“Buddy, can you spare some change?”

 

We're on our own. You and I __ the vast majority of Americans __ have no one else to turn to.

Not our leaders, not our pundits, not our spokespersons, not so-called "job creators", not our teachers or ministers. Not the Clintons or Bushes, not the Trumps or Romneys. Certainly not the Kochs or the Murdochs or Bloombergs, Adelsons or Gates. Not the Dimons or the Blankfeins.

Most of them are on the other team, or at very least play for the other team. That other team is one that you and I will never get to join. It is an isolated, insular, impudent, incomprehensibly wealthy club __ a very tiny slice of our 300+ million __ who have so much, want even more, and will never be satisfied until they have it all. We are just more items on their shopping list. Welcome to capitalism run amok! Welcome to a country where everything has a price and there are some who are so possessed by greed, they see human beings as servants, chattel, minions, serfs, and __ if they can get us for free __ slaves.

What's this got to do with us? History has shown that in every society there is always an elite which sees itself as superior to the swarming mob, a cut above the unwashed masses, members of an aristocratic class, living in its own exclusive world of privilege. It's just an unpleasant side of human nature. There's nothing new about snobbery.

Why should we be concerned?

If it's not obvious, it's this . . .

They now own and control our elected representatives, including whoever holds the office of President. You doubt this? Look at Obama's aggressively embracing and promoting the worst, most onerous trade bills in the history of the world, TPP and TPIP. This one master stroke by the ruling oligarchs will enslave nearly half of the world's population. National borders will mean nothing. Corporations and the oligarchs who own them will exercise absolute imperial rule over wealth, resources __ our lives, and those of our children.

This whole TPP/TPIP issue should be a warning! There's a message in this treachery we need to remind ourselves of every waking minute:  Even some of those who claim to be "one of us" or "on our side" are owned by that tiny .1% of America who truly have the power __ the ones who are actually running things.

So . . . it's just us. It's you and me against them.

My strategy for radical electoral reform, as described in my book Candidate Contracts: Taking Back Our Democracy, is not elitist. Nor does it pander to the elite. It does not crawl to the rich and powerful and beg them to show us some mercy.

As a matter of fact, my plan is the essence of populist activism. For it to be successfully implemented requires participation by average citizens, across the political spectrum.

I will admit, I did send the book gratis to hundreds of thinkers in academia, think tanks, pundit pools, a host of well-known and not so well-known spokespersons for the "liberal establishment". While many of these prominent individuals are part of __ often lead __ the national conversation on all things germane to the running of our country, most of them are very much a part of the system. But their endorsement of my ideas might give them credibility, or at least draw some attention to a plan which regular citizens need to know about and actively support.

I'm not sure what to expect of these thinker types.

Frankly, I'm not expecting much.

Most of them are busy, and more inimically, tightly locked into their own methodologies for what they peddle as activism. They often neglect to notice that despite their best and allegedly noble efforts, things continue to deteriorate. The only change is that as each day passes, things deteriorate more quickly.

I must say, there sure are an abundance of people commenting on the problems.

But not many solving the problems.

It's a fundamental distinction, which is often missed.

What if you had a horrible flesh-eating disease?

Medical experts come in and declare: "We have analyzed all of the data and come to the conclusion that you are in big trouble, clearly in horrible pain, the victim of a terrible disease. It is very tragic! Have a nice day."

Do we need to bring in several more teams of experts to tell you the same thing?

I assume this is more what you'd hope for: "We have analyzed the data on your condition. While your situation is serious, we have come up with a detailed plan involving a host of drugs, some surgical procedures, and a program for rehabilitation. We can cure this and once we are done, you should be able to live a long and fulfilling life."

The difference should be apparent.

My book is not more whining. It offers a step-by-step, highly detailed plan for challenging the corruption of our current politicos, and for reversing the destruction of representative democracy in America.

Let me just mention this in closing . . .

There are a few highly visible figures who are on our side, demonstrated by their own writings and activism for our team, by their dedication to making a better life for every American. Once the printed books are out, I will be sending copies to Noam Chomsky, Ralph Nader, Robert Reich, Michael Moore, and several others who are to varying degrees in the national spotlight, and whose support would be valuable.

We'll see what comes of that.

I can't force anyone to pay attention. I can only put my ideas out there.

Change doesn't just magically happen.

People need to believe it's possible.

Then they need to make room in their hearts and time in their day to make it happen.

__________________________________________________________


"Candidate Contracts: Taking Back Our Democracy" is now available . . .

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Amazon (Paperback) . . . [ TBA ]
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Direct from printer . . . bit.ly/1MGjDnN



[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

The Bully Pulpit vs. American Idol

I have long criticized Obama for not using the bully pulpit. When he had the vast majority of the country at his feet after his election in 2008, instead of laying out a positive vision for the country and leading the charge for rebuilding the nation, he embarked on a charm offensive directed at Wall Street, big banks, neoconservative empire builders, and became the Appeaser-In-Chief towards those responsible for the Afghanistan and Iraq disasters, a wink-and-nod apologist for the criminal bankers who crashed the economy in 2008, and a card-carrying member of the inside circle who continue to inflict our country with the fraudulent War on Terror.

It was all in the name of love __ the cuddly love Obama craved from the oligarchs, whose approval was more important to him than the enormous groundswell of support he had from the people. Remember them? The ones who have to work to make ends meet, the ones who see their kids off to school in the morning __ the same ones who flocked to the polls and elected our first black president, duped into thinking he was one of them, a man of the people with their best interests at heart.

In a fascinating analysis of Obama's presidency that appeared in Truthdig, author David Bromwich
discusses what a shallow and self-serving enterprise it has proved to be.

What an understatement.

There is no coherency to this president's policies. In a clear attempt to promote image as a substitute for substance and apparently with an insatiable desire to be loved by everyone, President Obama often fashions positions totally at odds with one another.

Protect the environment vs. drill baby drill.

World peace vs. bomb bomb bomb.

Individual freedom vs. the NDAA.

Jobs for Americans vs. TPP and TTIP.

To add insult to confusion, in critical areas of leadership, we see policies diametrically opposite to the high sounding and noble words of Obama's breathtaking rhetoric and crafted public image, offering inconsistencies, even outright hypocrisy and treachery.

You've got a Nobel Peace Prize winner who has become a drone assassin.

You've got an putative constitutional scholar who using his phenomenal intellectual gifts to trample on the Constitution, squashing dissent, and openly harassing journalists and undermining freedom of the press.

You've got a president who spoke eloquently during his first campaign about inclusive democracy and transparency in government __ promising to change the way Washington DC does business __ who has built upon the worst aspects of Bush's nascent police state and now oversees a vast growing domestic surveillance complex spying on its own citizens, who is classifying record volumes of government documents, restricting citizen access to the inner workings of our government, conducting questionable military adventures often in secret, fostering aggression against the express will of the American citizenry who are sick of war and the self-defeating politics of confrontation, and prosecuting well-meaning whistleblowers at an unprecedented rate.

You got the self-declared "environmental president" who refuses to even attend the Kyoto summits, who is promoting risky East Coast and Arctic drilling, nuclear power, fracking for natural gas, so called “clean coal”, and now boasts about America being the number one oil and gas producer in the world __ so much for concern about climate change.

You've got a man who offered the world the outstretched hand of peace in the first months of his presidency, who has since bombed his way into creating more enemies and hatred for America than ever before in our history.

But we get what we pay for. Obama is just another brand, like Cheerios and StarKist Tuna.

We wanted a great president. We got a rock star.

We desperately needed leadership. We got self-aggrandizement.

I will say this. Obama talks a good game. He is incredibly articulate. Charming. Funny. Always gives an Oscar level performance at all of his public outings.

And he is beautiful . . . his wife is beautiful . . . his family is beautiful!

But when presidential elections are run as beauty pageants, talent contest spectacles, when making history is just more reality TV, we can't expect real leadership. We can only expect a president who struts and works the audience, plays the judges, postures and poses for his fan base, puts on dazzling, crowd-pleasing shows, and soaks up the all the love he can get. We certainly can't expect thoughtful, principled stands on the vital issues, responding to the greater needs of the country and serving the general welfare of the public.

There's no business like show business.

And politics has become American Idol.

We no longer look for results. We look for good ratings.

What an epic disappointment. We certainly had high hopes, didn't we?

There is one thing I will concede. Who can deny it? . . .

He sure looks great in a suit and tie!


[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

Honor System

 

Lately I've been thinking quite a bit about honesty. Actually, I've been thinking about lying. Why has lying become so epidemic? Pandemic? Systemic?

As the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh put it, "The republic's in trouble, we lie about everything, lying has become the staple."

Of course, this is not just in America. Travel through Third World and less developed countries and you get a lion's share of deceit from all directions. I couldn't walk down a street in Jaipur, India or Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam without having somebody with a big smile and a disengenuous, "My brother!", come up to me with some scam or pack of lies designed to extract as much money as possible from my wallet. But there you kind of go with the flow because 'LIE' is spelled S-U-R-V-I-V-A-L and I honestly don't think these con artists view it as lying so much as just business-as-usual.

But that's what I see in America now. Outright lies, by smooth-talking advertisers, jaded politicians, slick salesmen, Teflon CEOs, PR spokespersons, televangelists, television news anchors, big-bucks bankers, icons, celebrities and public figures of every shape and size.  Frankly, lying is not merely acceptable. It's expected! It's business-as-usual.

I guess I should just accept the new reality but I grew up in simpler times. And it's not like this everywhere.

Let's get anecdotal by talking about my own conflicting gut reactions to a couple things that happened recently. Maybe you can weigh in on these, either privately or by leaving a comment below.

My wife Masumi and I were on one of those amazing no-speed-limit autobahns during our recent three weeks in Europe. We stopped at a rest area and went to our respective toilets. She came out of hers holding a women's wallet high in her hand. "Someone left this." She had looked inside and apparently it had a huge wad of cash, credit cards, etc. Repeat ... a huge wad of cash. She had closed and fastened it up. I took it, my mind was churning, but out of respect for Masumi's values walked it in to the cashier at the convenience store. For some reason I was also holding it high like it might be contagious. As the cashier saw me approach, carrying what was obviously a woman's wallet, her eyes widened in surprise __ actually shock. I handed it to her and though nearly paralyzed with disbelief that someone would actually turn it in, she took it and put it behind the counter.

Now you're probably thinking what I was thinking. Is this cashier going to empty out the hundreds of Euros and make believe she never saw it? Was I crazy for turning it in? What were the odds the absentminded lady was going to remember where she left her wallet, actually turn around and backtrack who knows how far on the autobahn to reclaim it? Since it was so full of money, the person was probably pretty well off, so what's a few hundred (or thousand) bucks, eh? If she was so stupid as to . . . etc.

You get the picture.

I'm not destitute but a few hundred Euros would have made our vacation a little sweeter. But I never hesitated about turning it in, purely out of respect for my wife.

You see, in Japan, it is inconceivable to appropriate another person's property.

An English-speaking friend of mine (she's from New Zealand) who lives in Japan left her latest model Macbook Pro in a train station ladies room. For two hours! She had left it on the counter while she washed her hands and forgetfully walked out without it. She got an hour further on her trip home, remembered, jumped off, took a train back to the station. This was in a major city and that restroom had hundreds of people going through it every hour. She found her laptop right where she left it. Two hours later!

This is the way it is here. I still find it amazing.

It's extreme in the absurd. You can drop something on the sidewalk and come back hours later and find it where you dropped it.

Think I'm exaggerating?

One Sunday many months ago, we went to our favorite local hot springs. This is one of the great joys of living here in Japan and we try to go once a month. Anyway, I left my hair brush in the mens locker room. This was not a family heirloom. This was an 89 cent piece of plastic, dirty and full of my hair from use over many months. The only thing it had going for it was that it was a pleasant shade of purple.

Five weeks later, we returned to the hot springs. On some impulse __ my synapses tend to fire randomly at times __ I asked at the counter if they had a  purple hair brush in their lost-and-found box. Stupid me. I was thinking they had a cardboard box behind the desk. The clerk asked when I thought I had lost it. That was easy. Maybe four or five weeks ago? He stepped into the facility's main office, consulted with someone, then returned with my 89 cent hair brush, safely contained in a sealed plastic bag with a label. On the label was the date I left it in the locker room.

I could go on and on. In the news several months ago, there was the story of a person who had found a satchel on a park bench with over 5 million yen (that's $50,000 cash) and no identification of any kind in or on the bag. It was promptly turned into the police.

Is your head reeling?

Now let's switch settings to America.

In 2011, my wife and I spent four weeks touring the East Coast, from New York City to Atlanta, Nashville to Philadelphia. We were on a local train coming out of Washington, DC returning to where we were staying in suburban Silver Spring, MD. On the seat opposite us, there was a nice, practically new pair of in-ear headphones someone had left behind. "Should I take those?" Her reply was straightforward enough. "No. They don't belong to you." Of course I replied, "But someone else is going to take them." Sure enough, a young man sat down, spotted the headphones, looked up at me. I shrugged. He fingered them for a while, then finally put them in his bag. In fact, I was surprised he hesitated as long as he did, seeming to be giving his decision some thought. Was he having a moral crisis or was he wondering if the person who owned them had ear herpes?

But that's the way it is.

Do I have to ask what you would do if you found an unmarked satchel with $50,000 in a park? Do I have to tell you what I would do? After all . . .

"Someone else will take it and keep the money."

"The cops at the station will just split it up."

. . . or . . .

"The cop at the counter will take it and just stuff it in his locker. He can afford that nice boat he's been dreaming about for ten years."

That's what happens to an "honor system".

Once you introduce the element of distrust, once suspicion about the honor of our fellow humans enters the equation, respect for the property of others starts to slip further into the background, finally to disappear. Once that solid door represented by the "do unto others" dictum opens a crack, it swings wide open. Then the free-for-all takes over. Then the Golden Rule becomes, "The others will do whatever they can get away with. So I'll just beat them to it."

Now so far I've been talking about property. What's that got to do with lying?

Lying is stealing.

Lying steals hope. Lying steals trust. Lying steals the future.
When we can't believe what others say, when we can't count on them to honor their words with their deeds, we can't expect what they say today to mean anything tomorrow.

On an individual level, this breeds suspicion, distrust, a circumspect attitude towards others.

On the scale of society at large, this spells decay and collapse.

When a politician or other iconic public figure lies, excusing his or her "massaging the truth" by insisting that the ends justify the means, that "if I don't lie, someone else will and then people will listen to them instead of me", it's not just a few words getting misplaced. It's not just a case as former-president Clinton likes to say, "perfection becoming the enemy of progress."

No, the truth is . . . it's the end of progress.

Because when the people we look to for advice, guidance, leadership, and a positive vision for creating the world we want for ourselves and our children, smile into the camera and lie to us, they steal our dreams.

"If I don't tell the voters what they want to hear, they won't vote for me."

I wrote a blog this past New Years Eve, I'm very proud of. It's called "Take me to your leader!" Of course, I got a lot of hate mail, threats, and vilification __ though the morons who attacked me wouldn't even know the word 'vilification' __ for reaming the current bunch of sociopaths and sycophants who hold public office. I concluded that it's been so long that the American public wouldn't recognize true leadership if it actually somehow magically appeared. Such a person would be cynically mocked as weird or naive or an idealistic space cadet.

And here is the sad thing . . .

As I think more and more about this, I wonder if it's a one-way street. I wonder if it's ever possible once we individually and collectively join this race to the moral bottom, to turn it around. I wonder if we can ever stop asking . . .

"Why shouldn't I take it? Someone else will."

"Why should I let someone else beat me to it? Why should I lose out?"

"Why should I be the sucker? I'll tell them what they want to hear. If I don't someone else will. There's no honor in being a chump."

Once we individually and collectively judge our words and actions by the lowest standard, what is to prevent that standard from being lowered even more?

I hope the lady in Germany got her wallet back. I hope the money was still in it and she took out a nice 100 euro note and gave it to the clerk behind the counter as a reward.

My trip was great, even without her money.

And I slept well.


[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

“Take me to your leader!”

 
Strong, visionary, decisive leadership has been missing for so long in America, we don't even know what it looks like anymore.

Arrogance and charisma are not the same as leadership. George W. Bush was as arrogant as they come and Barack Obama is as charismatic as it gets. But both represent terrible ideas, a disdain for democracy, and a complete disregard for the will of the American people.

Here's what I think.

A strong leader doesn't lie to his supporters out of convenience or for his own political gain, or make mincemeat out of the facts because he thinks he personally knows whats best for the country. He respects us and is truthful, even when the truth is worrisome or painful.

A strong leader takes sometimes controversial stands on difficult issues out of conviction, not out of convenience. He looks for direction in a set of principles __ those spelled out with clarity and candor when he ran for office __ not poll numbers and focus groups.

A strong leader is not afraid of tarnishing his own image because his ideas or policies might be unpopular. His concern is the greater good of America and the welfare of the American citizenry, not his place in history.

A strong leader defends and supports those in our society who are the weakest and most need of help __ because a free society and true democracy is measured by how it treats its most vulnerable, not how it venerates and toadies up to its privileged and powerful.

A strong leader is not impressed by money and power, only that which fulfills the basic tenets of the constitution, the intentions of the nation's founding fathers, and what fosters the greater good for the majority of citizens.

A strong leader recognizes everyone is equal before the law and makes tough choices in enforcing it.

A strong leader cannot be bought or influenced by the rich and powerful and remains loyal to the majority of Americans who entrust him with the responsibilities of his powerful position.

A strong, visionary, decisive leader offers big solutions to big problems. If the car is broke, he fixes it or replaces it. He doesn't just shine the hubcaps and claim he's doing all he can, or worse, claim that shiny hubcaps will get the car running again in top form.

There are more but what I've outlined constitute a good start in defining leadership.

I personally believe Mr. Obama, and the House and Senate leadership, both Democrat and Republican, fail on all counts. I don't know what other conclusion you could draw after watching the fiascos and tragic blunders of the past twenty years.

We have BIG problems in America. They are almost incomprehensibly big. Sometimes they are within the framework of legislative and executive policy formulation. But we also must acknowledge that sometimes they are systemic problems, requiring thorough and fundamental revisions of the way we go about doing things __ BIG solutions.

All the hand-wringing that goes on in the name of shaping public policy, basically a soap opera to keep the masses distracted and uninformed, is cowardly and insulting. This fiscal cliff is a joke. The debate over taxing the rich is simple-minded and tunnel-visioned.

Which points up another example of total lack of leadership. A leader does not let others set the rules of debate, or frame the argument. A true leader brings a fresh point of view, one that is rife with possibilities and potential for positive change. A true leader doesn't let his opponents decide what and how much will be discussed.

If Obama were serious __ and I'm convinced he's not __ about actually addressing the enormous challenges facing this country, he wouldn't be letting a cry-baby like Boehner and a turkey-neck like McConnell push him around. Before those two bozos ever got a foothold, Obama could have cut the legs out from under them by going to the America people, given us some straight talk, and with our support gotten some things done.

Why didn't he? Why hasn't he?

Because Obama is not a leader. He's a follower. To make it even more horrifying, he's a follower of a nefarious and suicidal neo-conservative world view. Obama is a militant imperialist, a dyed-in-the-wool corporatist, a wannabe elitist, an anti-democratic authoritarian, and a self-aggrandizing narcissist.

Hardly the makings of a strong, independent, creative leader.

With the onset of the New Year, spirits will be high and optimism in good supply.

Let's hope that these men and women who think of themselves as spokespersons for the American people, who as a result of being elected to the highest political offices in the land probably think of themselves as being among America's best equipped to steer the country on a constructive course, will finally live up to the high opinions they have of themselves.

Let's hope we see some real leadership.

It's been way too long.




[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]