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The Massachusetts Disaster

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[img]583|left|Eric L. Wattree||no_popup[/img]I find myself quoting my own material quite a bit here lately.

I am not trying to prove I am a prophet but rather that if one looks at what actually is happening in America instead of what one wants to see or what is politically comfortable, the facts are clear.

America is waist-deep in a class war. The poor and middle class are losing badly.

The reason is corporate interests are keeping us distracted by deluding us into thinking we're still fighting the last war, race. But corporations don’t give a damn about race. I have mentioned before that in this new economy of the new world order, where corporate competitors all over the world have people working for pennies a day, corporations can’t afford the luxury of being concerned about race.

All they care about is making money. That means doing whatever they have to do to degrade the living standards of an expensive U.S. middle class.

Soon We Will Be One

If you’re White, poor, and uneducated (with the rapid rise in the cost of education, that soon will include most of you), you’re considered latter-day “coons.”

If we don’t wake up, the Aryan Brotherhood, Black Nationalists, and the Mexican Mafia will be forced to come together because we will be picking grapes in the same field, at least those not fortunate enough to get the better-paying, underpaid jobs, as cannon fodder for the military.

That brings us to the race for the late Ted Kennedy’s seat in the U.S. Senate. Even after all of the pain, mayhem, and corruption that the Republican Party has brought upon the American people over the past decade, Massachusetts, one of the most Democratic states in the union, has handed the seat of the Democratic Lion of the Senate over to a Republican, Scott Brown. If that is not bad enough, since it has a direct impact on healthcare reform (Sen. Kennedy’s lifelong passion), voters have slapped the memory of Ted Kennedy directly in the face.

Proving My Contention

The election results not only were horrific, but a disgrace. The outcome serves perfectly to demonstrate the perfection of the corporate strategy of disinformation, the electronic programming of our minds and the undermining of the American educational system.

If liberals and progressives would stop trying to rationalize this election away and recognize it for what it is, it could serve as a blessing in disguise.

The Democrats can spin the Massachusetts loss any way they like, to local politics, a bad campaign or a bad candidate. The bottom line is, the Democrats lost because they failed to turn out their base. They have not given the Democratic base any reason to turn out.

Liberals have to realize that they can’t sit around waiting for a political Messiah.

We are the Messiah.

As Benjamin Franklin pointed out, “God helps those who help themselves.” No, it is not in the Bible.

Yet, instead of remaining focused on the issues, many on the left are arguing over whether criticizing President Obama for failing to address a given issue might help the Republicans. They forget the President works for us, not the reverse. If he wants to serve himself well, he’d better jump onboard our train. The only transportation he has is what we give him.

It is the people's job to remain focused on the issues that we want addressed. American politics is designed to allow the people to promote the policies they desire. Then we tell the politicians what we want. The politician goes on to promote his career by effectively establishing and/or addressing those policies to our satisfaction. When the people fail to ensure that concept is firmly established, you get a Joe Lieberman.

Sure, we want our favorite politicians to remain viable, but that's up to them, based on how well they handle our issues. They exist for us, not the other way. What good does any politician do us if he or she ignores our agenda. The Republicans understand that. That is why they have control over their representatives. No Liebercrats over there. The Democrats still are having a problem with the concept, which is why they’re losing their base.

While I greatly admire Obama, and I’m proud to have him as our President, I never allow myself to forget that he is also an employee. Neither should any Democrat. When America voted him into office, we voted for change, a new direction. Considering what we had previously, that meant, a progressive agenda that entailed a strict adherence to the rule of law and equal justice for all.

Even though Obama may have saved the world from another Great Depression, which I'm sure all sane people appreciate immensely, change is not what I see. When President Obama announced that he wanted to “look forward instead of backward” with regard to the hundreds of thousands of people killed and maimed by the Bush administration and our corporatocracy, that did not indicate change. It shouted, “business as usual,” which concerns me.

That was a defining moment in his Presidency, a point where he may not have lost but greatly alienated a huge segment of his base. I am convinced it contributed greatly to the Democratic base failing to turn out in the Massachusetts election. They have lost hope for change, and their enthusiasm that brought tears to the eyes of people all over the world during his inauguration.

While the economy and healthcare reform are important issues in the immediate political environment, they will be dealt with in due course. The rule of law, and the concept that no one in America is above the law, goes directly to the heart of what this country represents. That concept determines what kind of nation America is going to be forever. History will reflect it as the 3 a.m. call of Obama's Presidency.

An irony is, they always seem to let these criminals off the hook “for the good of the country.” If Nixon had gone to jail for Watergate, Reagan never would have committed treason by selling arms to the enemy during Iran/Contra, or flooded our inner cities with drugs (whose effects we still are suffering) to circumvent Congress's Boland Amendment.

If Reagan had been jailed for those offenses, Bush never would have lied to the American people to drag us into the lawless invasion of Iraq, which led to the death and maiming of thousands of Americans, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.

Notice how each circumvention of the law has become progressively worse, and the resulting mayhem has become more egregious. In the case of the Bush administration, we have gotten to the point of blatant war crimes, concentration camps, torture, a big brother-type spying network on Americans, a total disregard for American troops, and a direct assault on the United States Constitution.

Yet, President Obama says he wants to look forward and not back?

Mr. President, I like you a lot, but even a caveman would have to question your judgment on this issue. You're a Constitutional lawyer, surely not crazy. If we allow Bush and Cheney to get away with these horrific assaults on the American rule of law, what will the next group of scoundrels do to us?

What do they have to do to us before we get the point? The U.S. Supreme Court has just outlawed democracy. Corporations already have established a private army in Blackwater/Xe. We could literally end up having warlords in this country.

So today we suspend the rule of law to absolve Bush-Cheney, then to prosecute terrorists, then Muslims, then Black Muslims, then Black people, and then finally, poor people in general who fail to follow the party line.

When you assured us of change, this was the major issue that brought you so much enthusiastic support.

Now, many supporters are wondering what you could be thinking when you caved in.

I don’t know what you are hearing from your “experts” in Washington. I am virtually certain that if you had aggressively addressed the rule of law against war crimes instead of letting Cheney thumb his nose at you on Fox News every other week, we would have elected another Democratic senator from the state of Massachusetts.

Who knows? Perhaps with the application of justice and accountability, you might have even made us a little safer. Perhaps one or two potential terrorists might have thought, “Maybe the Americans aren’t the Great Satans we thought they were.”

Mr. Wattree may be contacted at wattree@verizon.net

You may learn more about Mr. Wattree at wattree.blogspot.com

Religious bigotry: It’s not that I hate everybody who doesn’t look, think and act like me. It’s just that God does.