Lessons Learned?

One thing is for sure, unwillingly, the tea party has forced mainstream America to become engaged in the ugly sausage making process of governing.  Some people have found the entire process confusing and stressful, but that is a good thing, because making assumptions with ill-gotten information is becoming a thing of the past.

What have we learned from the media-driven stress and the man-created drama?

• That the president does not have absolute power.
• That Governing begins in our cities, counties and states first, Washington later.
• That Mid-term elections matter more than anyone thought possible.
• That our government is rife with elected officials blatantly catering to corporations and not the people in their districts.
• That social media helps greatly to relieve stress and cause it as well.
• That the "news" media favors controversy and when there is none, they'll create it.
• That factions within a party will destroy the party. 

Let's keep the last one in mind when we attack each other for not being progressive enough, liberal enough or demanding more.

What happened? 

For the duration of the Bush administration we saw the wrongs, the lies, the theft of our resources, and all we did was grumble.  We were hell-bent determined to elect a Democratic President but never went beyond that frame of thought because most believed that this particular effort would solve all the problems created by the previous administration instantly. All we wanted was to go back to our lives and put the nightmare behind us.

This is not beating up on Bush, these are facts that the powers-that-be to the right want to sweep under the carpet with revisionist history.  No one tried harder than former vice-president Cheney and his daughter Liz.  Let's keep in mind our past to ensure our future looks nothing like it.

We were wrong and nothing proves it more that the complete ignorance in which we lived during those fateful years.  No one knew the depth of the economic gutting done to our country and the world by those who own our government officials: Wall Street.  To this day, we still don't know, because much of what could have happened was averted by an obscene amount of money given to Wall Street.  President Bush did not want to be held responsible for giving Wall Street all that money, so as they are fond of saying; he "kicked the can down the road" and only bailed out Wall Street by 50 percent, leaving the other 50 percent to be distributed by his successor; President Obama.

Wall Street and big corporations do not like this man one bit. He speaks a strange language of serving the American people's needs and demanding fairness and equality in taxable contributions.  He has clearly stated that the top 2% have not contributed their fare share to the country that provided them with their immense wealth.  "Takers" don't like to be singled out or shown for what they are, hence, they started their massive campaign to undermine our president and strangle our country.

Enter the Tea party movement and its various incantations.  Heavily funded by corporations such as the Heritage Foundation, Koch Brothers, or the many Carl Rove, Bush's brain, organizations.

This faction is effectively demolishing the Republican party and has paralyzed our economy, what we fail to see is that the distraction of a debt ceiling is hiding a lot of other sins we are not paying attention to right now.  Riders in bills are being passed to allow the destruction of our national parks because no one is reporting on this and we are too busy arguing pundit's talking points instead of being vigilant on what is happening behind the curtain.

Excerpt from EarthJustice.org:

“This bill is spreading death and disease across America as House Republicans massacre environmental safeguards meant to protect us all.”

For a comprehensive list go to Earth Justice and read House Continues Assault on Key Health & Environmental Protections and Congress V. The Environment: The 2012 Appropriations Rider Tracker 

While we focus on Washington's debt-ceiling drama we are ignoring activism that needs to take place in our communities.  While wrecking the environment is an enormous financial windfall to the coal and mining industry, let's not make the mistake of thinking that the corporatist machinery ends at the water's edge.  Total control of our governmental system is the final goal and the only way to achieve this is to make sure we have no rights and no options.

Across the nation, governors are dismantling the social structure we have come to expect would be there for generations to come: 

In Wisconsin, the tool of the Koch brothers could careless if he is re-elected or not, his job was to infiltrate government and cause as much damage as possible during his tenure.  Does anyone think for a second that Scott Walker will be unemployed once he is out of office? Think again and keep an eye out for what type of executive position within the Koch industries he is rewarded.

In Michigan, the governor is even more blatant, he has stripped local officials of any power to govern in their communities.

The list goes on and on, but it all serves the same purpose: Disenfranchise voters in 2012 elections and beyond.  Districts are being demolished, accessibility to voting is made difficult for some and impossible for others.  This is the only way they can win any election with the lack of a substantive platform that appeals to the vast majority.

• Get involved in your community with the democratic party and help with voter registration.  Fight for the elderly and disabled because their voices are drowned in a barrage of nonsense from loud and dysfunctional individuals.
• Stay informed of what your governor, your legislators and mayor's are doing on a daily basis and fight for your rights and those of the people in your community.
• Follow Wisconsin's example and realize that it took time, grit, fortitude and determination to right the wrong of being absent during the mid-term election.
• Support the president we have even if he is not left enough for us, because the alternative will render economic conditions far worse than what we have so far experienced.

I have not found anything to agree with when someone from the tea party opens their mouth, but found the following statement making me nod my head in complete agreement: "Government belongs to those who show up." - The mid-term elections proved him right.

Image: Carlos Porto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net