The American Dream has been replaced by the American Disappointment as evidenced by a decade of zeros and nothings just ended. Will Americans find their national roots in revolution? by Joel S. Hirschhorn
(libertarian)
Friday, January 1, 2010
My anger has morphed into sadness, heartbreak actually. As the decade of zeros ends I see nothing but a tragic, historic and deadening American Disappointment, a terrible replacement for a once noble American Dream. The Great Recession was merely one symptom of the nation's slide into slime, a quicksand created by the two-party plutocracy.
Free of delusion I have come to this sad reality: Once upon a time Americans could confidently believe that their nation was on the right track, getting better, offering most citizens a decent chance of living securely and proudly. Now, that view has been smashed by many years of undeniable evidence that our political system is frighteningly corrupt by forces that have ensured an economy serving the interests of the rich and powerful. Their pursuit of happiness enslaves ordinary Americans. America's middle class is a disappearing and suffering set of distracted victims, slipping continually into the lower class of an inevitable two-class system. Most are oblivious to their fate, to the electoral tyranny that manipulates and consumes them as fuel to keep the corpocracy humming.
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman was right about the past decade: "It was a decade in which nothing good happened, and none of the optimistic things we were supposed to believe turned out to be true. the decade in which we achieved nothing and learned nothing." Do you think children noticed?
The decade of numerical zeros was also the decade of nothing. Nothing, as in not having a home anymore, not having enough money for food, not having health insurance, not having a decent job anymore, not having the friend or relative that lost their life in Iraq or Afghanistan, not having money and financial security for retirement and old age, not having any more illusions about politicians like President Obama who sell themselves as agents of change and reform but end up like all the other lying plutocracy-serving political hacks, only this time hiding behind blackness. But learning nothing is even worse than having and achieving nothing. Worse, because nothing is likely to stop the slide into slime. Nothing promised by Democrats or Republicans is likely to revive the American Dream, now replaced by the American Disappointment.
Tyranny can prosper along with elections and even freedom. That should have been a lesson learned by the many millions of Americans victimized by corporations and dysfunctional government agencies that did nothing to protect them from the greed, incompetence and criminality that savaged them. What is even more inscrutable is that we do not see Americans rising up in righteous, populist anger and discontent to tear down the system killing them. Why is there such stability in a system so corrupt, disgraceful and unjust?
This is the great mystery that defines the American Disappointment. A country founded on revolution is so sick it cannot see the need to use it again against domestic, elected tyranny.
Our Constitution provides the path to a peaceful Second American Revolution, yet Americans do not even get excited when they hear that Congress has refused to obey the Constitution and the option in Article V for a convention of state delegates that could propose constitutional amendments. An option put there by the Founders because they anticipated the day when citizens would lose trust in the government. Nor do they become enraged when it is pointed out that Congress flagrantly disobeys the Constitution and their oath of office because they fear constitutional amendments that could truly reform the political system, ones that they would never propose. The nation is filled with constitutional hypocrites more than willing to ignore a piece of their beloved Constitution that Congress refuses to honor. As if it does not matter. Just the supreme law of the land and the rule of law smashed with the invisible fist of ignorance. By itself, enough for a revolution, once upon a time.
Wait, perhaps all this grief over my country does not really matter. After all, in about a hundred years there will be a whole new set of Americans. Maybe they will be in an even more devastated condition than today. Then, finally, the revolution may appear. Wish I could be there. Wish you could be there.
Here's a resolution for the New Year: As a US citizen I will act responsibly and do everything I can to get strong reforms of our political and government system. Start with becoming a member of Friends of the Article V Convention at foavc.org.
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What? Someone had the gonads to mention the world 'populist'! Ain't that some kind of endangered species? Last one died out during the jacksonian era I do believe.
Otherwise, your article is spot on. All the problems we have can be directly attributed to the voting public. As long as the public views politics as entertainment, celebrity, a sport, or ignores politics altogether, our lot wll continue to go downhill.
FOAVC would be a strong and useful tool for reform but it will never happen under this Corpocracy and Supreme Court. IMO, it's going to take a 3rd party populist movement to dislodge the Corpocracy and reform government. But, it can't be just any vanilla 3rd party. Reform can only come through a party founded in a few laws that serve to prevent the party from being co-opted by the Corpocracy or the money influence over time. Look over the Republic Sentry Party to understand a party so organized. The TEA party movement could form a new party and take over from the Republican's in 2012, no doubt. But, without laws in place to prevent being co-opted their effort would come to naught, IMO.
Good article. I too long for a massive and meaningful revolution in this country. As it is, most of the populace doesn't really care enough. Perhaps not enough fire in the belly so far. It might get to to a boiling point, but it might be too late anyway.
Good news/bad news. First the bad news.
The voting public is pathetic. We had a bit of an uptick in the youth vote during this last election, but for the most part, the voting public has been getting older and older. The youth simply don't care. Why ? The biggest reason these days is screens: Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, blogs, email, cell phones, video games, WII, television (with it's dominating presence of corporate media), iPods, DVDs, Internet, and probably loads of other screen-based activity that I am too old to be aware of. The public is being driven below ground and are becoming more and more out of sight of the people who have control of heat. under the pot they're sitting in. Too busy being occupied by screens to see what is going on around them.
There was a time when the populace would have been gathering up pitch forks and torches and storming the walls of the castle if they were treated in a likewise fashion by the money changers , politicians and rulers of their homeland.
Today, most people who have any concern, just stay home, turn on Fox News and listen to what a bunch of taliking heads say about it. The remaining don't even do that, since they're too busy watching American Idol (is that nonsense still on ?) Even the older folk who at one time might have been more engaged and done something, resort to that increasingly tiresome excuse, "I'm too busy. I don't have the time." Yawn !!!
Now the good news:
I could be fooling myself, but I do see a few bright lights on the horizon. A crack or two is appearing in the wall. There are quite a few grassroots movements that are popping up and gaing a foot hold. The internet does have its good points.
Free & Equal.org and Ralph Nader's 40-year old organization, Public Citizen are two organizations that I contribute generously to. I think they are truly worthwhile causes and I intend to contunue to support them. There are others. Change.org is a good one. To me, that is a good sign. Most will wither on the vine, but a few will bare fruit.
If these organizations can gain a firm enough foothold, and I think they eventually will, it just might be enough of a motivation to awaken the sleeping public to pull their heads from their slumber and join in.
Posted By: john de herrera
Date: 2010-01-01 19:07:02
and there you go again, joel. assuming or pretending that everything is not connected. it's not that americans don't care, or can't get rallied to their own best interests, it's because american society has been conditioned not to. you go on blaming the victim, though. it will rise up eventually and crush like a bothersome bug what i suspect you back. you're a either a bad pretender, or blind to the truth you profess to champion.
I tried to log on to www.fovac.org and was redirected to another site. However, that new link did not work. Any further information about finding your site would be greatly appreciated.
Your statement: "My anger has morphed into sadness, heartbreak actually." -- captures my feelings. But I do think that the Article V Convention may get more traction as we move into the coming debacle. Yesterday's LA Times carried an article saying that Ron Paul's positions were no longer considered "fringe." Although you posted that Paul's past is not well known, he has been instrumental in raising the Constitutional dimension of our current situation. I'm encouraged by the Times's recognition that something has changed since the last Presidential campaign in which Paul's ideas were treated with such disrepect by the Republican Party and the "moderators" of the various "debates."
I definitely want to look into your site and consider supporting it. Thanks.
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