How Much
Longer Are We Going to Tolerate This?
By Pastor Paul J. Bern
I
have always strongly believed that it's not possible to be an
effective Christian without taking a stand against social and
economic injustice, and against government corruption in all its
forms (such as lobbyists at the federal and state levels who give out
bribe money like Halloween candy). In
fact, I have been a proponent for radical change for a number of
years now, and I have written
and published 3 books
on this very topic. Where shall I begin? In
God-blessed America, the land of the free where everyone is an
economic slave, our Founding Fathers' sacred idea of a government "of
the people, by the people, for the people" has become but a
cruel joke. Former president George W. Bush has notoriously (for both
Christian and secular people) called our Constitution – our supreme
law of the land – "that (uses God's name in vain) piece of
paper". The
federal government is currently spending at least $60 billion per
month on military excursions in Afghanistan, the Middle East, and
northern and western Africa – not including operating between 800
and 1,000 (depending on who you believe) foreign military bases all
over the world. Our country's over-used flying drone aircraft kills
hundreds daily overseas, many of whom are only innocent bystanders.
Our
political and court systems are openly rigged against the best
interests of the American people, particularly those of color. A
massive market mechanism is securely entrenched in our political
system where political influence is openly bought and sold. Tens of
thousands of highly-paid middlemen called "lobbyists"
facilitate the legal transfer of billions between moneyed special
interests and our so-called "representatives" in Congress.
This very lucrative business of buying and selling political
influence has become the driving engine of our government. Our
so-called "representatives" in Congress vie for millions in
legalized bribes in return for delivering billions of our tax dollars
to moneyed special interests. It's pure folly to think our current
political system could possibly look out for the best interests of
the American people.
Just ponder what our
government has done, not for us but to us, in the last ten years
alone. It's utterly mind boggling! The installation of Donald Trump
to the US presidency is only the latest insult. Not because it's
Trump, but because he promised to “drain the swamp”! Instead,
Trump bought it and is now remaking it in his own best interest. The
best interests of the American people have been sacrificed to moneyed
special interests time and time again. Hopefully this time the
American electorate has learned their lesson. The Wall Street bankers
paid millions in bribes for a legal license to steal hundreds of
billions of dollars from the American people. When greed got them in
trouble, our so-called "representatives" gave them billions
more of our money, American tax dollars, to bail them out in October
of 2008. In the last ten years, our so-called "representatives"
shared nearly a billion dollars in bribes from the "defense"
industry alone. In return, they doubled our (2016) defense budget to
$700 billion (equal to all other countries combined!) and lied us
into unnecessary, endless, expanding wars that will ultimately cost
us trillions.
This is aside from
the extreme human costs of war with multiple consecutive deployments.
For example, 1 in 5 returning veterans from US occupations overseas
have permanent psychiatric disabilities so severe that they will
never work again. Speaking as a minister and lifelong peace activist,
I find this to be utterly reprehensible on the part of the US
military! Be all you can be? Yeah, but it's all for them and none for
us except for some vague talk about 'battlefield honor'. I've got
some new information for all those people. There is no honor in
killing other human beings, especially for religious or ideological
reasons, and particularly for financial gain, which the US military
is notorious for!
Our so-called
"representatives" are slashing social spending for senior
citizens and the poor just when far too many American people need it
most. Yet they continue to spend hundreds of billions on weapons of
mass destruction to protect us from our “enemies”. But most of
our "enemies" are purposely created by our government's
blatantly unjust foreign policies (that openly support oppressive
military regimes for the most rigid internal control possible), and
by our violent military operations within their homelands. Without a
perpetual supply of "enemies", 'defense industry' profits
would plummet, and Washington's wealthy paymasters will never have
any of that! If that weren't enough, our so-called "representatives"
have worked hard to keep America the number one weapons merchant on
earth. Our so-called "representatives" continue to support
the sale of billions in weapons to oppressive dictatorships around
the world, which creates still more "enemies", which
creates more special interests profits, etc. So we can fight wars,
but we can't have a robust space program? We can fight wars, but we
can't update and upgrade America's dilapidated power grid? We can
fight wars, but America can't replace its crumbling infrastructure?
We can fight wars, but we can't afford to make public colleges and
universities free? America can't forgive $1.3 trillion (as of the end
of the 2017 school year) in student loan debt so those of the
millennial generation can get on their feet and start families and
buy cars and houses? We can fight wars, but middle and lower income
families can't afford school lunches for their kids? This is utter
insanity!
Our current
political system guarantees our so-called "representatives"
will continue to pass and sustain legislation that transfers billions
of our hard-earned tax dollars to moneyed special interests. That's
because members of Congress who oppose moneyed special interests are
promptly punished, ostracized, or replaced (if their offense is great
enough). President Kennedy paid the ultimate price for opposing the
elitists, but he achieved martyrdom among the American people.
Because of the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers and Rev. Dr.
King, Jr., our current political system guarantees moneyed special
interests and our "representatives" must participate in
this influence-peddling scam against the American people. It's mainly
because they're being coerced by the implied threat of assassination,
but also because it's so lucrative they'd be stupid not to.
Big corporations
could be at a competitive disadvantage (and would likely resort to
cheating their shareholders to replace lost profits) if they refused
to buy political influence. Likewise, our so-called "representatives"
would be at a competitive disadvantage getting elected or staying in
office if they refused to broker political influence. Another
“problem” as these elites as I see it is that, if corporate
influence were to decline, it would open up windows of opportunity
for start-up businesses and entrepreneurs, and there's no way Wall
Street will tolerate that. Anything that puts money into the hands of
ordinary folks – such as owning a business no matter how small –
is seen as a potential threat and gets treated as such. Just ask any
of the American merchants who lost their businesses because they
couldn't compete with Wal Mart. I should know, I used to be one
myself up until around the year 2000 or so.
The rigged national
elections in 2016 were merely melodrama for the masses. Our 'choices'
had all been chosen for us in advance by moneyed special interests
pumping millions of dollars into the process. Besides, whoever “wins”
will be forced to play by established political rules that guarantee
moneyed special interests will always come ahead of the American
people's best interests. After all, the money special interests own
the American electoral process outright, like a company owning an
asset. For months before the elections, the complicit mainstream
media, using colorful pundits who talk smart and know little,
entertain us with political melodrama and often-intolerable
rhetorical bull-crap. They arouse us by pitting one segment of the
American people against another. They make millions bombarding us
with empty, emotional, 15-to-30-second TV ads that are little more
than name-calling or patriotic platitudes. Congressional elections
have devolved into a herd of sheep fighting among themselves for
their favorite wolves. Congressional elections merely determine which
segment of the America people gets screwed the most by which moneyed
special interests group.
Trying
to reform our current political system using that same corrupt system
is just an exercise in futility. It's like trying to fix your broken
arms using your broken arms. It's like trying to start a car that is
out of gas or has a dead battery. Our current political system is
designed to be reform proof, although that's not how it started out,
as those who have read the US Constitution well know. The
Constitution has well-established checks and balances to protect and
maintain the country
and the American people from tyranny from within and without.
That's why "campaign finance reform" and all other such
efforts to "reform" our current political system from
within are doomed to either fail outright or be so watered-down as to
be nearly useless. All these outrageous government actions are
exactly what we should expect from a government openly for sale to
the highest bidder. “We the people” are just
government-controlled fodder and political afterthoughts for the
moneyed special interests. Moneyed special interests paid for these
outrageous government actions, and they got what they paid for. How
much longer are we going to tolerate this? We, the people, got
screwed while corporate America and Wall St. received obscenely huge
bonuses and golden parachutes! I have the solution to this problem,
and it can be found in any English dictionary.
rev-o-lu-tion
(Dictionary.com) 1. an overthrow or repudiation and the thorough
replacement of an established government or political system by the
people governed.
Our country's
elections amount to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. We can't
vote our government back to us. It was deliberately taken away from
us, so we will deliberately take it back. A peaceful, people's
revolution is the preferable way we can take back our government.
But, like a now-deceased colleague of mine used to say, “Use your
first amendment rights and protest! If that doesn't work, use your
second amendment rights!” The trillion dollar business of buying
and selling political influence (currently the driving engine of our
government) must be overthrown, repudiated and thoroughly replaced if
democracy is to survive in America. This massive influence-peddling
scam must become our number one political issue because it underlies
and thus greatly affects all other issues. If we don't get all the
dirty money out of our politics, our democracy and our standard of
living will continue to decline and surely America will take the rest
of the world down with us. That doesn't sound like the kind of legacy
I'd like to leave at all. The prophet David's son, King Solomon of
Jerusalem, wrote near the end of the Book of Proverbs something which
still holds true over 3,000 years later, and I quote: “Speak up
for those who cannot speak up for themselves, for the rights of all
who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of
the poor and the needy.”
proverbs 31: 8-9) And again it is written, “He who
oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is
kind to the needy honors God.”
(Proverbs 14: 31)
We
can't afford to sit by like sheep or stand around like cattle meekly
waiting to be slaughtered! We must find ways to hinder and harass the
corporate state at every turn, and to control the violent tendencies
of the police who protect them. Nothing will change unless we, the
people, begin to organize radical acts of civil disobedience to
disrupt our current political system, upping the ante until this
massive influence-peddling scam is thoroughly exposed and eliminated
(search: 'overturn Citizens United'). For example, in Iceland in 2012
when the entire country went completely bust (you know, like the USA
is about to) the people – not the government, but the PEOPLE!) –
had arrested and jailed over 100 bankers after throwing the old
government out of office – peacefully but evidently very
effectively. The citizens stood in the streets and banged on pots and
pans, and they didn't stop until they got what they wanted. Nobody
worked, and no children went to school for the first part of this
national strike. Then they (the people, not the government!) wrote
a new constitution
and passed it into law. It was reported all over the European press
but largely censored here in the US. Is it any wonder? If there were
enough people inspired by what happened in Iceland, it could happen
here next. Indeed, it well should! Well, what do the elite
capitalists want? They can either allow what happened over there to
happen here, in which case America will turn into another Greece,
Spain, Ireland, Italy or Portugal. Or maybe even another Egypt, Yemen
or Syria. Or they can declare martial law and simply seize absolute
control. The only way to prevent this from occurring here in America
is that “we the people” must take back our government by peaceful
revolution because it will never be given back voluntarily. So get
your pots and pans and your biggest serving spoon ready, and brush up
on the US Constitution and all 27 of the amendments! Remember what
President John F. Kennedy said: "Those
who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution
inevitable."
One final thought. “Rich and
poor have this in common: God is maker of them all.” (Proverbs 22:
2)
No comments:
Post a Comment