Sunday, March 8, with one ship coming within 25 feet, a U.S. Defense Department statement said:
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSPEK9458120090310?sp=true

Unprovoked, in a scene reminiscent of but far less bloody than Israel’s 1947 attack on the USS Liberty, the Chinese contended the Impeccable was conducting “illegal surveillance,” even though the American ship (like the Liberty) was in international waters and operating within the bounds of all laws governing military vessels on the high seas.

All reports suggest there will be no lasting effects on Chinese-American relations as a result of this maritime confrontation, which is probably true. However, the inscrutable Chinese had succeeded in one mission: They had successfully tested President Obama. His and America’s response? A stern reprimand, which China threw back in our faces, which rendered the reprimand a waste of effort on our part.

More testing is sure to come, especially since China now knows it has a weak and ineffectual American president more committed to words than to actions to deal with.

Meanwhile, waiting patiently in the wings, are Russia, Vladimir Putin, and the puppet Dmitry Medvedev, waiting patiently to see how well Obama fares with the easy tests before he and we are hit with the real toughies.

Gene Lalor is the author of An Immodest Proposal for Ending and Winning the War on Terror, available at Amazon.com

(http://genelalor.com/)

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gene_Lalor
http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Testing-of-a-President&id=2083670