Left Out

Twenty first century started with a quick turn to the Right in political spectrum of the US, that has continued to date. We have witnessed changes due to the melt down of the economic system, and in a broader aspect, changes that are influenced by worldwide events. United States had enjoyed a rapid growth in the late 1940s and 1950s, thanks to the Second World War, followed by a couple of decades of somewhat stable economy. From early 1980, Trickle Down Economy as a part of Reganomics was introduced, a system that limited or aborted all governmental oversights that had been in place as a check and balance on business operations. 




The first act in promoting large and multi-national business was in dismantling antitrust laws, which resulted in eroding small business in favor of monopolies. Large, franchised and chain stores replaced “mom and pop” stores, and instead of the market controlling businesses in setting prices (invisible hands of Adam Smith), monopolies controlled the market. Today, as a result of this and many other similar policies favoring large business at the expense of working people, we are experiencing skyrocketing deficit, the highest rate of unemployment, the largest number of homeless people, and the widest disparity between rich and poor. On the political scene, by electing the first African American as a president with the promise of a change in the system, people’s hopes ebbed out, as the elected president happened to be an integral part of the same system. As a result, the same policies of direct attack on other countries continued, with the aid of rampant racism coupled with nationalism and increased religious power. People started losing their jobs, followed by their savings,  their houses and other properties, and their liberty. Government responsibilities such as law enforcement, detention of criminals, education, and health care are transferred to the private sector, while the number of imprisoned, school drop-outs, and sick is increasing as prices of basic commodities are rising.

All of the above is a victory for the Right and another assault on the Left. Right is aware of its domain and control, something that Left never learned and cannot even recognize where it is standing. As a result, Left is divided, conceded, defeated, and in many cases has submitted to the wishes of the Right. The change promised by Obama was the last hope that Left had, which seems to have been a dream, and at the same time another cause of division. Left by definition is always struggling to achieve a higher status, since it is always behind the Right, simply because the right has a monopoly on wealth and power. The only vantage point that the Left has is its population. For example, one of the reasons that Obama was elected was the majority of African American, who had never participated in any election of one white person replacing another white person, presence in voting booths. Another example was presented in Egypt. The sheer number of Egyptians participating in the movement, along with their perseverance in achieving the goal of booting the dictator out achieved its result. The more difficult task on their hands is to dismantle the dictatorial system. This was a defeat for the Right, but even in a defeat such as that, the Right finds a way to get back on control due to its upper-hand position. Right is organized and does not have any religious or ethnic barrier (although they create such barriers for common people to advance and promote their infighting). Their philosophy is simple and shared by everyone: maximize profit. Two important tools of the Right were mentioned, wealth and political power. The third and forth are religion and nationalism. There are about 500 multi-national corporations that govern most of the western world. They put their government representatives in senate or in congress, they control the media, and they network with all like minded around the world to further their cause. While the Right is so organized, committed, and united; Left is in disarray, confused, and divided.

Many people lost their houses in the past four years as a result of the greed and deregulation. Government still rushed to aid companies instead of people. But the Right is convinced that the problem was not caused by the Wall Street or executives of financial companies profiting at the expense of investors and homeowners. A book came out a couple of years ago titled “The Great American Bank Robbery” by Paul Sperry. Flipping through the titles of each chapter, we discover that every Democrat that somehow dealt with the crisis is pointed as the cause of the problem. Of course, Clinton rendered the majority of deregulations and other policies to empower the rich (such as NAFTA), but this book does not find deregulation as the problem. The book considers Walt Street and financial institutions as the victims of the debacle! Titles of various sections are: The Angelides  Commission, where Phillip Angelides is branded as the person who hid the facts, followed by Prime Suspect (Clinton), Cuomo’s Quotas (criticizing HUD’s policies to benefit the poor), Reno’s “Witch Hunt” (Clinton’s attorney general), and the list goes on and on to wash the Right’s hand from all wrong doings. This is only one of the hundreds of books published to convince Americans that if they lost their houses and jobs and their livelihood, it was all their own faults. Left discovers characters in the Right to make fun of, such as Bush and Palin. However, the Right has in its service some of the most sophisticated people to increase their wealth and power. Those stupid characters we make fun of, are only fronts to hide the brain behind conspiracies or plans. They attack any labor union from developing and try to dismantle what has been accomplished by disfranchise of this country after years of bloody struggle. Reach and powerful however keeps and builds on their own unions. Lions Club, Rotary Club, Country Club, and many other clubs and organizations are established by them to further their agenda.

The best political system for the Right is dictatorship. Not only they promote it in other countries, they have the tendency to create an atmosphere of enforcement against their own population. That is why we experience more and more government reliance on the police and military force. George W. Bush once said that he preferred to be a dictator than an elected president. Fulfilling his wishes, he started creating a police state in the US which continues to be expanding to all walks of life. A few of the states have banned and criminalized filming police arrest. Detaining people based on unproven or undocumented charges is becoming a common place. Since media is almost completely in the hands of the Right, as it is explained in detail by “Manufacturing Consent” of Noam Chomsky or Adam Curtis’ “The Century of the Self”, control of the people is much easier by feeding them what the establishment desires. For instance, American workers decided to celebrate the International Labor Day (May 1^st) for the first time last Sunday. In order to prevent any news of the event spreading (in addition to gain popularity for Obama’s second run of the office, and reasons of such) Hollywood style news and clips were broadcasted of the killing of Bin Laden. If we check the same media of about 25 years before, we notice how Bin Laden was cherished as a freedom fighter, praised by Ronald Reagan. Dominating the media, the Right can repeat the same message from every tribune.

It is human nature to love peace and tranquility, versus what the establishment tries to make people believe that greed and selfishness and violence are in our genes. Governments, having the monopoly of latest weaponry, can brutally put down any opposition. It is up to people to educate themselves (as the first condition) and resist the violence in any peaceful manner possible. The division between the rich and the poor is reaching the highest point in history. No one has ever had so much wealth as the top one percent of multi-billionaires. The news came out this week that fifty five million Americans had exhausted their unemployment and had given up finding a job. Government is getting larger and its services are getting smaller. There are those on the far Right who want to abolish the government and replace it with corporations. Considering that the government is not for people, because of creating wars all over the world and by killing our young (who cannot afford to go to a college and cannot find a job and end up joining the army), gives the Right agenda the best tools for their theory. When utility, criminal system, army, education, health, and even highways are privatized, what is the use of the government? In the eighties, insane asylums were closed down. Those who do not think like others and once belonged to those houses are now spread all over the streets, and their number is increasing. Michael Moore’s movie about health care system showed how the sick who could not pay for the hospital were thrown out at night. The system is digging its own grave by pressuring people to the point of uprising. Americans who have always trusted their government and let to rest unsolved crimes such as Kennedy assassination or September 11 twin tower attack (which was never proven to be a work of Bin Laden but there are many evidences pointing towards the government) are losing their trust. Unless the US government starts a land to land war with another country (say China) to divert people’s attention, a class warfare is on the horizon. The first task for the Left is to organize and combine efforts. Any division should be healed and concentration should be on the rich and the powerful. Enemies of the people are not drug dealers and petty criminals but those who create an environment for such crimes to conceive. The new age bank robbery is not some African American, Hispanic, or any darker skinned American (as it has been portrayed in Hollywood) to rush to a bank and point a gun to a banker demanding to fill his bag with money. Today’s bank robbery can be described as banks robbing people of their livelihood! And, it is up to the people to demand their money back, since the government is assisting those banks.