What we like

With the Republican sweep of the mid-term elections it was inevitable that calls for impeaching the President would follow. Republicans will not impeach Obama for any legitimate reason, but that does not mean he should not be removed from office. Unfortunately, the reason he should go is equally applicable to everyone who would be doing the impeaching; the massive, criminal defrauding of the American taxpayer during the economic failure engineered by Wall Street, and the subsequent Government endorsement and cover-up of those crimes. If Nixon was rightly driven from office for covering up the criminal activity around the Watergate break-in (and he was) then Obama – and Bush before him – are equally liable for the criminal activity of Wall Street.

That criminal activity is well documented but is as much “out in the open” as it is ever going to get. Reports of the crimes are covered just enough to support the illusion that "someone is doing something about it". The Republican propaganda machine will not use the issue to go after Obama as their need is to protect the interests of the corporations and banks. But they can claim that Obama is a bad guy and thus paint the Democrats as bad guys as well. The Democratic propaganda machine will not use the issue to go after corporations and banks because they need to protect Obama. But they can claim that Wall Street and the corporations are the bad guys, and thus paint the Republicans as bad guys also. Which, as far as the American people are concerned, is about perfect. We do not want much more than some vague allusions to what is really making our political / economic system do what it does, but we do want a reason to pick a side. Which makes a demented kind of sense.

No one wants this can of worms (snakes really) opened and pored through mass media into the public's lap. If that happens the entire greed driven, crony capitalism that is the foundation of American society is likely to crash. Americans like greed driven, crony capitalism. It feeds our lust for “things” and massages the illusion we can all get rich with some work and some luck. It makes us feel special, so special in fact, that we have incorporated capitalism into our religion. God, we claim, is a free market kind of guy who has rewarded the rich for their enterprising ways and punished the poor for being “takers”. We are, at the same time, both victims of a corrupted system, and its biggest supporters. Cherry picking the propaganda to support our own version of greed and thievery, we pick a party and vote to keep the system exactly the way that is is.

What I see now is an America that is something akin to a pure criminal enterprise, one in which we are all complicit.  America's collective ego will simply not allow us to face the depth of corruption that has overwhelmed our society and the part we play in it. The Supreme Court's “Citizens United” ruling, Obama and Holder's refusal to prosecute anyone on Wall Street for crimes clearly committed, and the America public's refusal to engage corruption as a primary issue in any election, would have us all indited at the hands of any just court in the universe.  We are all supporting criminal activity, but none want to admit that we are the bad guys as well.

Eventually such a system has to collapse. There really is no honor among thieves. Betrayals, double dealings, secret pacts, hidden and not-so-hidden violence, fear, intimidation, and threats, are the hallmarks of our political / economic system and, often, of our personal dealings with each other. No nation jails as large a segment of its population as does America. No society happily endures our level of gun violence. No nation comes near to matching our personal consumption of resources and energy.

The truth is nearly impossible to winnow out of the chaff but that is actually fine with most of us. We are really not interested in exposing the system for what it is. It is our system. We like it. We vote for it. We claim it is the best system the world has ever seen and, given half an excuse, will impose it on any other nation by brute force. It has our enduring and unassailable support. And we will go down with it.