Playing Chicken With Disaster

During the founding of the United States, George Washington argued passionately against the establishment of political parties.

The first President said that political parties served only to “turn brother against brother” and he strongly urged the new nation to forgo such divisive nonsense.

The people listened intently to General Washington.

Of course they did. 

After all, this was the very man who had pulled the Colonies together into Union, forged a bunch of raggedy-assed subsistence farmers into the Continental Army and then pushed the most powerful Empire in the world from the continent and back into the sea from whence they came, and finally wrestled freedom from an insane despot.

This was a man who had literally become the very symbol of a new nation and a people.  Of course they listened to him, Americans in large part owed George Washington their very freedom.

The recently minted Americans nodded sagely at Washington’s wise words.

They spoke knowingly of his wisdom.

They even suggested that they might crown him King of America. 

Political parties are bad. Got it. You are wise, General. Wise indeed.

Then, predictably given the astounding tenacity of human stupidity and the enduring perversity of human politics, the new Americans immediately ignored Washington’s admonishment and set about forming teams as if they were kids choosing sides for a game of Death Match Dodge-ball. The Minutemen and the Revolutionaries and the Patriots who fought so passionately to be free of a distantly aloof and arbitrary tyranny, one that existed only to serve its own capricious interests, immediately divided themselves up into tribes like the screeching inhabitants of Monkey Island and began enthusiastically flinging shit at each other. 

And thus were political parties woven into the fabric of America right from the start.

Two and a half centuries later, in the very city named in honor of the great man himself, the crazed monkeys are still screeching madly, ever louder and more stridently each day, and gleefully flinging shit at each other in great double handfuls – and once again Americans are at the mercy of a distantly aloof and arbitrary tyranny, one that exists only to feed its spiteful red-eyed lust for power and capricious self-interest.

The difference is that in Washington’s time Americans were born into tyranny, today they willingly embrace it.

Tyranny!

It’s a word that you hear a lot these days. 

Hell, you’ve been hearing it more and more and more for the last decade.

During the final six years of the Bush administration, the word tyranny was very often upon lips of liberals – and even muttered by more than a few conservatives.

And for these last few years of the Obama administration, the word is bandied about ad nauseum by conservatives – and more than a few liberals.

Nonsense.

Oh there is certainly tyranny rooted and growing in America, but it is not being wielded by the president.

Not this one, and not the last one.

The President of the United States is not a tyrant – no matter how many times the capering monkeys screech their dire warnings that it must be so and the mindless sheep bleat and bob their fuzzy woolen heads in agreement. 

The President’s power is derived from the Constitution, not from heredity or magic beans or divine right or military power – and certainly not from God. 

The boundaries of the President’s authority are often not sharply delineated, by design and intent, but they are limited, again not by arbitrary whim, not by magic or signs in the heavens or by seers who read the bones, not by secret societies and Star Chambers and not by God or His self appointed representatives here on earth, but by law, by the courts, by Congress, by Constitutional checks and balances, and ultimately by the people themselves via the ballot box.

No, to find tyranny, you have to look beyond the edges of law to the shadowy powers not governed by the Constitution or limited by vote or accountable to the people, and who declare that they are carrying out the will of God Himself (It doesn’t matter if you believe in God or not, when power acts in his name what you believe matters not at all – though the consequences of non belief under such tyranny can be very, very high). If you seek real and not rhetorical tyranny in America, you have only to look for an arbitrary and capricious power that pits brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor, and American against American solely in order to advance its own ravenous self interests.

It is not the president, this one or any other, who will bring down America  – and perhaps the rest of civilization – and take away your freedoms.

No, rather it is those who would willingly give themselves to unchecked tyranny and act as its enthusiastic agent provocateur. 

I’m talking about those who swore a solemn oath, enforceable by law, to support and defend the United States of America, to uphold her laws, and most especially to represent her people – all of her people – to the death if necessary and who wield power derived solely from the Constitution – and then once in power, boldly and blatantly and publically declare their allegiance to tyrannical power, a power unchecked and unelected, a power that serves only its own selfish ends and is not accountable to the people.

I’m talking about those faithless dishonorable cowards who spit into the face of liberty, who trample the ideals of the republic and of democracy, and bring us ever closer to disaster.

I’m talking about Senators and Representatives and all sworn officers of the United States who hold up their right hands and swear the following legally binding oath:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter; So help me God (emphasis mine),

and then once in office declare their allegiance to agencies other than the Constitution.

I’m talking about sitting members of Congress who sign pledges and swear allegiance to the very political parties George Washington warned us about and who would give their loyalty to such organizations over and above their sworn duty to the citizens and their duty to the United States itself – even, and especially, if it brings the country to ruin.

I’m talking about Senators who would hold the United States, and indeed the world, hostage to the tyranny of fanaticism and political ideology.

That oath above is not just words, it is a binding contract between members of Congress and the citizens of the United States.

In time of war, failure to uphold that oath could have you taken to the wall and shot.

Any Congressman who places allegiance to a political party above the United States itself and the obligations of that oath is guilty of treason. 

They are guilty of entering into a legally binding oath under fraudulent intentions.

And they are guilty of perpetuating tyranny in its most foul and insidious form.

What?

Oh you think “treason” and “tyranny” are too strong of words?

An exaggeration, perhaps?

Yesterday, today, certain senators who have publicly declared their loyalty to a particular political party, to a political ideology and not to the citizens they supposedly represent, have proclaimed loudly that they will not compromise on a budget deal with the Executive, nor will they compromise with the opposition in either the House or Senate, nor even with more reasonable members of their own party. Two weeks ago both major political parties were on the verge of hammering out a $4 trillion debt reduction plan, one that would have slain sacred cows on both sides of the aisle and put the country back on the road to financial stability. The mere hint of such a deal was enough to boost the stock markets and give hope to millions.  Then came the fanatics.  They literally threatened and intimidated the more moderate and reasonable members of their own political party.  And now they are, in effect, holding the entire world hostage in this mad game of chicken – and pay particular attention to the words, mad game I said and mad game it is, every bit as MAD as those men who once brought us to the edge of nuclear Armageddon in an insane game of international brinksmanship. 

These wild eyed fanatics, and fanatics they are, each and every one, in the most fundamental sense of the word, are gambling with the very future of our country.

More, they endanger the lives of every human being on this planet.

They jeopardize civilization itself and threaten us with a new dark age.

These are the same folks who decry the president, who claim he is in thrall to foreign influence, and yet it is they and their allegiance to a political power neither elected nor approved of by the majority of Americans that now demonstrably threatens the security and fortune of our nation.

Most Americans have an opinion on the US government debt, but few indeed actually have any idea whatsoever of the details. Far too many cheer this deadly game of chicken and are utterly ignorant of the terrible consequences. Like global climate change, they would bluster and pontificate and grandstand until it is too late.

Nowhere is this more evident than those, like the two idiots I overheard today in line at the coffee shop, loudly discussing how it’s only a matter of time until China forecloses on us and calls in the note on all $14 trillion of our national debt.

Of the $14 trillion and change the US government owes, roughly sixty three percent (give or take), or about eight and half trillion dollars, is owed to Americans.  Yes, that’s right, we borrowed the money from ourselves.  Don’t get me wrong here, certainly just because most of our debt is owed to ourselves doesn’t mean we should have a cavalier attitude towards it. That note must be paid, but it can and will be paid in installments and there is no danger whatsoever of it getting called in all at once.

Of the remainder, the thirty seven percent or so owed to foreign powers, about 12%, or about $1.6 trillion, is owed to foreign investors other than China, another 2% is owed to OPEC for the oil that keeps our engines turning (the exact amount moves up and down with the price of oil. Obama opened the national reserve and caused a sudden drop in oil prices on the world stock markets, which in turn reduced the national debt by some fraction of a percent. You’re welcome. Of course it’s creeping back up again due to the ongoing flap in Libya. Maybe somebody ought to do something about that. But I digress).  Another 2% is owed to Caribbean banking centers.  Roughly 6% is owed to Japan.  What’s that leave?  About 7.3%, again give or take, which is owed to China. 

Now seven percent isn’t chump change, it comes out to a bit over a trillion dollars – but it is a far cry from from China “owning” the US.  Given enough incentive, the United States government could cough up a trillion and pay the Chinese off (sell them a couple of old aircraft carriers for example, and maybe a couple of obsolete space shuttles. You get the idea).

There is no danger of China foreclosing on the United States.

None.

Which is not to say that China couldn’t end up owning us – and much of the rest of the world too.

How?

Well, see, that’s where the treason part comes in.

Today much of Europe teeters on the brink of economic implosion. The Euro is literally within sight of collapse. This looming disaster was brought about same as our own economic crisis – by greedy men on Wall Street and in the US real state banking industry, men consumed by an avarice writ so large that it defies comprehension. And in fact, the world economic crisis was precipitated directly by the United States’ economic meltdown. However, as shaky as it has become in recent years, the US dollar still props up much of the world’s economy.  Should the United States be allowed, be driven to, default on its debts, should it even give the appearance that it intends to deliberately default on its debt as some of these fanatics would have it for no reason other than to win the next election, it will very likely send Europe into a depression the likes of which will make 1929 look like a summer rain shower.  America won’t be far behind, remember, sixty percent of the folks we’re talking about defaulting on here are Americans – and not just any Americans, but the entire middle class.   Should America and Europe fall into massive economic recession, Russia will most certainly follow and so too will then much of the rest of the world. 

And in fact, there is only one country likely to emerge from this mess solvent and in a dominant position while the rest of civilization comes apart at the seams and staggers toward a new dark age.

Want to guess who that is? 

You won’t have to worry about the debt collectors coming to foreclose on America, China will just buy the place for pennies on the dollar – or rather for a few fen on the yuan.

Treason I said and treason it is.

These traitorous lunatics are playing Russian Roulette with civilization itself for no reason other than capricious and selfish self interest. 

They’ve put aside reason and their oath and their obligation to support and defend the United States and they risk all for the tyranny of ideology.

These people are the very danger George Washington warned us about more than two centuries ago.