Democrat Looks Backwards and Forward—Unhappily

Despite my great affection for my country, my long-term
view does not coincide with the constant statements from
our leaders that our best days are ahead.

In support of my pessimism, let me offer a few
anti-nostrums as we move into the New Year with a new
Congress and the promises of those newly-anointed
representatives.

American voters in November 2010 didn`t have to be
bright to perceive that things are so screwed up. But
none of those elected offered anything in the way of a
coherent plan or plans to fix real problems. Even as the
new broom swept out many of the prior Congress, the
present crowd in both of our major political parties
does little to elevate my enthusiasm for America`s
future.

The dictionary defines the word
"nostrum" as
"a quack
medicine" or
"a favorite method for bringing about reform". The
word comes from the Latin,
"something of our
own making".

While I do not espouse anything like a
"favorite"
way to fix things, the mess we are in surely fits
"nostrum"`s
Latin origin.

In 2010, after much delay and hand wringing, President
Obama caved to his


generals and allowed the Afghan surge,
picked up the same flawed policies of the GWB years
fiscally and put the peccadilloes of the rich Wall
Street bankers on the US taxpayers` debt tab.

Will the John Boehner crowd do worse? Well, the


eight years of George W. Bush
might give even the most hardened Republican pause.

Regardless, the current printing of massive amounts of
new dollars borrowed from China and others to pad the
payrolls of the arms merchants and the bloated military
complexes won`t stop unless there is an uprising. The
world market`s current assessment of the dollar is far
from positive.

And, sorry to say, most people don`t even understand
what has happened to the USA as we moved over the past
four or five decades into becoming a globally dangerous



Roman Empire.

Since 1962 when the Vietnam fiasco was heating up to the
present time, military expenditures have been well north
of $20 TRILLION. While the taxpayers are often told this
is under 5% of our Gross Domestic Product, it is 23% of
our 2010 Federal Budget, more than Social Security at
20%.

Look this number


up for yourself.

Also see the Wall Street Journal  report




Tracking your Federal Tax Dollars
[November
6, 2010],
which tells the same story.

Remember our military and their arms makers have
America`s economy by the throat. I know you realize that
what was sold through fear and American job growth as
"defense" is
what this empire building is all about.

You doubtless recall the moves Allen Dulles (CIA
Director from 1953 until he was


fired in 1961
for his Bay of Pigs screw up) made to upset
democratically elected governments in Iran and
Guatemala, where Dulles found career-building success in
his participation with the CIA`s first attempts at
removing foreign leaders by covert means.

From Wikipedia:

"Notably, the elected Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh
of Iran was deposed in 1953 (via Operation Ajax), and
President Arbenz of Guatemala was removed in 1954. The
Guatemalan coup was carried out under the CIA code-name
Operation PBSUCCESS."
[January
3, 2011]

How many folks these days are willing to embrace the
rationale for Vietnam (Remember the vaunted
"domino
theory"?).

Clearly that 1953 Iranian caper sowed the seeds for
Ayatollah Khomeini`s ascension to power in 1979. Of
course, one could argue it kept us in cheap oil until
then. But the price since has been too high. Now under
that same theocratic dictatorship with its mad
front-man, Ahmadinejad (hey, the word
"mad" is even
embedded in his name!), we may be getting another
loose-nuke nation. And where are all those nukes? Would
a less invasive, more even-handed policy in the Middle
East have kept us from being so hated?

How about another
"defense" excuse,
"the missile
gap?" Remember the frenzied buildup of atomic bombs
at the Strategic Air Command under General


Curtis LeMay

which made sure the


USSR

would struggle to match us? Yes,
"defense" by
the USSR brought their country to financial ruin, a
message we failed to heed as many observers (not me)
gave Reagan kudos for the Soviet collapse.

Of course, the need to insure our oil supplies to keep
our bloated consumer-driven economy lubricated has
prompted our policies all along. This oil protection
pattern ultimately became the real rational for


George W. Bush`s disastrous "preventive" war

and allowed us to enter the final phase of our demise as
the world`s only Super Power. Permanent US war policies
seem irrevocably in place now.

To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, now we are engaged in a
great global war, testing whether this nation or any
nation so conceived in empire building can long endure.
Rome didn`t, the USSR didn`t and I bet if we persist we
will not stay afloat either. I suggest we really
practice defense, cut out a bunch those unneeded bases
overseas (737
of them according to


Chalmers Johnson`s
recent book, Dismantling The Empire!
and concentrate on real homeland security by insuring that our
borders are not penetrated by terrorists or overrun by
immigrants, legal or illegal.

Simply making a major jail time crime for the CEO`s of
companies who do hire illegal immigrants would be a
powerful start.

Imagine! Obama is out stumping about creating jobs and
yet his government allowed over 1 million work visas to
immigrants to be issued this past 12 months when we are
in the worst recession since the 1930`s. Go figure.

If we don`t fix this immigration invasion, we will add
100 million or more to our present 310 million
population by 2050 and continue to destroy public
education, our environment and general comity in the
process. Both parties are to blame, Dems for pandering
to Latinos and Reps for caving to the corporate
paymasters who now elect our Federal government and who
have turned our former Republic into an elitist
oligarchy (i.e. sharpens the old saw,
"the
best Congress money can buy")

After the



Citizens United
Supreme Court decision
we voters can only hope for corrective legislation, but
have you heard any pol running offering to push for
same?

Hey, then there`s


Social Security,
the “Third rail” of American politics, which


neither party

will address except to assure their constituents that it
is SAFE, as it will head for bankruptcy after Medicare.

I am almost 80 years old. My total contribution over my
wage earning life up to 1962 to Social Security was
$27,000. I took my first check when I was 62, 17 years
ago. Since then I have banked monthly checks north of
$1,300 so I have gotten at least $270,000 so far or ten
times (10 times) what I put in.

People such as myself with other income should not be
getting any Social Security! How many of us? Let`s find
out, set a total income top and fix it.

Also let`s put a lid on medical payments to people who
can afford to pay more. This is not rocket science just
stupid, greedy, wasteful avoidance of citizenship
responsibility, as we lurch toward a fiscal fiasco.

The flush of


2010`s Republican victory

will be brief unless the hard choices long deferred are
somehow agreed upon by both sides.

I am not at all optimistic.

Donald A. Collins [email
him], is a freelance writer living in Washington DC and a former long time member of the board of FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. His views are his own.