Because I live in Japan and post articles which are critical of America, I am
often accused of being anti-American. The truth is both
counter-intuitive and extremely disturbing.
I haven't changed ... America certainly has.
America has become anti-American!
The Constitution guarantees freedom of the press. Yet reporters are now being intimidated and threatened with arrest and incarceration. Whistleblowers who try to expose fraud, corruption, and waste in government by making available in public news media forums information of value to American citizens, are likewise harassed and prosecuted.
The Constitution requires the government to promote the general welfare. Yet the benefits of our economic wealth are accruing to a tiny elite while poverty is still pervasive and the majority of the population scrambles to make ends meet. Among the 34 highly developed nations in the world, America ranks 17th
in terms of life satisfaction __ happiness __ the key factors for its
low ranking being massive income inequality and excessively long hours
spent on average in the work place. In terms of health care and life expectancy, for the richest country in the world, America ranks abysmally low.
The Constitution guarantees equal representation of its citizens. Yet, the electoral system has become corrupted by unverifiable e-voting, grotesque gerrymandering of districts, and torrents of money in politics, which only guarantees the voices of average voters will be drown out and their participation in our democracy marginalized.
The Constitution guarantees the freedom from unwarranted search and seizure,
and right of trial by jury before peers, yet starting in 2001 by using
the endless War on Terror as an excuse, patently unconstitutional legislation has been effected __ Patriot Acts I and II, FISA, and the NDAA which Obama signed into law on New Years Eve 2011
while America was preoccupied with celebrating the holidays __ now
placing every citizen at risk for arbitrary arrest and indefinite
detention with no access to legal counsel.
The Constitution guarantees equality before the law. Yet rich elite white
collar criminals wreak havoc on our economy breaking countless laws and go free, while petty crimes by regular citizens __ especially people of color __ result in harsh and disproportionate prosecution and punishment.
The Constitution specifies that the power to make war is exclusively the responsibility of Congress. Yet the president as Commander-in-Chief often ignores the constitutional limits as well as the War Powers Act, using the military purely at his own discretion. This abuse of power results in unnecessary deaths of our citizens in uniform, while at the same time counter-productively foments enormous animosity and mistrust throughout the world.
Our legal framework via the Posse Comitatus Act has long barred the use of the military for law enforcement but vast and sophisticated surveillance by federal security agencies, the militarization of local police forces, and their handshake agreements with federal agencies, puts us all under the iron fist of enforcement agencies like the NSA and operatives of the Pentagon itself.
I could go on. But that might offend some people.
Sometimes the truth can be so anti-American.
[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]
