November 4, 2008
by Philip A Farruggio

Remember Gorden Gecko, the Michael Douglas character in Oliver Stone's film Wall Street ? He captured the essence of what America had become by the ' Rah Rah Reagan 80s ' . " Greed is good " smirked Gorden Gecko , and so it was good...For the rich or wannabee rich. The new lords and ladies of American feudalism were those who could obtain lots and lots of wealth... And keep building on it.

Now, I am not referring to some small business entrepreneur who earns a couple hundred grand a year, has 20 or 30 employees, the fancy home, the fancy cars , the kids wearing $ 300 sneakers etc. No, I am referring to those among us ( or separated by gated and guarded communities and exclusive clubs ) who earn in excess of one million per annum...... Most likely they have tens of millions or ( as in the case of Henry Paulson, Treasury Secretary ) hundreds of millions in wealth at their disposal.

The rest of us, we who punch in our eight hours ( if lucky enough to have a full time job and not 2 part time gigs ) and are saddled with car payments, credit card payments, mortgage or rental payments, education payments ...... We are the serfs!

Malcom X , one of my role models, was a man who transcended from the corrupt into the fanatical and then into the ' truth ' . He once told the story, set in the days of slavery, of the ' House Slave and the ' Field Slave ' . The field slave just worked for the master, to his discontent. He inwardly despised the fact that he was someone's slave, someone's property. The house slave, who worked in the master's plantation house, he had a different take on things.

When the master felt ill , the house slave would say " We not feeling good today master? " When the master was hungry, he would say " We hungry master? " You see, the house slave identified with the lord of the mansion.... He loved him. Reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend who works two jobs... Just to stay above board. He would argue with me that the rich deserved tax breaks because " They pay most of the taxes anyway! " He was vehement about it.

When I pressed him on gasoline tax and sales tax, to name just two such regressive taxes, he did not get it. Could not comprehend that millions of low and middle income Americans pay out those taxes day in and day out, compared to a mere pittance by the really wealthy.

America is no longer a beacon of progressive light. As briefly as 8 years ago, we on the so called ' left ' were championing public funding of elections as the only means to assure a level playing field in politics. Now, many of those who shared that view ( mostly today's Democrats ) are quite at home with the fact that this current presidential cycle will see one billion being raised by the two major parties.

Do you know what one billion dollars is? Its a thousand times one million . That's a lot of money. Adding insult to injury, its the Democrats , trumpeting Senator Obama, who lead the way in raising this money. Did you know that Goldman Sachs, the firm that is at the epicenter of this sub prime Wall Street banking scam, has accounted for $ 740,000 in donations to Obama? Why would rich folks associated with firms and banks that caused so much damage for the rest of working Americans give to Obama?

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We know why the rich give to McCain and the other Republican candidates for office. Doesn't anyone who cares about America's future realize that both these parties are corrupt and rotten to the core? McCain, Palin and 95% of the Republicans in Congress are a joke! They vote and they represent the interests of the ' feudal lords and ladies ' who own America. Sadly, of the Democrats in Congress, 75% of them represent those same interests. So, there it is, this ' lesser of two evils ' philosophy that the Democrats have counted on for decades.

They vote to give the Bush/ Cheney cabal the right to pre- emptive attack. They vote to continually fund an illegal occupation. They vote in a new bankruptcy law that only helps the big banks. They renege on the assertion, in 2006, that once they took control of Congress, hearings would be established to investigate the run-up to invading Iraq. Oh yes, Senator Joe Biden , soon to be Vice President Biden, was instrumental in confirming Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General. This is after the whole world knew of Gonzales's role in the infamous torture memos and the circumventing of the Geneva Accords.

How about the newly elected Senator Obama, along with most of his Democratic colleagues, confirming Ms. Rice as Secretary of State? You remember her, right ? The lady who ran around to all the talk shows in ' 02 sounding the alarm ' We don't want a mushroom cloud being the smoking gun ' mantra about Iraq having nuclear weapons. The Democrats actually voted to allow her to represent America around the world! Someone who lied to the 911 commission and to every camera focusing on her before we invaded Iraq! Need I remind you all about the Democrats giving both Roberts and Alito a ' pass ' on becoming Supreme Court justices... For life?

Feudalism is what we have here in our cherished America. 90% of us are out there scrambling around to keep our economic heads above water. Meanwhile, CEOs and top management of major corporations earn 400 times ( on average ) of what their lowest full time worker earns! At one time, even the Japanese felt that anything over 15 times was considered too much. To add insult to injury, the loudest supporters of this current and corrupt economic system are... Regular 9 to 5 Americans.

How can things change when we either have a) silence or b) House Slaves ? Why vote for any candidate who refuses to address our real and vital concerns and needs? Why? So that the ' greater of two evils ' gets elected? Perhaps this all proves that the eastern spiritual beliefs are valid. Perhaps this whole 3rd dimension is but a dream of our Creator . Thus, it is not so much about ' what goes down ', rather how each and every one of us reacts.

Remember, in the realm of the angels and saints, and whatever name you give to your Creator...... ' The lesser of two evils... Is still ... Evil!

Technorati Tags: Elections, Voting, Activism, Obama, McCain, Third Parties

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Philip A Farruggio [send him email] is a free lance columnist, small businessman and activist. Since the 2000 elections, he has had over 90 columns posted on various websites and in many newspaper op-ed sections. To review some which have been shown, just google his name.

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