It’s Time To Take Off The Gloves It’s Time to Take Back our Power - Dick Rauscher
It’s time to take off the gloves.
It’s time to say “we’ve had enough”! It’s time to take back our power. It’s time to force all ideologically inflexible politicians out of office, including the inflexible, petulant, ego-driven, emotionally adolescent tea party politicians who need to be“right”. They are gridlockingCongressandshutting down our nation’s political process by adamantly rejecting all compromise. They are emotionally and intellectually far too immature to hold public office in a democratic system of government.
It’s time to reverse Citizens United and remove the 1% from the driver’s seat. They have used their money to purchase and take over control of our nation’s electoral process long enough. Corporations are not people. We, the people, are!
It’s time to get big money out of the political process and elect politicians based on their political positions, not on how much campaign money they can raise by selling their souls to the 1%, the bankers, and the multi-national corporations. It’s time to stop offering our democracy to the highest bidders, whether they are the ultra-wealthy 1% or the multinational corporations.
It’s time to remove political ideology from the Supreme Court and get back to interpreting the law based on the Constitution and the ideals and values of the founders…..not subjective personal opinions.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve had it. I’m getting angry. I’m tired of feeling powerless. It’s time to take off the gloves and fight back.
We’re one year from the next major election cycle. One year to take back our power as citizens and voters. One year to exercise the constitutional rights given to “we the people” by the founders of our nation.
Free Market Capitalism
The industrial revolution created free-market capitalism. And free-market capitalism created the modern world. Unfortunately, free-market capitalism is based on the survival of the fittest mentality and “what’s in it for me.” It feeds on greed and the tendency for the system's benefits to migrate to the wealthy.
The free market system works when:
the benefits of the system are shared by a strong and healthy middle class, and
when the greed of the “fittest” is regulated and controlled by a healthy democratic process.
A democratic process that ensures the wealthy 1%, the bankers, and financial power of the multinational’s, are not allowed to limit the benefits of a free market system from flowing to the working middle-class.
A democratic system in which the greed-driven abuses of power by the “fittest” 1% and bankers can be countered by the working middle-class voter by imposing effective laws that prevent and regulate those abuses of power.
A democratic system in which the free market system can be reset and brought back into balance through the voting booth.
A democratic system that is focused on the “we”, “us”, the “whole”……not just the ultra- Wealthy, the banks, and the multi-national corporations.
Free Market Capitalism Is Not Working
The balancing process described above is not working. Today the wealth of the 1%, banks, and the unprecedented wealth of the multinational corporations are working together to control the free market system by the intentional introduction of fear and doubt so-as-to distract and manipulate the minds of the average voter.
We are being told ad nauseam that the world is a dangerous and frightening place, and only they can protect us. When “we the people” begin to awaken to the reality that the system is dangerously out of balance, big money finances the creation of more fear and doubt in the media to confuse, distract, dis-empower, and divide the middle-class. They use their financial power to muddy the waters and distort reality to the point that no-one knows what is truth any longer.
It’s not infrequent that the information being disseminated by the financially backed media is intentionally designed to misrepresent, distort, and in many cases disseminate out-and-out lies cloaked as “truth”. The media is paid by big money to simply ignore the distortions and lies. Big money supports political brainwashing by financing a never-ending repetition of their distortions, fear, and doubt.
Overwhelmed and confused by a media that’s also controlled by the wealthy, we’ve lost trust in the media, our government, our courts, our politicians, and in our own ability to navigate all the intentional misinformation, confusion, fear, and doubt.
Fear And Doubt Are Intended To Keep Us From Voting
The goal of the fear and doubt being disseminated is designed to intentionally create confusion and uncertainty, a sense of powerlessness, and an overwhelming feeling of despair in the average voter. The more fear and doubt they create, the more it fuels our sense of powerlessness; the more we are discouraged from voting; and the less likely “we the people” will exercise our power to correct the system.
The 1%, banks, and the multi-national corporations want a confused, dumbed down, powerless voting public. They want us to feel so overwhelmed we become pliable sheep. And they are winning that battle! The number of people voting in our national elections is barely over 50%. When 50% of our voters don’t even bother to vote, big money is clearly winning the battle for control of our nation! It means the ultra-wealthy only need to influence and convince 25% of the total population of the country to exercise control of our nation!
The sad reality is they are winning! It’s time to take off the gloves. We are not powerless if we exercise our power to vote. If we embrace the expectation that “somebody else” needs to fix the problem, guess what! That “somebody else” is also waiting for some other “somebody else” to fix the problem. Bottom line: everybody is waiting for “somebody else”t o fix the problem. For some it’s God, for others it’s science. For most of us, however, it’s simply that nameless “somebody else”.
The reality? Only you and I can fix the problem, but we need to vote to do that. We need to keep our eye on the goal, trust our common sense, and not allow fear and doubt to emotionally overwhelm us and make us cynical and passive. When that happens, they win by default!
Some Common Sense We Need To Trust: Because We know that It’s True
Common Sense: Politicians who are unable to compromise should be immediately voted out of office. A democracy corrects itself when it loses balance through the check and balance of dialectical thinking and compromise. Dialectical thinking simply means that every thesis or idea creates the negative feedback of an anti-idea or anti-thesis. Balance requires the negative feedback of dialectical thinking, and the ability of both sides to compromise when the pendulum has swung too far to one side or the other. Stated simply, the ability to search for, and embrace the truths found on both sides of every issue.
Common Sense: Politicians who accept financial contributions from the 1%, banks, or multi-national corporations have sold their souls. They have violated our trust. They are selling our nation’s political process for personal gain. They need to be voted out of office. We also need to reverse Citizens United. Citizens United is a cancer eating away at our democratic process.
Common Sense: Politicians who are anti-science and deny the warnings of 97% of our environmental scientists are not smart enough to be elected to Congress or hold office. The highest form of ignorance is when you take on someone else’s uninformed opinion as “truth” and then adamantly reject something you know anything about. Climate change deniers need to be voted out of office. Why? Because you and I will end up paying the price for their arrogance. The unawakened ego always needs to be “right”.
Common Sense: Politicians who vote against building and supporting growth in our nation’s infrastructure lack the wisdom required to hold public office. They need to be voted out of office. History is blindingly clear; if you want to create jobs and strengthen the working middle-class, investing in our nation’s infrastructure is the best way to achieve that goal.
Common Sense: Politicians who are biased against women, immigrants, blacks, the poor, the homeless, or advocate eliminating social security or health care for the poor and elderly because we “can’t afford it” clearly lack the compassion and wisdom to be in public office. We need to vote them out of office. They fail to understand that we are a very diverse nation, and we are strong only when our values reflect justice and compassion for all of our citizens. Period.
Note: And by the way, we can afford these public programs. All we have to do is stop giving them billions of dollars we’re currently giving every year to subsidize the oil companies and other multinational corporations. (OCI estimates our annual fossil fuel subsidies range from $10 billion to $52 billion annually yet these numbers don’t even include the costs borne by taxpayers related to climate intensification, local environmental pollution, and health impacts of the fossil fuel industry. As of July 2014, Oil Change International estimates U.S. fossil fuel subsidies at $37.5 billion annually, including $21 billion in production and exploration subsidies.) It’s no wonder the petroleum industry can afford to “purchase” our politicians.
And the final, Common Sense: any politicians who advocate war over negotiation, violence over compromise, or any sense of “us” vs. “them” in a 21stCentury global human culture clearly lacks the moral courage to create peace in the world. Most of the “terrorists” in the world are victims of our attempts to export “democracy”. Every bomb we drop out of “fear” only creates more people that hate us. More people see us as evil. More people that don’t trust our words because our behaviors are so violent.
Politicians that encourage us to be fearful and advocate war over negotiation and diplomacy need to be voted out of office. National patriotism is too often promoted as simply another veiled form of “us” vs“them” tribalism. We need to end the “never-ending war” that we have been financing and supporting for the last five decades! We need to find ways to increase transnational cooperation and diplomacy with other countries. The military option is not working!
We can’t bomb people into submission and then ask them to trust us.
Summary
These ideas are common sense…..not rocket science. When a politician tries to create doubt or confusion as a way to deflect our attention away from these important ideas and values instead of actively searching for ways to embrace and implement them, they are violating the ideals and values that made our nation strong. Vote them out of office. Now! We can’t be distracted by issues designed to emotionally distract us. Building a thousand-mile-long wall between Mexico and us, deporting millions of immigrants, removing the social security system, defunding Planned Parenthood, denying global climate change, and reversing “Obamacare” are gross examples of a country that lacks compassion for the poor and elderly. Worse yet, they are being used to emotionally distract us from the more imperative common sense issues listed above. We need to keep our attention on the important issues, not the emotional distractions.
We need enlightened, awakened, better leadership, not inflexible, narcissistic, ego-driven, petulant, adolescent politicians that refuse to compromise and adamantly “need” to be right.
We need better leadership.
Our children need better leadership.
Our grandchildren need better leadership.
Our world needs better leadership.
It’s Time To Take Back Our Power
It’s time to take back our power. Discouragement is normal. But if we give in to it, we truly are powerless. And we become part of the problem, not part of the solution!
We live in a democratic system that gives our voice power through open elections, but only if we choose to exercise it! It’s called voting. It’s the most powerful political weapon ever created if we have the courage to exercise that right. Our politicians and leaders are not royalty. They are not Kings and Queens or dictators with absolute power. We elect them as temporary leaders. We can remove them from public office. As citizens in a democratic form of government, you and I are not powerless. In fact, we are the most powerful force on the planet right now! We can change the world!
We can do it one vote at a time if enough of us work together.
It’s time to take the gloves off. Don’t be confused. Don’t be scared. Don’t be passive. Don’t give in to despair. Trust your intuition. If something feels wrong, it probably is. Trust your gut. Beware of emotional distractions. Big money is spending millions of dollars to keep us emotionally distracted by fear, doubt, and emotional issues that have nothing to do with the primary common sense problems listed above.
Get angry. Our nation is headed in the wrong direction. You know it. I know it. It’s time to take back our power. Vote. And encourage every person in our nation to vote. Become a voice for the antithesis. Create some negative feedback. Together we can bring balance back into our democratic system. Our children are counting on us. The day is coming when they are going to ask us “what were you doing while our nation and our world were falling apart?”
I want to be able to say “Everything I could think of……and I voted!”
