The real Struggle

3828581480?profile=original

  From the Ramparts

 Junious Ricardo Stanton

 The Real Struggle

 

            "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Ephesians 6:12

             As the political circus plays itself out, thinking people can see the psychopathy, mendacity and hypocrisy of this culture on full display in living color.  The crass quest for power and the weaknesses and corruption of the American political system are apparent to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. The campaigns feature several distinct styles and approaches. For the Republicans except for Donald Trump their approach is to maintain the status quo, to talk tough on foreign policy to keep the military industrial complex humming along making record profits off of the totally bogus War on Terror, to continue the failed trickle down policies of Reagan and Bu$h II, the tax cuts and corporate welfare for the rich while sawing away at social programs and the safety nets of the "New Deal" and "Great Society".

            Donald Trump exploded on the scene and upset the Republican Party's apple cart using slogans like: "America doesn't win anymore", "we have to negotiate smarter" and "make America great again", and the crowds love it. His rhetoric appeals to the very people Republican big wigs dismiss, misuse, abuse and manipulate: disaffected blue collar workers, people who have lost their jobs or who are working two and three jobs just to make ends meet who see their standard of living imploding out from under them, whites who under an Obama administration cannot relate at all to the government because of their own racism. Trump's convoluted message of populism and nationalism resonates with white folks of all ages and demographics. He tells the truth about how he uses  a corrupt and rigged system to do business and he has been successful at it. He tells the truth about how he contributes to both political parties, so that when he calls they answer the phone. He tells the truth about how the government has left the borders open and defenseless while wasting lives and money conducting regime change overseas that has made the situation worse! Trump has hit upon a formula to get the people out, he is a part of the 1% but he claims he wants to give back, that he empathizes with the masses, unlike the other empty suit Republican candidates who want to continue the NeoCon agenda of perpetual wars and trickle down economics. Even if Trump wins the nomination the Republican big wigs view him as a serious threat to their agenda and they will do almost anything to derail his momentum.

            On the Democratic side of the coin we have Bernie Sanders a Socialist who rails against income inequality, wealth disparities and corrupt campaign financing against Hillary Clinton the personification of  political opportunism, corruption and all that ails this nation. Sanders' appeal is to young folks who more and more see themselves as debt slaves with limited opportunities and possibilities for their lives. Hillary Clinton appeals to older folks, the ubber rich and the traditionalists within the Democratic Party. Wall Street, the Pharmaceutical industry, the big insurance companies, international investment houses, the bio-tech industry and military industrial complex all are for Hillary. Rank and file Democrats too lazy to think for themselves, too brain dead to connect the dots on how Bill and Hillary Clinton sold organized labor and American workers out with their "international trade deals" like NAFTA and GATT, who set up the machinery and laid the foundation for the mass incarceration of Black and Brown people with their support for the anti-crime and anti-welfare legislation and how the Clinton-Gore embrace of corporate fascism set the stage for what was to come after the Clinton Presidency will go for the Hillary Clinton okey-doke.

            Senator Sander's is calling for a "political revolution" by asking young people to sign up, vote and support the very system doing them in! This system is too corrupt to be fixed by either political party because they are the problem! Meanwhile Hillary Clinton is scrambling to redefine her message and rebrand herself as a "Progressive" as opposed to the crass opportunist, money grubbing, corporate sycophant and warmonger she has been the past several years.

            Trump poses a threat to the Republican oligarchs and they are funneling mad money to take him down. He is being demonized as a racist, demagogue and the New Hitler by the very political party made up of patriarchal chauvinists known for their racial exclusion, whiteness, sexism, warmongering and class warfare!? During the last presidential cycle their standard bearer was Mitt Romney who was so out of touch with the common folks he couldn't tell us how many houses he owned. Mitt Romney the man who made his fortune as a corporate raider, plunderer criticizes Trump for not revealing his income tax returns but Romney only reveal his a few weeks before the presidential election in 2012. We can't make this stuff up, the hypocrisy is on display for the whole world to see.

            I point these things out to show just how deceitful and corrupt the US political and economic systems are. We have been brainwashed to believe the American political system is fair and democratic; nothing is further from the truth. We do not need a political revolution we need a change in consciousness, values and behavior.  Martin Luther King Jr  remarked in a speech exactly one year to the day before the US government assassinated him, “We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin … the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

            Today the triplets of unrepentant racism, gross materialism and hubristic military misadventure are metastasizing throughout this nation far more aggressively than they were in 1967. In 1967 there was organized and strident opposition to the ruling class' insanity. That level and energy of resistance is lacking today. The ruling elites using their mind control apparatus and mind entrainment technology have seduced us with their fear mongering, their xenophobia and marginalization of criticism into accepting economic apartheid, debt peonage, wage serfdom and imminent socio-economic collapse. We can do better we have an obligation to do better!

            The embers of resistance are flickering. The dynamic human spirit abhors stultification. We have been DIVINELY designed to be expansive and unstoppable. We cannot do it alone we need to come together. This is what Occupy Wall Street, the original unco-opted Tea Party, the militia movements, the original unfunded Black Lives Matter and the Trump and Sanders campaigns reflect a desire for real change, to do and be better.

            But it is not enough. Discontent and dissatisfaction are only the catalysts. We have to move beyond slogans, rhetoric and protest to a commitment to real change, a change of consciousness, values, behaviors and action.  We each have to know intuitively we have intrinsic value and worth. We have to know what this means for us and others. We have to see it in ourselves and each other, respect it nurture it and encourage it in all of us, even those we differ with or may not like. This is the beginning of a spiritual and psychological movement requiring a change of mind a refocus on the important things self neighbor and the world. This change will result in institutional changes and a new way of living. We can do this.

 

                                                            -30-

                          

Votes: 0
E-mail me when people leave their comments –

You need to be a member of TheBlackList Pub to add comments!

Join TheBlackList Pub


https://theblacklist.net/