Politics of a New Paradigm

It is Independence Day and the good people of Stepford are celebrating their freedom, high on Prozac, bellies stuffed with nitrates, nitrites, animal antibiotics and steroids. Our troops are protecting us, somehow, 6,000 miles away in Iraq, so that we can be safe here at home, and doggone it, we are proud to be Americans. The sweet smell of spent gunpowder fills our nostrils, as the melodious sound of fireworks crackling massages our ears.

The fact is, the United States decided to fight for its independence because the people were being taxed, but their interests weren’t being represented in the British government. Even as we feel the warm breeze drying a sentimental tear or two from our cheeks while the flags wave to passersby, today, in America, in 2008, we live under a system that taxes us heavily, but offers us no representation in government.

The elected politicians have no idea who we are, and they don’t care how we live. They are beholden to corporations, foreign interests, and their lobbyists. Our money is backed by nothing, printed like pulp fiction, and converted to debt that is purchased by foreign countries and investors. Nobody wants oil companies to register record profits each quarter at the expense of their kids getting a new pair of shoes, but you don’t see the politicians doing a damned thing about it.

Most Americans want out of Iraq, but now even Obama is looking for wiggle room to stay. The fact that we have no choice, no representation in government is clearly demonstrated by the presidential race. Obama moves further to the right every day, so much so that it is becoming difficult to envision what would be different about an Obama presidency than a McCain administration. In the end, AIPAC and international corporate and banking interests will pull the strings, regardless of who their figurehead is in the White House.

I pay taxes, but I don’t have health insurance or the right to a cost-free education. My taxes are not used to subsidize my right to affordable food. My country doesn’t care if I starve. My taxes aren’t used to subsidize gasoline so that I can afford to get to work. My taxes aren’t used to subsidize heating fuel so that I don’t freeze to death. My taxes are given to corporations, war profiteers, and even those taxes aren’t enough. The politicians who represent the corporations actually borrow virtually unlimited sums beyond available tax revenue and give that to their masters as well.

I like my neighbors and the people who live with me here in this place that they call America. I love baseball, and apple pie ain’t bad either. Much of the land is inspiring and beautiful, until the politicians mine it, drill it, pollute it or develop it. But let’s face it, we are as free as our next paycheck, and we have no representation in the government.