Babble On

Like lots of other people ostensibly on the "left", I tend to wonder what happened to Barack Obama. Of course, if the polls tell the truth, the "left" I'm on is actually remarkably near the center. For instance, I'm for universal health care. So are most people. I'm for ending the two wars we're in... like now. As are most people. I'm for taxing the socks off the ultra rich. As are most people. And so on.

As for Obama... well, he's not so easy to define. He used to make noises like he was one of us. You know... like most people. He even did some ballsy things... like taking over the majority ownership of General Motors, for instance. And look how that worked out. General Motors has now totally turned things around. The idea that a government can't be involved in industry is ludicrous. Ask China.

But, alas, we have a system, and by golly we stick with it. Our system is to make sure the stupid rich get stupid richer and then some of the crumbs will fall off the table and we can eat.  Republicans and Democrats both support this system wholeheartedly, judging by their actions.

Obviously the crumbs the politicians are getting are substantially larger than the ones most of us get.

We also invade countries for reasons unbeknownst to any but those in the loop. At least we hope those in the loop know the reasoning. We're given reasons, of course,  but upon examination, they usually vaporize. We're fighting communism (remember... we used to fight communism... now we buy all our crap from China) or we're fighting terrorism, and so on. Again... Democrats and Republicans are for doing this. Most of us aren't. But in our ostensibly representative government, what most of us want really means surprisingly little. And an endless state of war is extremely profitable to some people. The money that is drained from our national treasury goes directly into their offshore accounts, or gold bullion stashes, or wherever they keep it.

I'd like not to be thought of as cynical. I consider myself realistic. I'd love to sing cumbaya and wear silly cute t-shirts and have a designer dog. But alas, I gravitate toward blues, my dogs are mutts and my t-shirt is white with a couple of stains on it.

Nobody is going to listen to us. Not Democrats, not Republicans, not Tea Partiers, not Jon Stewart, not nobody.  Power corrupts, and every time somebody gets into a position of power, they are corrupted. It's inevitable. It's a law of nature, as irrefutable as the law of gravity.

And so the best we can achieve, I suppose, is to state our little opinions, our small truths if you will, for posterity, and for the sake of others who might feel similarly. So that maybe, just maybe, when the dust settles in some unknown time, people will know that amongst the insanity, there was maybe a glimmer of light among the supposedly ignorant masses.