Answer to a soldier upset about economics and Pledge of Allegiance

I didn't serve because of a 4-F rating. But many of my friends died in the Nam conflict. And I do believe in and serve as best I can the purported ideals of this Country by taking part in the political scene and volunteer work in the community.

I am also aware of history. Whatever first brought folks here, this Country that we love was founded by rich white men primarily on the ideals of commercial enterprise and the oppression of commerce in the colonies exemplified by, say, G. Washington having to send cotton to England to have it made into clothes as that was not allowed to be done here by King George. Slavery and indenture were common, as we know, and even Jefferson, whom we look to for our best Democratic ideas was a slave owner. In fact, it is arguable in some respect that this Country is still a corporation founded and owned by Great Britain.

I am, as an independent business man and entrepreneur who has made his own living for the past seven years, quiet aware as well of what is required of one to make a living by wits and talent in this economy. And being 63 years old and starting my life in a DP camp and then living in a ghetto and successively twice after in primarily black neighborhoods, I also know a bit about poverty. And having co-managed two multi-million dollar estates I know a bit about wealth. And my Dad being active in politics at every level for all of his life, I know a bit about that scene as well.
From this perspective I can readily say that though there are a few people who are lazy and feel entitled in the lower classes that we publicly rail about, this feature of human immaturity is, I greatly assure you, endemic in every class. The difference is that not only can those who have money, lots of it, protect themselves by legal entitlements under other names, eg subsidies to oil, corn, and tobacco corporations, they can also use their wealth to ever extract more from those who have less and vote themselves more. If you can read history books and interpret the news, you know this.
We have, in fact, in this country and adversarial plutocratic republic, and no one wishes to openly talk about the elephant in the room because guess where campaign funding comes from?

And even on the local scene, as I know from attending City Council and County Board of Supervisors meetings when I can, the people who have an actual and living concern with outcomes are busy working while lobbyists who are paid to push special interests swarm over such meetings and even have influence behind close doors, which we have plentiful evidence of.

So while I'm one who believes that people such as you, and others who have served by putting their lives on the line, perhaps have a claim to citizenship and the vote above the common person, I have my serious doubts, even supported by the views courageously expressed by Dwight Eisenhower, that our astonishingly expensive and invasive military tactics go a bit beyond the ideals of the Democracy they are purported to serve. Indeed, 1/40th of that budget could easily erase the health and social security concerns we now face. And remember, the next largest military budget in the world is 1/4 ours and belongs to an ally. The budgets of our "enemies" are crumbs compared to ours.


And as for blaming Obama? Where were the blamers during Bush's administration, and going back to Reagan when the safety net now proved to be an essential part of our society was first attacked? Indeed, look at the records Republican Congresses, which were a great majority from that era to this, and see who spent how much. In fact, the things now in the public eye as fear factors regarding where our money is going were generated by financial favors to the very rich at the disproportionate expense of the middle, which is why that exceptionally stabilizing element in a healthy society is dissolving in ours. And the very very rich. And beyond that rich. If you are not familiar with a thing called the "L" curve, I encourage you to take a look at it.

Am I against people having money? NO, I am not. I am against people who have the power to vote themselves favors doing so at my and your expense and blaming their own kind who have less as the culprits in problems while they often get rewarded beyond our financial imagination for doing us the favor of stealing from us. This is exactly what Jefferson predicted 200 years ago would be the end of Democracy. I might suggest that the battle for that Ideal may not be for the most part on foreign soil, but in our own systems.