There are six big issues in the United STATES of America that the media is ignoring. Among the Members of Congress, only one, Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX-22), speaks publicly and coherently about these issues. Here they are:
1) The Power to Wage War. This is vested in Congress and has been abdicated to the Executive.
2) The Power of the Purse. This is vested in Congress and has been abdicated to the Executive.
3) Consent of the Senate. This is the new issue, that of “czars” unconfirmed by the Senate who have broad powers (or are merely very bad impotent theater, depending on your perspective).
4) Of, By, and For the People I. Corporate Personality and the legitimacy–or illegitimacy–of corporate spending on campaigns combined with the legitimacy or illegitimacy of the two-party tyranny, demand scrutiny by the public and finally–decades late–concerted public decision on how “it is supposed to be” in order to be consistent with the vision of the Founding Fathers and the Constitution of the United STATES of America.
5) Of, By, and For the People II. The issue of coherent transparent government able to address all threats by harmonizing all policies, all in the context of a balanced budget that makes sense to and is executed on behalf of the public, is the litmus test. Any government that cannot do this can–according to the Constitution–be abolished.
6) Of, By, and For the People III. Apart from campaign funding and legislative corruption, the matter of the national security state is coming to a head. We are learning that every President has felt trapped between a political system of partisan selfishness, and a commercial system of unfettered greed centered around three complexes: military-secrecy-intelligence; prison-slavery-privatization of security; and pharmaceutical-medical profit from waste and illness.
Until the public achieves public intelligence on these six issues, and makes its own determination as to whether the government should be reformed or abolished (in either case, kicking corporations and wealthy individuals that are “virtual corporations” out of the business of looting the public treasury), the United STATES of America remains on a path to self-destruction.
What is increasingly clear to the public is that what is being done “in our name” is un-American, unaffordable, and unforgivable. Truth & Reconciliation is going to have to be the order of the day someday, we pray sooner than later.
As long as the Secretary of State is obsessing about Honduras and the President is playing the Iran card, we can be certain that our government is not actually paying attention to what it needs to do to create a prosperous world at peace.
There is one silver lining in this cloud: when all is said and done, the public will still be sitting on the land, will still be armed, and will be able to demonstrate the capabilities of adaptability and resilience that top-down hierarchies cannot. “Ownership” in paper terms will mean nothing–what will matter is who is actually “present.” Howard Zinn has it right–the people are a power the government cannot repress. The only question is: how much longer will the people allow the government to loot the land with such irresponsibility that we are now the laughingstock of the world?
