As a former land surveyor, I can verify that you must start from where you are. If you don’t know where that is, it’s called “Lost.” When lost, one needs to consult a map. If you don’t have one, you have no chance of going where you wish to go. Unfortunately, too many of my Progressive comrades fantasize about where we are and, worse, refuse to look at the depressing map of the territory.
As Sherlock Holmes would say, “These are the facts of the case.”
Where we are is not “our Democracy,” but rather a classic Oligarchy based on and supported by Monopoly Capital and, possibly, the world’s most predatory economic system. The entire media establishment is owned and controlled by the above. I know no one who trusts media “news” including myself.
Our Federal government is actually a somewhat benign sort of corporate fascism: owned and/or controlled by oligarchic, corporate power and protected by a compliant military and police. Though the voting franchise has widened, voting itself has been cheapened, corrupted and nullified.
As to the incessant chants of “That’s not who we are” or “We’re better than that,” a discreet peek at our history might help:
Jim Crow is who we are. (100 years.)
Vietnam is who we are. (10 years.)
Iraq is who we are. (Still there.)
Afghanistan ($1½ trillion) is who we are. (17 years. Still there.)
(Also see Native Americans/Black people — 400 years of pain.)
So let’s acknowledge where we are and start from there.
At the national level we have never had any government resembling “Democracy.” Over our entire history, we have been ruled by oligarchs through a tenuous constitutional republic. Any careful reading of our Constitution will reveal that it was designed mainly to protect property and prevent change.
We must be realistic about the very successful oligarchs cementing in place an oppressive status quo that is immune to electoral politics. We must honestly, and yes, painfully, look at the US electorate. Understandably, poorly educated, poorly informed (The “Media”) and misinformed (The “Media”), we (The “Media”) tell ourselves that “we are the richest and most powerful nation in the world.” And the “greatest Democracy.” Really?
The millions in our prisons may be puzzled by that.
How about the millions sleeping in abandoned autos, under bridges, on the streets and in doorways?
The 40-50% of our fellow citizens who can’t cash a $400 check?
The tens of millions who have no access to decent health care?
The tens of millions who have no access to higher education?
And, of course, we ignore the many nations screaming at us to stop killing them with drone strikes and massive releases of polluting chemicals.
Though incomplete, that’s still quite a menu. Not to worry! We can vote!
Question: How do the following systems work for the bottom 100 million Americans?
The Political System
The Economic System
The Health Care System
The Legal System
The Educational System
I have visited many nations that could answer, “Very well, thank you.” To be fair, these nations have fewer billionaires and less corporate control of government. And, of course, no wars at all.
About those billionaires: their billions represent unpaid wages and unpaid taxes—nothing more.
Fellow Progressives: Please realize the magnitude of the problems we face; and, please acknowledge that the tools we’ve been using are utterly inadequate for the task.
The unpleasant and depressing realities of our world will not change or go away unless we make them change and go away.
LARRY JONES, Eugene, Ore.
I was shocked and disappointed with Ted Rall’s vicious assessment of Joe Biden’s mental acuity. It is one thing to have strong opinions, and another to be vicious. I see Biden as a man who is a national hero. He came out of the bullpen to save the country. He may have lost a step, but watching his press conference just now, and observing his conduct during the campaign and since his election, he knows government and genuinely wants to help the country. Picking out an isolated incident to support an extremely serious allegation is not good reporting.
My best friend from college, whom I have stayed close to since we graduated in 1972, has a son who was Biden’s personal assistant for seven years while Biden was VP. He swears by Biden as a person and as a politician who has not forgotten why he got into politics.
PAUL WHITE, Ridgewood, N.J.
Just read Stephanie Appell’s rant (Letters, 11/1/20 TPP) against our favorite columnist, Ted Rall. He is fearless, and his sensible views are shared by many progressives, similar to Juan Cole, Katrina Vanden Heuvel and Richard Wolff, which remind us how the Democratic Party long ago abandoned “We, the People.” The Rightist cant of conservatives like Joe Conason, Froma Harrop and Gene Lyons, underscore the dominion and resolute incompetence of the Clintonistas, who again forced on us the DLC-picked standard bearer. (Be reminded Biden was a hapless, distant fifth in primaries, when deals were cut to freeze the Progressives.) When honorable folks (ex. Noam Chomsky) reluctantly encouraged us to still vote for Biden “because he is not Donald Trump (and) can be pushed,” they forgot how Biden will be pushed — to the Right. When so many Republicans endorse Biden, it is hardly a hopeful sign; they know his administration will be no threat to business as usual.
A razor-thin Presidential victory is no tribute to the Dem Party, but to the credit of those who courageously got out the vote. For how long are we expected to hold our noses and vote for another corporate stooge? For how long will this country remain the only “democracy” that has no viable third party options? By the way, please, do not cut any of the above writers whom we score above; Justice O.W. Holmes was certainly an Elitist, but he was correct on the benefit to us all of the “marketplace of ideas,” which has become a frightening concept that the Dem Party leadership now fears.
JOHN SAMORE, Albuquerque, N.M.
A documentary film about the world’s first nuclear test at Alamogordo, N.M., in 1945 shows Dr. Robert Oppenheimer shedding anguished tears while watching the spectacle, and quoting from the Hindu scripture, “Bhagavad Gita,” “I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”
Within just a fraction of a second after the A-bombs exploded in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, thousands of people within half a mile from the atomic fireballs turned into piles of smoking char as their internal organs boiled away. And thousands more who were closer to the epicenter, were vaporized in the blast.
Imagine that infernal horror! In all, about 120,000 lost their lives immediately by the two bombs, and tens of thousands more died later from radiation exposure.
Yet, as hard as it is to believe, in 1981 an article in Time magazine reported that those diabolical weapons “were puny and primitive by today’s thermonuclear standards.”
I agree with Don Rollins (in “Nukes: The devil that never left” (11/15/20 TPP) that “a reduction in nuclear capacity translates to a safer world, but not a safe world. And somebody ... has to keep that reality before us.”
In my opinion, the most eminently qualified person for that job is Dr. Helen Caldicott, founder in 1978 of Physicians for Social Responsibility. She recently wrote that a 20-megawatt bomb (the equivalent of 20 million tons of TNT) would evaporate all life within six miles in all directions. And she surmised that “75 years after the dawn of the nuclear age, we are as ready as ever to extinguish ourselves.”
Progressive Americans want free healthcare and a college education for all. Conservative Americans want the corporations to run our country for profit ... while more than a few, I’m sure, only want their favorite sports teams to win. Well, no one will have anything if we are all dead after a nuclear Armageddon.
DAVID QUINTERO, Monrovia, Calif.
Much has been written to try to understand and explain the appeal and surprise victory of Donald Trump in 2016; an outsider, not a politician, a “successful” businessman, not Clinton, etc. These and other reasons could possibly be accepted as plausible and imperative when his bigotry and true identify were not so fully understood.
But now that his racism, misogyny, homophobia, narcissism, pathological mendacity and other vile and disgusting characteristics have been on full display for four years, what is the overriding appeal he offers anyone to vote for him this time around? What positive reason can there be to actively support him that trumps his toxic nature?
For what do you sell your soul.
ROBERT McALLISTER, Lantana, Fla.
Don’t these so-called militia groups have any realization that they are being played for fools by a fool? nnLook, Trump will always make out by lying, cheating and taking care of only himself by taking advantage of them, until he no longer needs them to serve his own selfish needs. Then, surprise, they will once again become part of the disgusting people that Trump doesn’t want to even shake hands with, you know, the general American populace.
MIKE EKLUND, Mercer, Wis.
Here is what I would have the national Democratic Party do about the conservatives and Republicans trying to steal the election from Joe Biden:
1. File lawsuits in the courts alleging voter fraud in every state where Trump won narrowly.
2. File lawsuits in every Senate election where the Republican won narrowly.
3. File lawsuits in every House of Representatives election where the Republican won narrowly.
Why not?
To me, it was more likely that voter fraud was committed by Republicans than by Democrats. These people have no consciences, they believe that the ends justify any and all immoral and unethical means. These Social Darwinists also wouldn’t be bothered by millions of people dying in the streets from hunger and lack of health and medical care and health insurance. They would just walk around the corpses.
STEW EPSTEIN, Rochester, N.Y.
No matter the size, we may be having a family gathering soon. We may be tempted to throw our pie across the six-foot space into the face of a politically opposite-thinking relative.
At that moment, we may forget there are starving children everywhere and 40% of the food in America is wasted. Ask the sewer rats around the Senate.
Why waste that homemade lip-smacking, delectable, aromatic, golden-crusted, mouth-watering deliciousness and does the plate go with it?
Let us be nice to each other. We may have to mince our words, and the apple pie doesn’t fall far from the Christmas tree.
FLORA ORMSBY SMITH, Marblehead, Mass.
From The Progressive Populist, December 15, 2020
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