Feature - Memorial Day for the U.S. of A.

Look to sovereign immunity, credit card debt, the barter of guns for regulation for the consumer, and tell me where is the outcry in our democracy?

I wake up thinking about what is wrong.  I cannot sleep, and I am trying to find the words to bring me resolve.  I think I must write more these days.

I am angry.

I am sad.

I am disappointed.

My husband is such an optimist; it is I who am the cynic.  Yet every day I see his hope in this country wane.  He is still sleeping, so that is a good sign, but when we take our walk in the evening he says, “It just seems everything Obama does gets halted.”  And I say, “Yes.”

As of Thursday, May 21st, the great credit card bill just passed.  Wow.  Now the credit card companies are required to give forty-five days’ notice before they raise your interest rates from twenty to twenty- five percent (or from whatever your current rate is).  Senator Dodd of Connecticut says this “cements a major victory for every consumer,” and I think if that is a major victory for the people, we are definitely no longer by and for the people.  We are in such dire need to applaud something in this country after the previous eight years that we are now applauding mediocrity.  People wanted change.

In my heart I believe Obama is “better” than the last administration.  I believe, even more than that, that he represents change. So why, then, are the credit card companies (i.e., the banks WE the people bailed out) winning?  There is still no cap on the interest rates and they are threatening to penalize the people who pay their bill on time.  And tucked into this “credit card victory bill” was the bill allowing people with gun permits to carry their guns into national parks…okay, Senator Dodd, how does this protect the consumer?  Even though the House was able to separate the bills and protest the gun legislation, the Senate voted for them together, and the bills were pushed through together.  Apparently, the credit card bill was so contentious that those protesting had to be given something in return.  So, those looking out for the consumer gave the other side their handguns in national parks.  This will surely help the homicide problem.  What I find really ridiculous is that the credit card bill is so lame, and yet still its protectors had to barter for passaage.

Hmmm.

There is a health care plan on the horizon.  With this we will see the change, I pray.  With this we will see our great democracy at work.  Right?

But all of this has overshadowed some deeper policy issues that call our democracy into question.  For example, let’s look at the NSA (National Security Agency) and Obama’s own new policy of making it illegal and, therefore, impossible, to hold the U.S. government accountable for illegal wiretapping.  Meaning, no one can sue the government if it wrongfully breeches someone’s privacy.

Obama (and his administration – which I shall call him from now on since he is the legal guardian of this administration and we voted him in) is calling this “sovereign immunity.”

Wow.

Even Bush, even Cheney, even Gonzales never went this far.

So how did we get here?  Bailing out our banks with almost no protection for ourselves in terms of guarantees to little guy loans, credit card rates, CEO salaries and bonuses (for which we are paying).

How did we get to a “democracy” that means Big Brother is watching you and you cannot do a thing about it?  I grew up learning about the Soviet Union's wiretaps in telephones and hotel rooms.  You might think that this is extreme, but I assure you – ANYTHING – left deregulated – will get out of control.  And how do we, as a people, regulate the abuse of power of our government, listening to us, using petty information against people in crimes completely unrelated to a “terrorist threat,” if our government is claiming “sovereign immunity?” 

The NSA was established in 1952 to help monitor foreign threats. Supposedly that is why the unwarranted wiretapping started. Monitoring foreign threats.  And supposedly that is why the torture of prisoners in the U.S.A started.

But.  ANYTHING – left deregulated – will get out of control.

The reason our country is in such a financial ruin is because there was no regulation on banks and financial institutions.

Not to mention the wars.  There are billions spent every month on Iraq and the Senate just approved 91.3 billion more for Afghanistan.  (Meanwhile the government of Afghanistan wants to negotiate with the Taliban…so what are WE doing?)  There are only a few people who benefit from this spending.  It is, as Eisenhower coined it, the Military-Industrial Complex; not ironically at all, the major benefactors are the same corporations who lobby with huge amounts of money to our Senators and Presidential campaign.

So...who is running the country?

And now, if the House and Senate are “Democrats” why is Obama facing such opposition?

“Yes,” as I sadly told my husband. The political parties are more similar than different.

We have not yet learned that the people buying these congresspeople their seats are the ones who own us.

Call it plutocracy.

Call it corporatocracy.

But, please, do not call it a democracy.

Our change will begin when we recognize what control we do not possess.  And fight for real change.

Not just the color of a president’s skin.

Or the words from his mouth.

But the things that DEFINE our nation.

We do not torture (but we still do, permissibly).

We are for the people, by the people (we buy the banks).

We have civil rights, privacy rights, and if the government errs, gravely, we can and must hold it accountable for its error (not with sovereign immunity).

Change is a comin’, but I have to warn you all of something I have been shouting since little Bush began to reshape the Constitution.

It is not for the better.

We are losing our government.

Our banks.

And our civil rights.

Again, I say, look to Rome.

Look to Germany during WWII.

Look to Stalin’s Russia.

Look to sovereign immunity, credit card debt, the barter of guns for regulation for the consumer, and tell me where is the outcry in our democracy?

My husband tells me this essay is depressing.  He asks me what I want the people to DO?  I say, I only want them to do something, anything.

To be outraged.

To take back our democracy by advocating real change and supporting a multi-party system.

I want people to write their congresspeople and tell them that there should be a cap on interest rates.

I want them to demand an end to the profits of the Military-Industrial Complex by demanding of our president that we get out of this win-less war.

I want people to protest the “sovereign immunity” of wiretapping in defense of our Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

I want people to read the Bill of Rights.

I want them to understand that we must no longer applaud our own demise and mediocrity.

We must be willing to take back our democracy.

Again.

And again.

And again.