Sooooo, after the highly charged debate that broke out in the Washington series thread, of all places, a few of my readers may consider me a wild-eyed liberal. Actually, I grew up in the liberal bastion of Northern California, became more moderate as I became an adult and had some career success, and now that we've gone through a 6-year tragedy known as the Bush administration, I have returned somewhat to my liberal roots.
So what does this mean? Here's what I've been thinking is the crux of the problem with the USA:
We are a nation without a moral compass, even less public discourse about it, and a mainstream news media that fails to serve the interest of advancing public discourse or promoting an informed citizenry, opting instead to serve its corporate masters. It just so happens that Al Gore's new book "Assault on Reason" states this situation quite well.
When I say we have no moral compass, I am specifically referring to our nations priorities of "guns versus butter". The military industrial complex is choking off funding for so many other important programs, and we are viewed around the world as a violent, militaristic, arrogant, aggressive and threatening nation. Hardly a force for good, or that "beacon on the hill", as Reagan put it, anymore. Eisenhower warned us about this almost 50 years ago. The government is now "owned" by the defense, oil, and health care industries.
Just look at the few links that follow. They will show you that fully HALF of the nation's discretionary budget goes toward defense spending. It has gone up dramatically since 9/11, as if we can defeat a TACTIC of terrorism and an IDEOLOGY of radical Islam with armies and new weapons systems. It's a crock and a scam that 9/11 was used by corporate/government interests as an excuse to give even more money to the defense industry, but let's face it.....millions of Americans are employed, beholden, or otherwise economically helped by defense spending. Meanwhile, only about 6% of discretionary spending goes toward health care, and Medicare has a long-term funding problem.
Think about it for a minute. WHY do we spend more money on military spending than everyone else? What do we have to fear that other nations don't? We are surrounded by two oceans, and I highly doubt that any nation-states are considering an invasion of our shores. And if we are so concerned about protecting our citizens from invasions of one sort or another, WHY aren't we concerned about another form of "invasion", specifically invasions of the human body by microscopic viruses, germs, and cancer cells, etc? Heath care IS a form of "national defense" or "national security", if you will. Yet we spend a small fraction on our nation's health that we spend on bunker busting bombs and the tools of killing. People fear "socialized medicine", but
what is our military machine if not a gigantic socialized endeavor?!
WHY can't people see this? As I wrote above, we have no true moral compass. We like to THINK we do. We like to think the USA is #1 in everything we do. It's part of our arrogance as a culture. Americans think we are the BEST at almost everything, and we are not. Our so-called "democracy" is a joke at the federal level as none of us could ever have a prayer of being elected to a national office, and money rules in Washington, NOT the people. So we have the "trappings" of democracy, an ill-informed citizenry, and it all seems OK because 90% of us believe in God. Give me a break, but God (if he exists) would be ashamed of the hypocricy and moral degradation of our nation over the past couple decades.
Our country is truly messed up, guys and gals. Now for those websites that show our defense spending....
DEFENSE SPENDING, MILITARY BUDGET
Military budget of the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
United States Military Spending
World Military Spending - Global Issues