Who's Responsible for this Mess

 I am looking around at the mess that this country, and a lot of the world, is in right now and I see a lot of people asking this question in one form or another. And I have an answer. And it is probably not one that any of us are going to like.

The short answer is that we all are. Every single one of us collectively and individually. The Blame, the Responsibility, is completely collectively each and and every one of us. Without exception.

And No, this is not a case of both sides are as bad as the other. While we are all Responsible we are NOT all the same.

Now I know that it is not "fashionable" to take responsibilities for this mess. That we have been conditioned to look at "the other side", or both "sides", and blame them for this mess. The reality is we are all responsible.

There are, however, some who are more responsible than others. Those are the ones with Intention. We shall talk about it all here today.

First off the ones with Intention. I have talked about this before and probably will again. And yet, I feel as if this must be hammered on. Too many people do not want to face this and thus ignore it as they feel that there is nothing that they can do about it. They can. We all can. And I shall discuss that as well.

The Rich and Powerful have always made sure to find ways to separate people who should be united from one another. People who work for a living. They have always vastly outnumbered the wealthy. So class warfare has been going on throughout history. Because the few times that the working people have united it has never ended well for the wealthy people of the time. A great example of that is the French Revolution of 1789.

They have used Religion, Race, Income, and many other tools to keep people who work divided from each other and thus unable to fight the real enemy, the wealthy. The wealthy decry Class Warfare to keep you and I from fighting in the Class War that they have been fighting forever.

So the Uber Wealthy, using their latest tools of Talk Radio, Fox "News", an astounding variety of websites, and their biggest collaborator, the Republican Party, and some other tools, have been fighting  Class War and dividing the people less wealthy than them to hide their class war, and has been in this form since the beginning of the Reagan years. A continuation of the fight that has been ongoing since the creation of money and the realization that accumulating it gave power.

And as always, they fear that we will stop fighting the battles with each other that they want us to fight and band together to fight the battle we should fight. The fight to make a world that works for everyone. A world where no one gets left behind. A world where we ALL live lives of dignity and strength. A world where there is Enough for all rather than the accumulated Hoard of the few.

Now we will talk about the the people who have most vocally bought into the division. They call themselves Conservatives and/or Republicans. And, to me, there is Nothing Conservative or Republican about them. In my view of them, supported by a lot of Historical Data, they are Reactionaries. I can already hear you asking "What does that mean"? so let us goto dictionary.com and see what they say:

Adjective:

   of, pertaining to, marked by, or favoring reaction, especially extreme conservatism or rightism in politics; opposing political or social change.

   Synonyms: ultraconservative

   Antonyms: radical

These reactionaries are reacting to a lot of things. The Freeing of Black People from Slavery after the Civil War. All attempts to make sure that Black People were integrated fully into American society. The Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Voting Rights Act of 1964. Every single advance in Civil Rights since then. They were mostly in the Democratic Party until the 1960's and then became Republicans over about a decade after. The so called "Reagan Democrats" were the tail end of the shift of racists from Democrat to Republican.

The Reactionaries have always been there. They have reacted, thus the name, in a negative way to any attempts to make ours a more just and equitable society. And the weapon that the Uber Wealthy use to wind them up is Fear, Hate, Blame, and Grievance. Fear that by giving rights to others that theirs are somehow being diminished. Hate of people who do not look, sound, or exist differently from them. Blame of those they hate for all of the ways that their lives are not working. And grievance that the world is changing and they do not understand it.

And why do they do this? A partial reason that they do this is because they are yearning for a past that has never really existed. A past that looks like the ideal version of the 1950's America that has never been true. A past where, in their view, they were powerful and in control.

And another reason is that they are in a time when they have seen the world shift under their feet and everything that they thought they understood has become something else. Something foreign and scary. So they are afraid. And, instead of being able to accept being afraid they get angry. And look for someone to blame. And the wealthy oligarchs with their media channels and dis-information machines tell them who is to blame. Falsely of course. And they buy it because that is easier than being afraid and facing the world as it is that they find so fearful.

So they go thru their lives wound up, hating and blaming others, and full of grievance at how "unfair' everything is. And very easily manipulated by the uber wealthy with their dis-information tools.

Another party, pardon the pun, in this disaster is the Democratic Party. They are supposed to be able to act, even when in the minority, on behalf of America. The problem is that from 1968 to 1972 they divorced the Labor Movement and lost their way. They became unmoored from what used to define them and became a party with any guiding principles except winning elections. they also began to be completely dependent on Big Wall Street Money where they used to depend on Unions and smart Organization of a Ground Game. They became Republican Light.

As Howard Dean said in 2004, if given a choice between a Republican and a Republican Light America will choose a Republican every time.

And one of the problems with being light is that they have no real guiding principles. They have lost, as an organization, any semblance of spine that they ever had. And they did at one time. From FDR thru LBJ they had a spine and knew how to fight. And when they divorced labor they lost their spine and ability to fight. And win.

There have been individuals that have known how to fight and win, and there still are. Not enough. And, while I like Bill and Hillary, they sold out to the Third Way Centerist/Corporate crowd and while they did do some good things, they also did some completely atrocious things. Google the Sister Souljah speech if nothing else.

And the fighters today are being sidelined as fast as possible. Kept out completely wherever possible and kept away from the keys where they have to. Think of Bernie Sanders and the Squad. They fucked Bernie in the 2016 Primaries and lost to the Orange Felon as a result.

Now onto Liberals/Progressives. Of which I am one. Just in case you do not know that.

Our biggest problems have been that we keep trying to have everything align as we want in our candidates perfectly or we don't support them. If they are one iota off of what we think they should be then we get disgusted and demand conformance. Bernie is a great example of that. He has a couple of places that I do not align with him. Nothing major. And by that metric I should have no problem supporting him. For we align for the most part and 100% on the major issues. Fortunately I am not looking for a unicorn and did and do. What is amazing to me is how many of my fellow Liberal/Progressives did not support him for what they admitted were minor differences.

Another thing that we tend to do, and I have been guilty of this myself, is we do not cross support on issues. We tend to stick to our issue and not support others on issues that we can agree with, yet not support others because their issue is not the one that we feel about. We got to get under the BIG umbrella folks. Support each other even when it is not "our" issue. Especially then.

Then there is the folks who feel like they must follow the direction of the Democratic party at all costs. I will admit that the Democratic Party is the only viable opposition party there is right now we do not have to be so beholden to it. We can, and must, work within the party to drag it away from the Corporatist wing of the party and get it much further to the Left. Which in today's environment means to the Center. And we can, and must, do everything we can to promote 3rd Parties until we finally break the 2 party duopoly that we have in the country today. Which has us shackled. We must break free of those chains.

And we must support younger candidates that have not been co-opted by the Corporatist Wing of the Democratic Party. We need new blood, younger blood, and we need it now. We must Primary all of the old guard and sweep them away with people who understand the stakes and will fight for it.

And, finally, the biggest group of all. In the United States of America it is criminal that they biggest block of eligible voters is those who DO NOT VOTE. People who do like politics, who do not pay attention to politics, and who DO NOT VOTE.

And why does this exist? There are many reasons. For one the 2 major parties have gone so far to the right that many normal people do not feel that they have any connection to either one. They have been convinced that nothing will change no matter what they do.

And they are not wrong. They are trying to survive an increasingly hostile world and, so far, neither party has shown thru it's Actions that they give a damn about them. And they cannot see voting as having made any difference. Because no matter who gets voted in the Nazi Ideologues are still in charge in the Republican Party and the Spineless Weasels who "send strongly worded letters" and never really fight for anything are still in charge in the Democratic Party.

So why should they give a shit?

So, we are all of us, every one of us, Responsible for this mess.

And we are all responsible for fixing it.

And that is going to take Active Effort from all of us. And some of that active effort is going to create hardship. So we all need to be Responsible for the Well Being of each other. To the best of our respective ability.

We Must Become The American Community. The Human Community.

In the ancient days of pre Imperial Rome, during the so called Republic, several times the working class of the city would just leave the city of Rome and go to the country side. And Rome would stop working. Many things that needed working class people and could not be turned over to slaves just would not get done. The Army would get no recruits. Everything would come to a standstill. Today we would call that a General Strike. They called it the Secession of the Plebians.

 And that is one of the things that we can do. A General Strike to shut down industry and hit the Nazis in their Bottom line.

And another thing is Stop Shopping at the Big Chains. As much as absolutely possible. Stop. Shop at Farmers Markets. Shop at Thrift Stores. The ones that are small and operated by your Neighbor and not part of any chain. Switch from Banks to Credit Unions. You get the idea. Hit the Big Chain Nazis in their Bottom Line.

Go and introduce yourself to your neighbor and ask them how you can support them in doing these things. Make a Community that Supports Community.

We are all responsible for this mess. We are all responsible for fixing it.

Are you wiling?

I am.

Namaste 🙏