Layman's View
columnist: John Layman

Topic: Third Party Strategies
Splinters: Self-interest and Polarization

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Splinters. That's all we are any more. There is a polarizing force in the center propelling everyone out towards the edges. That force is self-interest and stupidity.

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by John Layman
(centrist)
Thursday, June 25, 2009

Splinters. That's all we are any more. There is a polarizing force in the center propelling everyone out towards the edges. That force is self-interest and stupidity. When a major crisis arises, like say for instance World War 2 or 9/11, we move toward to the center and work together for survival. The crisis we are in today is different than those, but no less critical. It is a crisis of corruption. Our governing institutions are rotten to the core with special interest money and corporate coercion. Meanwhile we, the Great Middle, watch debates over partisan political issues like our lives depended on them. We don't seem to see our freedom and autonomy vanishing right before our eyes. Soon it won't matter where you stand on the political ideologue meter. Your kids will be working at McDonalds and Wal-Mart into their 30s no matter what degree they have. If your children are craftsmen or service workers or in manufacturing, they will be working for pennies if they are working at all.

The fact that there is no vibrant outcry about what is going on in this country is a testimony to the fact that we are doing what we are told and believing what we are told. In a democracy you can't always just roll over. In a democracy sometimes you have to stand up, together with your foes, to vanquish greater foes. How right do you have to be? Will it feel better to say, "I told you so", than to join a fight to turn it around? Everyone will be saying, "I told you so" because in a cascade failure all systems break down and all the prophets of doom from every splinter get to hop up on their fences and crow. Way to go, boys. Hoooorah! These lazy good for nothing ideologues can't even entertain the dying anymore.

This story is like an insane play on the fall of Rome, 1000 Neros fiddling in the flames. Ever multiplying in number , ever shrinking in impact, the splinters are just kindling that feeds the fire. They burn up so fast they disappear like sparks over a campfire, nobody getting warm but the crooks holding the matches. Meanwhile, white collar criminals pontificate in the halls of government and in the media and we just ride along like bobble heads furiously nodding , "Oh yes!", or, "Oh no!" as the wheels fall off. OK, I'm having a little fun here, but the scenario isn't that far-fetched. Every power shift in history has required a coalition. It will take a MAJOR COALITION of American patriots to save this dying democracy. Save the ship, then argue over the duty logs and the mess hall menu.

There are common values that under gird our right to disagree and debate the issues. Take away those common values and the debate becomes meaningless. The right to pursue liberty and happiness means nothing in an atmosphere of economic depression. In order to protect and preserve meaningful freedom Americans must exercise the Bill of Rights. The right to a free press guarantees we get real investigative news. The right to privacy means they can't just break down my door and arrest me when I say, "ITS TIME WE DO SOMETHING!" The right to assemble guarantees the power of numbers.

If there is anything our "representatives" may still respond to, it is a massive reaction from the populace. That is why they work so hard at keeping the Great American Middle polarized and splintering. Our factional icons are like a bunch of pretty parrots echoing things they heard over and over again, but they have no impact on anything as they bark at each other. They're like a bunch of monkeys throwing feces at each other as they fight for breeding rights and social dominance. We are following them like a bunch of lemmings running together over the cliff because, "that's the way we have always done it".

This corrupt stripping of the national trust is a BI-PARTISAN EFFORT. There has to be a force to resist a force. The force of corruption is strong arming the people of this nation into an oligarchy that wears the costume of democracy. "Let them eat cake!" is the laughing epithet of the corporate Queen who dances behind the Louis the 14ths in our Congress. "We ran out of bread!" will be the epitaph on the headstone of the American working class. After the dust clears the wealthy will have moved to calmer shores, having looted the national trust, leaving a New Dust Bowl behind.

Of course we can get together and exercise another option come election time- "Off with their heads!" Don't worry you can't make it worse, they are selling America out as you read. It seems to be an impossible dream, but it needs to be dreamed. A grass roots third party movement centered in the preservation of the public trust (with a focus on eliminating corruption) is sorely needed. But we are just a collection of splinters, too caught up in our own reflections to notice the dirty water that has risen up around our necks. That's the Layman's View, an' it ain't Rocket Science.

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©2009 John Layman, all rights reserved. You must have written permission from the author in order to republish this work.
Published: Thursday, June 25, 2009
Last modified: Thursday, June 25, 2009

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