Don’t Expect Miracles from U.S. Lawmakers When It Comes to the Environment—Or Anything Else
It’s no secret that U.S. Congressmen routinely act with complete disregard to the interests and needs of the people who elected them; in fact, this sad truth is so pervasive in Americans’ lives that it really doesn’t even make the news anymore, and very few wonder about its cause.
In the wake of the many recent mass murders in school shootings, when 89% of voters demanded deeper background checks for proposed gun owners and the U.S. senate denied the will of this near-unanimous super-majority, we all shook our heads in disgust and, correctly, wrote this off to the corruptive power of money in politics—in this case, the NRA (National Rifle Association) and the stranglehold it has on all U.S. laws associated with guns. Most voters barely noticed that this had happened; for most it was just another case of business as usual.
This week, however, we learned that there may be another explanation for Congress’s lack of concern for the common American—layered on top of corruption—and that, of course, is blackmail. It’s not bad enough that our law-makers are prostitutes. Now we find that our whores also face threats of being “outed” as white supremacists if they don’t behave according to the wishes of Louisiana Representative David Duke, former Ku Klux Klan leader, who’s apparently prepared to name names if that’s required to get his fellows to agree to his demands.
I’m not sure how much worse it can get for American democracy. Incredibly, we have no other choice than to wait and see.
We can do more than wait and see. We must do more. We can watch, work, learn and teach. We can organize and demand a better government and a better life – just as we did in the 1930’s with the labor movement and the 1960’s with the civil rights movement.
Good government is how We the People defend our Public Commons and advance our Common Good. Good government won’t come from people who hate government. It also won’t come from a passive populace.
The prosperity and stability which we who live here in the U. S. often ascribe to the 1950’s, and the social consciousness to which we aspired as a nation in the 1960’s, can both be achieved – for all the people in the developing nations of the world, for ourselves, and for future generations.
I love this country. Apart from her great natural beauty and her abundance of wildlife and resources, I love her not for what she is, but for the potential she offers and has always offered to the world.
Despite our history of vicious foreign meddling and poisonous domestic intrigue, we continue to offer a vision that has vastly expanded from the original myth of a democratic republic proffered by our nation’s founders. They managed to shine a light toward a path beyond their open sanction of a small ruling faction of affluent white male landowners, beyond the trap of indentured servitude, and beyond the monstrous crime of slavery.
That light endures, in our progress in recent generations, and in our memory of their defining words…
“…to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…”
We can’t and shouldn’t hope for any carefree utopia, and I’ll always firmly support people making a fair profit manufacturing conveniences, trading in recreational services, and exchanging their labor and talent for a decent living. Yet the rising control of our government by wealthy interests has created a dystopia that’s grossly unjust, blindly self-focused, and lethally materialistic. This threatens the social progress we’ve made over the centuries, and the natural world we’ll always need to survive.
As uniquely envisioned in America, the government’s purpose is to function as the enforcement and protection arms of We the People, to protect us, and our resources and achievements, and to do things and build things for each other and for future generations that “the market” cannot or will not do.
The alternative is the perpetual bondage of the entire human species to an elitist, autocratic, and monopolist collective whose sole endeavor is to blindly exploit and deplete the people and resources of our world in order to increase the opulence of a few.
Our choices are dignity or slavery, liberty or death. It has often been so. Many civilizations have perished through blind and cruel devotion to monumental waste. But now, we possess the unprecedented ability to fling mass death across the globe in a fit of rage, if we fail now, ours may not merely be the next civilization to perish… we may be the very last.
Apathy is not an option.
Where to now? Truth – Non-Violence – Cooperation – Direct Action – Perseverance.
Don’t … Give … Up.
As I noted elsewhere, I knew you’d disapprove of my defeatist attitude here. And you’re right about everything you write here, of course. You’re also aware that, most of the time, I don’t really feel that way. Just some of the time…
I know. I don’t blame you, and you’re not alone in that. You’re also not alone as an optimist, nor as a realist. 🙂
Chris Hedges said, “I don’t fight fascists because I think I will win. I fight fascists because they are fascists.”
Moreover, Gandhi (who, of course, was singularly instrumental in India’s non-violently freeing itself from deep and massive exploitation by a powerful global empire) told us, “Whatever you do may seem insignificant to you, but it is most important that you do it.” …and… “You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.” …and… “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
Climate denialists in congress have now slowly gone from claiming human climate disruption is “a hoax,” to “it’s nature, not humans,” to admitting “I’m not a scientist.” I’d say that’s a little progress.
I continue to have great respect for you, and the work you’ve done – and are doing. It’s a difficult struggle – noble endeavors usually are.
Re: progress in climate denialism: http://2greenenergy.com/2015/01/03/discussions-climate-change/
Thanks, my friend. And what a beautiful quote from Chris Hedges.