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Thursday, April 9, 2015

Our Democratic Republic

          Every opinion I expound and every goal I propose for our country is based on certain facts in which I believe firmly, with all my heart. The first and most important of all these facts is, God created the heavens and the earth. If you don’t believe that, pray tell me from where our world did come. Who else or what did create it? Second, on this earth, God created man whom he instructed to dress, till, and keep the earth, having dominance over all with requisite responsibility (You can find that in the Holy Bible in the book of Genesis. Yes, I may not have worded in the same exact way.).  The earth is the responsibility of man. Therefore, based on these facts, it goes without saying that a third fact is that the earth exists for man—all men. Obviously this refers to man the species which includes everyone, men, women, and children of all races, colors, and creeds. Nowhere do I accept that the earth belongs to 0.1%, 1%, or 10%, etc.—the rich, the powerful, or the smartest. This earth belongs to all 100% of us!

Just as I believe in that, I believe in the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for our people—all of us, every last one of us, as declared in our Declaration of Independence. This means, at a minimum, people have a right to food, clothing, and shelter, i.e. the right to a job with livable wages and housing. For those who are disabled or can’t find work, these rights should be provided to them and maintained until their condition improves. Our instructions, “Feed the poor”, and “Love they neighbors as ourselves” demand no less. Also, in a great and rich nation such as ours which consumes 25% of the world’s production while consisting of only 5% of the world’s population, our nation’s total productivity, our GDP, i.e. our total income, is sufficient that we can afford to provide Public Education, Pre K through the first four years of college (or vocational school for those who prefer a trade school to college), Social Security for all, and public access to single payer Health Care for all.  This can and should be paid in full on a “pay as you go” basis, incurring no deficit or debt through designated income taxes, based on one’s ability to pay.

As you know, there are always those who abuse the system—those who want something for nothing, those who just lay around leaching off the productivity of others when they are able to work, those who lie, cheat, and steal. You know nothing is ever free. That everyone must produce to the best of their ability is imperative. These kinds of people must be dealt with, whether they be couch potatoes or large corporations on welfare, corporate inversions, or sandbaggers moving their income off shore. Patriotism must be returned to Capitalism.

I have said to you many times that the largest threat to America today, larger than anything else, is the threat to our Democracy, our Democratic Republic, the power of our vote. Not only should you be scared out of your skin about this, scared of becoming a fascist nation dominated by a dictator like Hitler or Mussolini, or scared of becoming enslaved proletarians ruled and dominated by a plutocracy, you should also be downright angry; but let me explain. When God put man on this planet many years ago, man soon found he had to work and work hard. You remember. God kicked him out of the Garden of Eden. The Bible says man had to henceforth earn his living by the sweat of his brow. As man progressed toward civilization, his productivity slowly became more and more complex. It took more than one person to produce a product and/or to perform a service. Eventually, man produced businesses, and soon, many businesses’s evolved. These eventually became institutions, later to be named Corporations. These institutions were created by man to serve man by providing a quality product or service in competition with others. Obviously, if they couldn’t compete, they would go out of business.

 Along that same path, as people grew in population, they tended to gather into tiny communities, then villages, then towns, and, ultimately, cities for which they needed to establish order, security, and self reinforcement. To this end, they established another institution to serve their needs—Government. Get this straight. These institutions, Corporations and Government were both created by Man to Serve Man for the good of Man. They are Institutions of the People, by the People, and for the People to serve man. They are Not people. What is more; you have (had?) a vote in both of these institutions. In your government, you can vote for your representatives. In the corporations, your vote is your dollar. Now what does all this have to do with anything?

I know you won’t like me saying this, but I’m going to say it anyway because it is true. As citizens of a Democratic Republic, we—each and every one of us, have, a personal responsibility to rationally and intelligently vote at every election, screening every candidate for whom we are proposing to vote, based on his/her qualifications, i.e. intelligence, knowledge, education, experience, leadership ability, and competence, in light of the issues and needs of the position which he desires to fill and your government at the time. When we vote, we are hiring a top executive for a very important job that might have a lasting influence on our lives and that of our children, grandchildren, and on and on. But what do we do? Most of us base our vote on the candidates looks, personality, party (My great grandfather was a Whig; my grandfather was a Whig; so was my father. By gosh and by golly, I’m going to vote for a Whig). We neither know nor think about the candidate’s position on issues and such. In fact, most of us don’t even know the issues. All we know is the propaganda spued daily by emails, gossip, and the media. This is documented fact. Check out the book, The Myth of the Rational Voter. In the election of November, 2012, only 1/3 of all the registered voters showed up at the polls to vote. I submit to you that issues weren’t, for the most part, even discussed during the campaign prior to the election. It seemed like everything but the issues were discussed.

As a result of our past failures we now have a government completely controlled by the large corporations (I call them The Corporatocracy) and the Power Elite (These are the very rich[the top 0.1%] and the powerful Think Tanks [The Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, and American Enterprise Institute, to name just three]). Your/our vote is almost worthless. Our elected representatives are bought and paid for, almost wholly, by these peoples. They no longer represent us. They really represent the “Haves”, to whom 90% of our nation’s income is going. It is documented fact that our middle class is disappearing and our “Underclass” is growing fast.

Take note. This isn’t just happening here. The Corporations are taking over all over the free world. You know what has happened with NAFTA. You also know about the Atlantic Trade Agreement. Now keep your eyes on the trade agreement currently being negotiated in the Pacific, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The whole thing is being done in absolute secrecy. Think about what that is going to do with jobs.

You are going to do what you are going to do. I can’t change that. But, if you care about your country, currently a Democratic Republic wherein you have the right to vote, you had better start forgetting the party line and, instead, take back your right to vote and your right to have your vote representative of you rather than the Corporatocracy and Power Elite as is now. Am I against business? Absolutely not! I want business to serve the people as they are supposed to do. I want business to change their first priority from that of serving profit to that of serving the customer—you and me, like it is supposed to do. Your priority in voting should be for populist candidates such as Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Robert Reich, etc., people who care about people, who represent the best interests of the people. There are others, but we must search them out. There are lots of fakes.

I am sorry. If you cannot look around you, read, study, and see the relationship of what I am telling you with what is happening before your very eyes, and do something about it, I don’t know what else I can do to help. On the other hand, if enough of you don’t care, we are in big trouble. What can you do for a start? Raise holy hell with your Congressional Representatives in the Congress, your Representative in the House and your Senator. Tell him/her you want money out of politics—no more campaign contributions in politics, public, private, or personal. Pay for campaigns out of the government budget with taxes. You don’t want to add another tax? Do you really think all the campaign contributions as they now are, are not being passed on to you? Trust me. You’re already paying the bill. You’re just getting it in the back. Secondly, let’s rewrite the voting laws and put them under Federal Law. Let’s get the discrimination and gerrymandering out of them and allow for more than two parties. Let’s have fair voting.

Ronald Miller

Email me at mtss86@comcast.net








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