We have a Dollarocracy

 

There seems to be a lot of angst and confusion over how so many people can believe the “Big Lie”
of ex-President Trump.  What liberals have to realize is that most of them don’t really believe the lie, but they are so used to having those in power lie to them that they don’t see the problem. They know the system is not serving them like it should and unfortunately many believe it should be destroyed totally.  They are astonished that most liberals believe we live in a democracy, and though it isn’t perfect, it still resembles what our founding fathers had in mind.   Jefferson said that a revolution is needed every so often to keep the government honest.  John Adams said that every democracy up to that point had committed suicide.  Most agree that Democracy/Republics largest benefit is that it keeps the power away from those with the most money and gives it to the average citizen.  A look at the problems with passing Biden’s infrastructure bill shows how money from coal and pharmaceuticals has overridden the needs of the average citizen.  The American Democracy experiment ended with suicide with the Citizens United decision.  It took power away from the people and gave it to those with the money.  We now have a dollaracracy.

We are losing a number of well meaning Congress people who have said it’s impossible to do a good job in Congress when all their time is taken up going after money for reelection.   Is it no wonder that many in Congress have decided it’s easier to retain their power if they bend to a few lobbies that will support their campaigning.   This also explains the vitriol aimed at the few in Congress (The Squad) that don’t accept campaign contributions from PAC’s and business.

The Constitution provides that those in Congress are to represent certain geographic areas.  In most cases this no longer holds true.  We support candidates that represent our occupations now.  Our  e-mail is filled with requests for cash for candidates in other states and districts that will represent our desires.  For International Corporations that are larger than some nations, giving money to politicians is felt to be a necessity for future profits.  When I was made a vice president of Allianz Life I was asked to put a part of each paycheck into the Allianz Life PAC.  Those that distributed the money were all US Citizens making it legal.  These same people relied on executives in Germany for their promotions.  It is even possible for a foreigner to give to campaigns by buying a US corporation and having that corporation make the donation.  This is not what our Founding Fathers had in mind.  Our oligarchs like Rupert Murdoch, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos among others, have an almost monopolistic power over what we see and hear and they aren’t going to let us do anything to take it away from them.

Draining a swamp requires the removal of liquidity from the swamp.  If we are to get back to a better democracy we must remove the liquidity in the political campaign system.  The ‘Catch 22’ about this is that the people empowered to do this are the same ones that are making enormous amounts of money in the current system.  Those with the money and those getting the money have good reasons to keep everything as is.  It’s pretty easy to keep the status quo if each half of the nation hates the other half, so nothing gets done.  Sound familiar.

One solution to this would be a Constitutional Amendment reading: “Notwithstanding the first amendment, all efforts to influence elections to office in the United States are limited to those able to vote in said election.  Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”

Two types of Americans

 

We’ve come to believe that there are two types of Americans: Republicans and Democrats.   While this divide is a handy way to become angry, it is far easier to divide Americans into: Those who believe everyone is like them and believe anyone who isn’t should be, and those who believe that no-one is like them and everyone should be free to be who he/she wants to be.  The first category seems to be what we hear from our political parties who are pushing fear and anger at “the other guy” and insisting that you have to adhere to the entire agenda of the party or you are a disloyal American.  It is this divide and conquer attitude that has poisoned our system of government.   By pushing agenda’s that are never going to be accomplished like stopping abortions or taking all the guns away  just inflame those that aren’t intelligent enough to realize that both these are impossible and only increase the hate.

America was settled first by the conformist groups mentioned above.  The example of Savannah shows how that worked out:  the original colony operated quite well up until their shoes wore out.  Having no shoe makers in their church they were forced to let some Jewish shoe makers live with them in order to have shoes.  Most of this Country’s accomplishments have been made by people that were non conformists.  We need to dial down the hatred towards those that are different from us.  E Pluribus Unum, out of many, one!

Gun violence solution no one wants to talk about

 

With households owning a record number of guns it may be time to stop thinking about easy answers to the gun violence problem and look at what may be a long term partial solution.  I would suggest that we make firearm safety training a requirement for all 13 year olds.  Many people get a gun and then get the idea that they can hit anything they aim at.  After all that’s what all those folks on the screen do where firearm training now takes place.  Included in training would be testimonials from both victims and perpetrators as to the many problems the use of a gun causes.  It would also discuss all the relevant laws and safety procedures necessary to safely own a gun.  Those that successfully show that they have learned these basics would get to a firing range and get to shoot both long guns and hand guns.  This would show them how difficult it is to hit a target, much less a bull’s-eye.  While this may not stop gang shootings, it may, at least, stop the shooting of innocent bystanders.  With luck it would discourage people from wanting to own guns.

Do We Trust our Police?

 

As an old white guy who lives in the neighborhood, I’ll be happy when I can drive down 38^th St again.  As someone who remembers Charley Stenvigs response to the “race riots”, I don’t see any significant change in tactics through the years:  throw enough money at a problem and it will go away.  We continue to ignore the elephant in the room that isn’t going away: TRUST.  White people can trust the Mpls. Police to keep troubles out of their neighborhoods and only seem to care about that.   There are many law abiding people who know who is doing the carjacking and shooting and are afraid to speak up.   How can minorities trust police who?

1.       Look different from them.

2.       Feel that the neighborhoods they work in are too horrible to live in themselves.

3.       Approach them with their hands on their guns.

4.       Stop them on pretenses to find out how they can harass them.

5.       Have officers who have beaten them and insulted them or their acquaintances retained on the force with no consequences. 

6.       Are paid so little that they have to moonlight to live the financial life they desire.

7.       Are not held to higher standards of behavior than the average citizen.

I would suggest that we don’t need more police, we need better Peace officers.  We now have about 10 officers per neighborhood.  I believe we could get by with 5 Peace officers per neighborhood if they lived in the neighborhood.  We also need Peace officers walking a beat in several business districts.  You can’t develop trust without getting to know someone.  It’s extremely hard to get to know a cop who   comes in from the suburbs every day, heavily armed, only leaves their car when other officers are around only to go back at the end of the day. Let’s get rid of our occupying military force and replace it with caring Peace officers that are paid a professional wage.