This obviously politically incorrect question might be offensive, but it is likely to be the most important question we could answer, if we can just answer it honestly and accept the reality that most americans have been trying to avoid for years now.
It is the one flaw in our founders' american dream, the notion that a society of self-centered malcontents with competing interests, barely able to manage their own lives, educated by headlines and sound-bites carefully crafted by professional propagandists and read via teleprompter by career snake-oil salesmen (politicians), could run their own country. What were the odds? What the hell were the founders' thinking?
No matter how offended you might be at this moment by this question, our current rush to national bankruptcy, broken security and all but non-existent national sovereignty means that we better find the answer to this question and fast… Frankly, it looks to me like most of us should have been fired already.
High-minded well-intended over-educated and not-so-enlightened opinions will vary of course. But lets score the american people on the basis of how we are doing so far, shall we? I mean, what could speak louder than our own track record, our resume so to speak?
Before we grade ourselves, can we agree that since the founders handed us the reigns to our own country, it will be impossible for any of us to escape personal responsibility for the condition we find our country in today? By all means, before I begin casting stones, would anyone like to claim complete innocence? anyone who never voted for the wrong snake-oil salesman, or never voted for the wrong reasons, or never voted at all maybe?
Okay then… how are we doing so far?
In 1999, Capital Hill Blue, a reasonably respected political news organization performed an in-depth study of the people we have hired to tend to our nations business in Washington DC. What they discovered does not speak well of those who elected these folks. It speaks even worse of those who continue re-electing them of course. allow me to summarize their findings…
as of 1999 when the study was done, Capital Hill Blue opened with their conclusion by stating "The 535 men and women who make up the House and Senate of the United States include, at best, a collection of rogues, con artists, scofflaws and bad check artists. at worst, they comprise, as Twain once observed, a distinct criminal class."
Capital Hill documented the following…
• Members who avoided driving violation via Congressional immunity 217 (40.5%)
• Members who filed bankruptcy on TWO or more businesses 117 (21.8%)
• Members picked up for DUI, but let go via Congressional immunity 84 (15.7%)
• Members with too bad of credit to get a credit card 71 (13.3%)
• Members who can't pass DOD or DOE security clearance 53 (10%)
• Members accused of spousal abuse 29 (5.4%)
• Members with DUI records (despite congressional immunity) 27 (5%)
• Members sued by personal creditors 21 (3.9%)
• Members who write bad checks (3.5% even after closing the House Bank) 19
• Members with drug related arrests 14 (2.6%)
• eight were arrested for shoplifting, seven for fraud, four for theft, three for assault and one for criminal trespass
Just in case you think we are talking about Howard Deans "Republican culture of corruption" campaign slogan, despite Republican's holding a majority control of both houses of congress in 1999, it was in fact Democrats (the minority party) who committed 72.2% of these congressional crimes. Bush had not yet been elected. How are we doing so far? (advice to Howard Dean, find a new campaign mantra)
CHB went on to point out "Others, like former Ohio Senator John Glenn, have driven creditors into bankruptcy because of unpaid debts left over from aborted Presidential campaigns. Even millionaire Senator Ted Kennedy has left a trail of unpaid debts from past campaigns. In recent years, members of Congress have gone to jail for child molestation, fraud and other charges." (Don't worry - nobody can explain Teddy's tenure.)
CHB is known for its slightly liberal slant my friends and these facts were in the first of their five part series on the real "culture of corruption" in Washington DC. Like CHB, I'm just getting warmed up here…
So how smart are americans who elect people like this to run their nations business? How smart are those who are still re-electing these people today? and you still wonder what's wrong in Washington?
How are we doing since 1999?
Well, the current administration is hovering between a 36% and 39% approval rating. In other words, most americans have reviewed the "facts" (as presented to them by the "free-unbiased" press) and come to the conclusion that the Bush administration is doing a terrible job. How are we doing with our fact gathering and interpretation skills in this assessment?
administrations are usually judged upon the "immediate" results of their policy decisions, since most americans now demonstrate some level of attention deficit disorder. Even though national policy decisions seldom show their full impact immediately, average americans look to run their government the same way they run their lives, pay-check to pay-check, one meal at a time.
Few would disagree that the Bush administration has faced some of our nations most tumultuous times. Despite the many unparalleled domestic and international challenges of the last five years, unemployment is near an all time low (4.7%), home ownership is at an all time high (near 70% and still climbing), the economy is chugging along nicely (4.8% growth 1st Quarter 2006), interest rates and inflation are low, homeland security has greatly improved, our military has liberated more than 50 million of the worlds most tortured people and ousted two of the worlds most brutal terror regimes, democracy is on the rise everywhere (but in america) and judging by the standard measures used to judge any administration, few administrations have done better. No wonder consumer confidence numbers are so high. So how do these numbers translate to only a 36 or 39% approval rating?
To be certain, many challenges remain. The war against international terrorism is far from over. Nuclear proliferation in parts of the world where we can not allow nuclear weapons to exist remains a major threat to world security, maybe more than ever. Our federal government continues to outgrow its usefulness, outspend its resources and overstep its allegedly limited boundaries. US targets remain at risk of terror attack and our intelligence agencies remain largely ineffective. Immigration is a mess and Washington is as impotent as it has been for more than 60 years now, to resolve any of it.
Is Bush's approval rating low because he has failed to fix all of the failures of the last 60 years? Is it possible americans have forgotten that Democrats were in charge for more than 40 of those 60 years? Or are his approval numbers low because the american press (the opposition party) has worked around the clock to make them low? all of these numbers are true and accurate, yet you won't find most of them in the lamestream press and therefore, americans who still believe the press will keep them well informed, find themselves almost completely clueless. We flunked fact gathering and interpretation skills. Searching for truth in a sea of propaganda requires too much effort and the truth only matters to the degree that it serves our purpose anyway.
How are the people's eyes and ears doing? (The american Press)
a man I often consider to be the founder of american personal liberty put it this way, "The most effectual engines for [pacifying a nation] are the public papers... [a despotic] government always [keeps] a kind of standing army of news writers who, without any regard to truth or to what should be like truth, [invent] and put into the papers whatever might serve the ministers. This suffices with the mass of the people who have no means of distinguishing the false from the true paragraphs of a newspaper." --Thomas Jefferson to G. K. van Hogendorp, Oct. 13, 1785. (*) ME 5:181, Papers 8:632
Have the american people allowed themselves to be "pacified" by a "despotic" cadre of "news writers" who write "without regard for truth"? Have the american people, "who have [little] means of distinguishing the false from the true paragraphs of a newspaper" allowed themselves to become "pacified" beneath the warm blanket of politically correct (but factually incorrect) definitions, socially conscious (but historically inaccurate) education and politically motivated headlines or sound-bites? Sadly, this is where americans receive their lowest scores…
Like our founders, most americans trust their press more than their government, and well they should. However, unlike our founders, americans have failed to keep a watchful eye on their so-called "free-unbiased" press. One of man things the founders warned us about…
Most americans fear the corporate monopolies they have been told to fear and they have tended to support congressional calls to break up any such monopolies. But nobody has told them about the corporate monopolies that threaten their very existence. The monopolies that today control the US Press, every national or international headline, and as a result, public opinion now routinely manipulated to shape public policy.
Most americans still believe journalists are trained to investigate, collect and disseminate facts. (Most americans with no exposure to journalism school that is.) american journalism classes have been teaching young journalists to "make a difference" for more than 60 years now, in other words, to promote a particular agenda, for the greater good of society.
Most americans still believe that their press is free, independent and unbiased. Yet every national or international headline across america is written and/or disseminated by someone working for one of only five (5) corporations who own, operate or control the vast majority of american media interests. These headlines and stories are vetted by one of only three (3) international news services, the aP, UPI or Reuters.
Who are the five (5) corporations that control the flow of public information in america today?
General Electric – NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, Universal Pictures, Universal TV, Telemundo Communications Group, Vivendi Universal, Sony and Liberty Media.
Time Warner – CNN, HBO, Headline News, TBS, TNT, Court TV, WB, Tribune Co., aOL, Time, Fortune, Money, People, Parenting, american Family Publishers, and much more.
Viacom – CBS, UPN, MTV, BET, VH-1, CMT, Nickelodeon, Showtime, Spike, Comedy Central, Paramount Pictures, Infinity radio broadcasting and american Radio Systems, Simon & Schuster.
Disney – aBC, aBC News, History Channel, a&E, Lifetime, Fox Family Networks, Disney, Touchtone, Hollywood, Miramax, Fairchild Publications and Chilton Publications.
News Corp. – Fox, Fox News, TCF Holdings, Twentieth Century Fox, Triangle Publications, Harper Collins.
a handful of newspaper organizations control the print media as well. Names worth studying are Gannett, Knight Ridder, New York Times Co., and Tribune Co.. at radio, it is Clear Channel, Infinity, and Cumulus. These companies represent the vast majority of american print, TV, radio and movie media and they are all owned or controlled by one or more of the five corporations above. Even worse is the fact that all others re-print or regurgitate their so-called "independent" reporting from these industry powerhouses.
Do the five media giants in control of public information flow, have a common agenda?
Now that you know who they are and what they own, you should be able to answer this question for yourself. Who tells the american people that "illegal aliens" are "undocumented immigrants"? Who covers are headlines with anti-american, pro-global / pro-United Nations drivel? Who tells us that our soldiers are "terrorists", or that terrorists are "freedom fighters or so-called "insurgents"? Who sells abortion as a "right of privacy", free religious speech as a violation of the First amendment and federal dependency on the whole? Does Hollywood have a clear agenda? Yes and so do the companies that own Hollywood.
If this isn't enough information, follow the money. Four of the five corporations and all of their sub-corporations are heavily invested in one (1) political party. any guesses which one? Only one of the media giants invests almost equally in both parties, slanted slightly to the right, and any american can guess which one that is…(all according to the FEC)
Yet most americans continue to make national choices on the basis of the information at hand, that information controlled by five media monsters and three news vetting agencies, all of which have a clear (un-american) agenda. Why? How does this reflect on the overall intelligence of the american people and their ability to gather facts and make choices?
Every american would be well served to learn (and never again forget) the three basic rules of politics.
1)In politics, nothing is an accident, or even left to chance.
2) The obvious villain is always the villain they want us to see, usually the victim. The truth is less obvious.
3) He who controls the flow of public information also controls public opinion, and thereby, the public itself. The mass media is the most powerful institution in america.
I'll be the first to admit that I'll not the sharpest knife in the drawer. But I'm smart enough to know what I don't know, how to ask the right questions, and not to stop digging for answers until I find the complete truth. are americans smart enough to run their own country? The evidence won't support such a claim!
Can they become smart enough to save their country from certain ruin? Yes, the truth exists and it is easier to find than most think. However, the truth is never as popular as the lie and most americans have become addicted to those lies.
are americans likely to remain too stupid to run their own country? If they continue to run it on the basis of what the press or Hollywood actors tell them, the answer is a resounding YES! If this is the best we can do, then we have failed the freedom and self-governance experiment and our grandchildren will pay heavily for our mistakes.
We proudly refer to our grandparents as the greatest generation ever. What will our grandchildren call us, the generation that cost them their freedom?
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