Sometimes I wonder about our country. I wonder how we can let ourselves be stuck in the situations we find ourselves and not speak out, or vote out the people responsible.
I see the government getting ready to provide massive bailouts to the banking industry as they foreclose on homeowners who made ill-advised borrowing decisions based on unsound lending practices, and I know that we will let it happen.
I see a war in Iraq that we actually had some passion about for while, but that was few months ago and now we are pretty much rolling over on that one too.
I see a government that tramples civil rights and practically laughs in the face of feeble attempts at oversight, while a legislative maneuver delays the FISA bill so the passion will recede on that too. And we go along with it.
We have the most expensive health care system in the world, by far, and for all that money we get mediocre systemic care and record corporate profits.
We have the largest carbon footprint in the world, we undermine attempts to address global warming internationally, and we have record, all-time record, corporate profits.
We have an emerging mercenary military force with hired thugs who rape, detain and threaten female soldiers, and are paid ten times what enlisted American soldiers are paid, and their parent corporations are making obscene profits on no-bid contracts.
We have an education system increasingly obsessed with testing and an accountability system designed to lead us to privatization and more opportunities for corporate profits, at the expense of our children's education.
We have a tax code that has been manipulated to the advantage of the wealthiest 1% of individuals in this country, while working people and the middle class have seen wages stagnate.
We have trade agreements that benefit multi-national corporations, and in return we get lead in our toys.
So, have I become "angry" or "shrill" yet?
Does calling someone angry make any of this more easy to dismiss or capitulate to?
I have seen John Edwards 4 times in person over the past year, and I have never heard him be anything that I would call "angry". Just passionate, which we need. He is the only one who is willing to lay these problems out for everyone to see clearly and the only one who is willing to take these problems on directly on behalf of the American people. Clinton will not. Obama will not. To think or claim otherwise is to ignore every bit of evidence from his actions and words in this campaign, and in his previous legislative track record of avoiding divisive issues. It's practically his campaign motto that he won't be divisive.
When members of Congress voted to extend the Iraq war, or allow unwarranted wiretapping, or open up access to sweatshop labor markets or any of the many other actions that we may find unfathomable from Democrats especially, I bet they had their own justifications; that this was bipartisan, they were not being divisive or shrill, and gosh, all the mainstream papers were in favor of it. And they can sleep at night apparently. And they will be reelected mostly.
And nothing will change if Democrats, and Democratic voters, capitulate yet again.
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