I believe there is an unnatural rift in the people of this Country we call great. Our politics are the same, we are arguing over semantics. Republican’s and Democrat’s don’t have to hate each other. Republican’s don’t have to hate everything Democrat and Democrat’s don’t have to hate everything Republican.
Our politics aren’t what divide us, our ideology isn’t what divides us, it’s our unwillingness to agree with something other than ourselves. The two major political parties in this country are separated by very minor issues, especially when comparing our politics to other countries, like any country in the European Union, or Australia, or New Zealand. All countries that have a higher standard of living, better democracy, you know, all the good stuff.
But we are too concerned with being right, being big, being tough. We aren’t even the tops of the world now. We are claiming to be spreading democracy but that’s like me saying I’m spreading the knowledge of quantum physics. I don’t know how to do quantum physics, just like this country has no idea about Democracy.
Big FREAKING business. Enron, Halliburton, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, all corrupt institutions, all of which have had major impact on policy and decision making in the past 20 years. At the height of Enron’s success, President Bush appointed a top ranking Enron official to the business regulation board. De-regulating business is what made it possible for Enron to commit fraud at such a scale.
Lies and corruption is what our country is surviving on now. For the people and by the people, gone. Who in government is looking out for their constituents? For the last 8 years we have been waging in two wars that got us where? Why did we invade/liberate/occupy/destroy Iraq? WMD’s? Who were those WMD’s pointed at? Wait, we didn’t find any, so either when the UN was there, they disarmed, or they didn’t have them to begin with, right? Iraq posed a serious threat to the United States, right? WRONG. The world is a safer place without Sadam Hussein, right? RIGHT. But why was it up to us to take him out? Is one man worth the 4,000 plus American lives that were lost in Iraq?
I’m going to take a stance here, I know people are going to disagree, but you can call me Glen or Keith (Beck, Olberman). That’s fine. The United States invaded Iraq to preserve the access to oil. I understand the United States isn’t getting any of its oil from Iraq. The majority of oil the U.S. imports are from Canada, then Venezuela, then Saudi Arabia, and on down the list you won’t see Iraq. But if we could see past our nose, we may actually see why the United States went into Iraq.
Those three countries mentioned earlier have an expected 10-20 year supply of oil reserves left. Then what? When Saudi Arabia, who exports 45 percent of the worlds oil, runs out, then what? Then the U.S. gets access to Iraqi oil. It’s too obvious to use Iraqi oil now, and we still have an OK relationship with Saudi Arabia and Canada. So why waste Iraqi oil now, when we can save it, deplete other countries reserves while still having access when most of the world’s reserves have been depleted. Oil equals money, money equals power. Power equals an answer for China.
Afghanistan. The Pentagon released the number of Afghani civilian casualties. 4,000. Civilian casualties, not insurgent casualties, civilian. Didn’t we invade Afghanistan because of the 3,000 American civilian deaths when the World Trade Centers were attacked? How can we spread democracy when we are killing innocent people?
As a Country, we don’t make any sense. We can’t agree on regulating business as a means to stop taking advantage of the people. We can’t agree on a health care plan that will raise the standard of living in this country. We can’t agree on anything. We argue because we know we have to yell to sound strong. We are no longer strong, we are scared. Not as civilians, our Government is scared. Our government is not a reflection of the people.
