The Vision Thing…Part Two

Part One

All visions have to start somewhere, and since this is a vision of how to get from where we are to where we want to be, I will start this one with where we are. We are starting a new century, for one thing. Though we have certainly not started it well. Unless of course we realize that in order for a new world to be created, the old one must be ‘destroyed’ to make way for it. In which case, George Bush and the Republicans (past and present) have done a simply bang up job of starting the century right by ‘destroying’ nearly every aspect of the old, American dominated world, by destroying nearly every aspect of the structure of America . They have destroyed our economy, which once led the world. They have overstretched and destroyed our military might, which once ruled the world. They have destroyed America’s moral reputation, which once the world looked up to. They and their cohorts at Fox News have destroyed American journalism and any notion of a truthful and “free” press. They have destroyed our educational system and decimated the notion that we are technological world leaders. They have destroyed infrastructure through neglect, using the moneys for it in their destructive war. In addition to attempting to destroy the very concept of  science, they have destroyed, or tried to destroy, the concept of environmental protection. They have destroyed eight of the precious years we had to fight Climate Crisis. In fact about the only thing they have not destroyed are the industries and services geared towards serving the very wealthy, Ferrari dealerships, for instance, are doing very well!

In the construction industry, when a structure has suffered major damage, as the structures of America have under the “stewardship” of the Republicans, you are faced with a choice. You can rebuild the structure as it was….or you can build a new structure in its place, on the remains of whatever parts of the foundation are still solid.

When it is obvious, as it is now, that the structure collapsed of its own weight, because of bad design or ill-thought out additions, the answer becomes obvious. Build a new, more sound structure.

The bedrock of America, its Constitution, is still sound, though it has suffered much damage. The foundation of modern America, The New Deal, has also been gravely damaged, but it can be repaired and rebuilt. Repairing these two essential elements of America must be our starting point for a new vision a new blueprint, a new structure.

Restoring our Constitutional Rights that have been stolen under the Patriot (ha!) Act and severely eroded by totalitarianism is essential. Restoring the Rule of Law that it so magnificently represents is essential.

Returning to the basic premise of the New Deal,(and the Great Society) that America cares for and provides opportunities for ALL of its citizens is also essential. It is the difference between living in a plutocracy where the government exists to serve the rich, and living in a democracy, where ALL men and women, all citizens are treated as equals. Much of the damage to America has been done in the interest, in the blatant, self serving self-interest of the plutocracy, the Ruling Class.

From Iraq, to the economy, to the environment, nothing has damaged America more than straying from those basic principles of democracy and the Rule of Law. The change from a government that was at least nominally and in principle, of, for and by The People to a government of, by, and for the rich and the Ruling Class is what has destroyed us to the point that we are destroyed. Nearly all of our current woes can be traced directly back to the incremental change from a democracy to a plutocracy that has reached its peak in the Bush years, culminating in the wreck of a country and society that we are now experiencing.

Returning to and rebuilding those principles MUST inform all that we do to rebuild, MUST inform and steer the vision of a new America.

Thus the first part of my vision includes a commission and a Special Prosecutor to rigorously and thoroughly investigate the illegality and excesses of the Bush Administration. (Curse it’s very name, for the damage it has done.) Both Obama and Biden have made noises about this, but it is our responsibility as citizens to push them hard for this. Investigate and bring to light all of their crimes, to close and repair the past as much as possible, and to repudiate their form of “government.” There must be no ‘moving on,’ no sweeping under the rug. Never again.

Oh and while we are at it… a new Church Committee is desperately needed as well, considering how much power and how little oversight has been given to the “Intelligence Community.”

Now, on to the future, in broad strokes.

Energy. In some ways, it all comes down to this one subject. Our reliance on, our addiction to, as Bush himself put it, oil is at the heart of the economy, national security, the environment and at least tangentially, every issue we face.

If there is one thing that can transform and renew our country and the world, is is getting off of oil as fast as we can. Not just to save the planets inhabitants from the very real menace of Climate Crisis and to hand a habitable world to our descendants, but to end the necessity of future oil wars,but as the basis for rebuilding the American economy. Based on actual producing something, rather than on the shifting of Ponzi Scheme paper on Wall St and the futures markets.

A huge push, even larger than the Apollo program, for technological solutions is essential and revitalizes both the tech sector and that rapidly disappearing, former American strength….science. A WPA program for in converting to a Green energy future revitalizes the economy by providing another thing America has lost. Jobs jobs jobs. From jobs for scientists, researchers, designers, managers and directors, down to jobs for skilled techs and construction workers to jobs for laborers and the people to feed and clothe them all. Training the new scientists and managers and techs that will revitalize our educational system, as well.  A reemphasized and rebuilt educational and scholarship system and reforming student loan programs follow in the wake of this new focus, and soon will lead it. In brand new and exciting ways. Oh, and Unions. (see below) for the legion of new workers.

There is simply no better investment (certainly better than banks!) for America to pursue than this. A set of programs and a national priority to create a Green economy IS our future in to many ways to count. Including rebuilding the pride and moral and participation of exactly the Americans that have been hardest hit by the subversion to plutocracy. Rebuild America Green!

Oh and since we have

The Economy. I am no economist, but it deosn’t take one to see the most simple fact of the American economy since Reagan. Trickle Down economics is bullshit. It doesn’t work now, it hasn’t worked in the past and it won’t work in the future. Period.

Trickle UP economics works. “Give” the money to the lower and middle class and let them spend it on the essentials and modest luxuries they need to survive and thrive. The Rich and Ruling Class and Capital can make their money (though considerably slower, the poor bastards) by investing in a basic goods and services economy by selling THINGS to PEOPLE. Instead of smoke and mirrors get rich schemes. What’s that you say, we have outsourced that sort of industry? Well you should have thought of that earlier. That is a huge component of the current economic mess. America no longer has an economy based on Real Stuff. Now, Ruling Class, YOU are going to have to work a little harder and think a little smarter to reap your profit off of the top of the labor of the American People. It is Hard Times for everyone, Hard Times that YOU have created through your greed. Suck it up, Rich Folks, and quit yer whining! (yeah, that’ll work!)

You “give” the money to the lower and middle class through jobs and unions and health care. The unions built the middle class, they raised workers from the lower classes and gave them income. Income that they then spent on goods and services, the upper class invested in companies that provided those goods and services and thus grew rich. The only thing wrong with that system was the the upper class wanted MORE money, quicker. In other words…greed. Greed caused the plutocrats to destroy unions, to outsource manufacturing, to destroy the middle class. And to prevent the upward mobility that is at the heart of the American Dream for the lower classes. Greed and excessive outsourcing, and health care is what has destroyed the American economy, which was an economy fueled by the middle and lower classes having more money to spend, and thus better lives. An egalitarian economy, that the plutocrats demolished. All so that they could make another percentage of a penny on the dollar.

Ok that is plenty long enough for today, lol! More tomorrow, but these to me are the essentials. IF we do anything close to all of the above, (and change our Foreign policy, which I will talk about tomorrow) it will change and revitalize and rebuild America. And as America follows this vision the whole world will contribute, lead in some things and follow in others. THIS is how America leads, how it USED to lead. Not through military might, but through the strength of ideas and industry. Not through IMPOSING democracy, but by demonstrating it, by being it. If what we do works, as the Republican Plutocracy’s vision of America has NOT worked, THEN the world will follow us. We have always taken the best ideas, the best principles from around the world and combined them with and made them part of America, the melting pot. It is time to open our doors and our minds and do that once more. Exceptionalism and Jingoism and the worst parts of Nationalism are dead myths and concepts, in this new world of the new century. Killed by the excesses of The Republicans and better left for dead. We are NOT exceptional by fiat, we are just….humans. On a planet full of humans. If we want to lead, we have to earn it, not impose it.

If America is to lead, or even be a meaningful part of this new world, this is how we do it. By building America in to the full flower of it’s potential, economically and socially, with, finally, Freedom and Justice for all. Thus uniting us not just as a country, but as a planet, as human beings. That is the vision of the future I see. Or would like to!