I’ve been thinking a lot lately about an argument that I had over the Vietnam War with a Christian friend of mine back in the mid 1980s. At the core of this argument, was whether or not the military arms manufactures, and the military contractors, were in fact highly influential in the decisions that our government made early on in this conflict, and in the subsequent escalation of the war - and if the real reasons for our involvement in this conflict, were primarily about military contracts and profit making (war profiteering).
Our debate centered on whether or not our government would lead us into a war, and would allow US citizens to be placed in harm’s way, based on nothing more than a lie. My friend found the idea so appalling that our democracy could be hijacked in such a way that tens of thousands of our citizens had died, simply so the big corporations could rape our nation, and raid our tax dollars. He said that our government could never be that evil, not in a million years. I contended that these were in fact the reasons for our involvement in the war; and that the main reasons why we were not still fighting this pointless conflict, was because of the strong middleclass that we had at the time – and that was now the main reasons that the puppet masters of his hero (Ronald Reagan) had now shifted their war efforts on the middleclass.
In the times when we have had a strong middleclass, our leaders were directed and driven by the will of the electorate, and not by the interests of the big corporations. Back in the 1970s, the wages were good, and the cost of living was fairly low, and our citizens had more time for both leisure and to express their dissatisfaction with the direction that the nation was headed back then. I argued that if it had not been for the involvement of the hordes of middleclass, who were defiantly protesting this unjust war, and demanding the withdrawal of our military personal; that this conflict would have never ended.
I never could get my Christian friend to understand back then, the direction that our nation was headed; he was only concerned with the shortsighted rightwing agendas like ending abortion and becoming a Christian nation. I argued that these religious issues were simply being used as a ploy by those with their sights set on a complete corporate government takeover, and in doing this, by undermining the middleclass – I argued that if the ignorant Christian-sheep in this nation, didn’t open up their eyes and start seeing just where they were being lead and why, that someday they would wake-up, and everything about this nation which makes this nation the greatest nation on this planet, would all be gone, and gone along with their freedoms and their jobs, and the only thing that we would be producing as a nation, would be wars – and without a strong middleclass, and the checks and balance – we would all find ourselves at the will of the big corporations and their elected cronies.
For years, I pleaded with this moron to open up his eyes, and stop subscribing to the pipedream of a Christian nation that his rightwing heroes were playing to him – I told him, that as these evil motherfuckers came closer to archiving their goals, that they’ll orphan all of your silly Christian asses as well.
Today this guy is homeless – years ago, before he lost his job, his preacher convinced him to refinance his moorage, and pull out the equity, and then donate it to the church – he then lost his home to foreclosure – this was the same preacher who convinced him to vote for Ronald Reagan – he now blames Obama for all of his troubles.
You may not agree with my opinions, about how and why we arrived at where we are today – but the fact is, we’re here. And are we now past the point of no return. And is the split that we are now seeing within the Republican Party over the Tea Party, simply caused by the fact that our democracy is now just for sale to the highest bidder, and for sale, indifferent to which party that they choose to deal with – have the big corporations simply orphaned their base?
