The latest NBC/Wall Street Journal national poll results vividly show a population incredibly dissatisfied with their nation’s political system. In other countries in other times such a depressing level of confidence in government would send a signal to those running the government that a major upheaval is imminent. But not here in the USA. Why?
First, here are the highlights of the poll that surveyed 1,008 adults from June 8-11, with a margin of error of plus-minus 3.1 percentage points.
A whopping 68 percent think the country is on the wrong track. Just 19 percent believe the country is headed in the right direction - the lowest number on that question in nearly 15 years. And most of those with the positive view are probably in the Upper Class.
Bush’s approval rating is at just 29 percent, his lowest mark ever in the survey. Only 62 percent of Republicans approve, versus 32 percent who disapprove. Take Republicans out of the picture and a fifth or less of Americans have a positive view of Bush.
Even worse, only 23 percent approve of the job that Congress is doing. So much for that wonderful new Democratic control of Congress. Bipartisan incompetence is alive and well.
On the economic front, nearly twice as many people think the U.S. is more hurt than helped by the global economy (48 to 25 percent). Globalization does not spread wealth; it channels it to the wealthy, making billionaires out of millionaires.
I have long asserted that Americans live in a delusional democracy with delusional prosperity and these and loads of other data support this view. There is a super wealthy and politically powerful Upper Class that is literally raping the nation. Meanwhile, the huge Lower Class continues to lose economic ground while their elected representatives sell them out to benefit the Upper Class. Yet no rational person thinks that a large fraction of the population is ready to rise up in revolt against the evil status quo political-economic system that so clearly is not serving the interests of the overwhelming majority of Americans. Why not?
For a nation that was built on a revolt against oppressive
governance by the British, something has been lost from our political
DNA. We apparently no longer have the gene for political rebellion. It
has been bred out of most of us. And those of us that urge a Second
American Revolution are seen as fringe, nutty subversives.
Part
of the genius of our contemporary ruling class elites is that they have
engineering a state of political and economic oppression that
paradoxically is still embraced by the Lower Class. The rational way to
understand this is that ordinary, oppressed Americans are in a deep
psychological state of self-delusion. Despite all the empirical,
objective evidence of a failed government, they fail to see rebellion
opportunities. Many still believe they live in the world’s best
democracy. But across all elections considerably less than half the
citizens even bother to vote anymore. Yet, as the new NBC/Journal poll
results show, people are cognitively aware of just how awful the
political-economic system is. Yet they are not feeling enough pain to
seriously consider rebellion. And it is visceral pain that must drive
people to the daring act of rebellion.
Why is there insufficient
pain for revolution? This is a deadly serious issue. What is
historically unique about America is that even the most oppressed and
unfairly treated people are distracted by affordable materialism,
entertainment, sports, gambling, and myriad other aspects of our
frivolous, self-absorbed culture. Even failed school and health care
systems do not drive people, paying enormous sums to fill up their
SUVs, to rebellion. So, Americans are aware of their oppression, but
the power elites have successfully drugged them with a plethora of
pleasure-producing distractions sufficient to keep them under control.
We are free to bitch, but too weak to revolt. The Internet has provided
a release valve for some pent up anger and frustration. But it too has
mostly become another source of distraction, rather than an effective
tool for rebellion.
Though these new poll statistics make news,
those in control of the political-economic system are not afraid that
the population is on the verge of retaking their constitutionally
guaranteed sovereign power and take back their nation. Thousands of
people like me keep writing books and articles and creating protest
groups and events. Those in power just find new, ingenious ways to keep
the population distracted – if not through pleasure, then certainly
through fear of terrorism. Growing economic insecurity also contributes
to self-paralysis, as do never-ending political lies.
What a system.
Even
as the population has growing awareness of the dire condition of their
nation, the move by the politically powerful on the right and left
continues to seek a new immigration law that will solidify the selling
out of America. Business interests want more of those fleeing Mexico
and other nations to keep wages low. Instead of Mexicans rising up in
rebellion against their oppressive government and economic system they
escape to the USA. But Americans have no such viable escape solution.
Though global warming will certainly make Canada increasingly
attractive.
So what do Americans have – other than a terribly bleak future? Where is hope in our dismal world?
In
a bizarre twist of history that further illustrates just how impotent
Americans have become, virtually all citizens are either unaware of or
unreceptive to the ultimate escape route that the Framers of our
Constitution gave us. They anticipated that Americans could become
quite dissatisfied with the federal government. They feared that the
political system could become incredibly corrupted by moneyed
interests. They were right.
So here we sit over 200 years after
our nation was created unwilling to use what is explicitly given to us
in Article V of the Constitution – the option to have a convention
outside the control of Congress, the President and the Supreme Court to
make proposals for constitutional amendments. Do we really believe in
the rule of law? If so, then we should understand that the supreme law
of the land – what is in our Constitution – is the ultimate way to
obtain the deep political and government reforms to restore true
democracy and economic fairness to our society.
Make no mistake:
an Article V convention has been stubbornly opposed by virtually all
groups with political and economic power. This is most evidenced by the
blatant refusal of Congress to obey the Constitution and give us an
Article V convention, even though the single explicit requirement for a
convention has been met. This fact alone should tell rational people
that they are being screwed and oppressed. The rule of law is trumped
by the rule of delusion. Our lawmakers are lawbreakers.
Come learn more about the effort to get an Article V convention at www.foavc.org
and become a member. Do not keep witnessing the unraveling of American
society, voting for lesser evil candidates, and believing the
propaganda that putting different Democrats or Republicans in office
will actually improve things for most of us. Choose peaceful rebellion
by using what our Constitution gives us. Fight self-delusion.
I'd like to point out the subtle difference between a failed revolt and a successful one: understanding of the forces needed to change in order to give rise to the results the revolter desires to change. The greatest, most successful cultural revolution in history, for example, was instigated by a fanatic Zealot extremist struggling against a repressive imperial regime. Christianity, of course - which unfortunately was left in the hands of power drunkards. A successful cultural revolution in modern times would require planning beyond simple nation-state imperialism, however - one would have to find a way to attack the supernational corporate power structures, which rest upon an entirely different set of concepts and cultural forces. Understanding, however - seeing past the immediate - understanding affords a weapon power drunkards are forever denied.
2
September 29, 2007
max davis: to not be is easy
the good people always talk about revolution, they say that America is run by corrupt politicians and the environment is being terrorized, education is lacking and wallmart is ruining the world. but this is not a revolution, a revolution neccecitates more than talk, it involves risky actions that are totally devoted to a goal that seems unattainable. Once people become fanatical and stop compromising their revolution because thet get happy when they go to the 99 cent menu at mcdonalds and dont have to cook, or clean, or farm. they can get past the illusionary wall of security that the upper class has maintained because although, "they've got the guns, we've got the numbers".
3
November 10, 2007
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The latest NBC/Wall Street Journal national poll results vividly show a population incredibly dissatisfied with their nation’s political system. In other countries in other times such a depressing level of confidence in government would send a signal to those running the government that a major upheaval is imminent. But not here in the USA. Why?
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