BEWARE OF HIGH HOPES

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BEWARE OF HIGH HOPES
and the illusion of "vox populus"


by

Dorothy Anne Seese


The illusionists are masters of deception, and deception rules the age in which this world spins. Post-election euphoria has not yet pulled one American soldier out of the Middle East, nor can it remove from power those who really control the opinions of the public, American, European, Middle and Far Eastern, the people we call the "shadow government" comprised of the industrial billionaires and world bankers.

If the elections held in the United States in November, 2006, had been presidential, there is little doubt that the country would now be looking at an incoming administration run by a Democratic Party president. Instead, the public voted in enough Democrats to speak its mind and hand control of the House of Representatives and the United States Senate to the Democrats, thus forcing an arrogant, stubborn president to replace his Secretary of Defense with someone who appears to be more moderate. It is possible that such an outcome was the only route left if America is to retain the appearance of having two modes of thought expressed by a two party political system. The Republican National Committee knew this, the president knew it and so did the Pentagon officials. There is no exit strategy from another quagmire "war" on either side, but the expression of discontent by the popular vote gives the appearance that change is in the wind.

There is change in the wind, but it may not be what the American people felt they were voting to obtain.

A new balance of power in the House and Senate will permit the US to develop an exit strategy from Iraq, which has proved to be a lost cause in the midst of its own civil war and inability to handle a democratic form of government. The same may be true of Afghanistan. The American public, tired of seeing American lives wasted on a no-cause conflict of cultures, gave the government a save-face way out by changing the guard to the more "liberal" side of a political structure in which the terms liberal, conservative, moderate, centrist and right-wing have little to no meaning. A cursory reading of the speeches made by Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy make them sound like right-wing patriots compared to today's so-called "neo-cons."

While the war of words continues in the arena of rhetoric, look at the United States as a whole:

* American jobs are still being lost by the thousands as industry downsizes or moves overseas;

* America's fiscal condition appears terminally ill, with trillions in debt being reserved for another Great Depression or a selloff of American resources to foreign powers to operate with greater efficiency;

* The borders are still wide open to whoever wishes to cross;

* Morality is at an all-time low, having taken a forty-five year tumble since 1961;

* Every Executive Order signed by President Bush is still in effect and available for use;

* Political correctness and its companion, hypocrisy, still stalk the city streets laden with snoop cameras;

* Free speech and the remainder of the Bill of Rights appear to have been given a mortal blow with no chance of recovery or survival;

* The Constitution is still regarded by most courts, including the Supreme Court, as an historic piece of paper;

* Social Security for the elderly is still a mythical lockbox that the nation could not afford before the Iraq incursion and claims are always made that the country cannot afford its elderly while adding non-Americans to the benefit rolls;

* Hundreds of millions are committed to the federalized education of students from pre-kindergarten to the colleges where education now demands loans that would buy a new house, yet we have some of the least educated graduates in the world who have no idea how to think for themselves unless taught at home;

* Freedom has been minimalized to the point where most Americans would rather trade all their freedoms for what they deem to be "security" and security can be guaranteed by no person or government, as anything from asteroids to weather can destroy human lives in a matter of minutes.

* The sanctity of life is in total disregard except where convenient for media exploitation on behalf of some agenda where public outrage is needed for a few days.

And that is a very short list of only the most obvious. America has become a nation where Americans cannot afford to live, other nations are being sought by those who wish to find a place where retirement dollars will buy both food and medicine, not more bureaucratic red tape.

So what did the election accomplish? The appearance that the will of the people has been accomplished, a new era is beginning, America will build back from the Bush years, and the people still have power. That is precisely what anyone could have predicted, given the irritation over the Iraq war and the Bush administration for the past six years.

Is it realistic to believe that America will return to the nation it was in the 1950's, when government intervention in private lives (right down to your cholesterol level, flu shot or your choice to smoke a ground up leaf) would have caused a genuine revolt among the people? Hardly. Is it reasonable to believe that morality will improve, among both the unchurched and leaders of religious bodies? Not really, when money, power, sex and self-gratification are the Baals that line the halls of America from school to church to political office to home.

Is it reasonable to believe that the Republicans are relieved that they have been booted off the hot seat over Iraq and now the world will give America time to get another act together, since hope springs eternal? Yes. That's what this changing of the guard, in appearance more than substance, was all about.

So, considering the above, did anyone win the election?