Looking For Others’ Opinions

[Ponca Dan]

The Watergate scandal of the early 1970’s (was it 1972?) brought down a President, as well it should have! Tricky Dick Nixon and his cohorts were involved in a conspiracy that could have destroyed our republic.

Since Watergate we’ve had Jerry Ford pardon Nixon and declare that the USSR didn’t dominate Eastern Europe. Bush the elder promised not to raise taxes, “read my lips,” and he promptly raised taxes. Bush the younger assured us Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, got us into a war we are still fighting to this day at the expense of trillions of dollars of treasure and thousands of young American lives, not to mention hundreds of thousands of the lives of the “enemy.” The Clintons - my God! - the list of their malfeasance is endless. Obama politicized the IRS and sent them after conservative groups (which they attacked with zeal), used spies on journalists, ignored the murders in Libya, initiated the spying on the Trump electoral organization, among many other things. And now we have a “dear leader” that is simply incapable of telling the truth. I thought no one could ever match either Bill or Hillary for the sheer volume of lying, but the Donald has not only matched them but has exceeded them. And what has been the result of any of this? We have experienced around 50 years of uninterrupted corruption and exploitation of the American people by our duly elected leaders. Since Nixon has there been a single political leader put in jail? (Hell, even Nixon got away with it!) Charged with a crime? Investigated with the result being an indictment? I can’t recall a single scandal involving people at the top of the political pyramid being punished in the way you or I would be punished for similar crimes. Maybe Rostenkowsky(sp?)?

So what does all this mean? Has the US reached “peak liberty” in the same way as the Roman Republic? We the people have been fed a steady diet of “bread and circuses,” an endless supply of scandals with which to entertain us.

Has it been done on purpose? Are the circuses designed to keep us biting at one anothers’ ankles, distracted from the main purpose of creating an oligarchy, assuring a long line of inherited entitled leaders from which there will be no escape? Are there really two sides battling it out for power? Or is it an illusion, cleverly arranged so we continually squabble between ourselves while the oligarchs slowly settle in?

What do you think?

 

[Pokeabear]

The Watergate scandal of the early 1970’s (was it 1972?) brought down a President, as well it should have! Tricky Dick Nixon and his cohorts were involved in a conspiracy that could have destroyed our republic.

Since Watergate we’ve had Jerry Ford pardon Nixon and declare that the USSR didn’t dominate Eastern Europe. Bush the elder promised not to raise taxes, “read my lips,” and he promptly raised taxes. Bush the younger assured us Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, got us into a war we are still fighting to this day at the expense of trillions of dollars of treasure and thousands of young American lives, not to mention hundreds of thousands of the lives of the “enemy.” The Clintons - my God! - the list of their malfeasance is endless. Obama politicized the IRS and sent them after conservative groups (which they attacked with zeal), used spies on journalists, ignored the murders in Libya, initiated the spying on the Trump electoral organization, among many other things. And now we have a “dear leader” that is simply incapable of telling the truth. I thought no one could ever match either Bill or Hillary for the sheer volume of lying, but the Donald has not only matched them but has exceeded them. And what has been the result of any of this? We have experienced around 50 years of uninterrupted corruption and exploitation of the American people by our duly elected leaders. Since Nixon has there been a single political leader put in jail? (Hell, even Nixon got away with it!) Charged with a crime? Investigated with the result being an indictment? I can’t recall a single scandal involving people at the top of the political pyramid being punished in the way you or I would be punished for similar crimes. Maybe Rostenkowsky(sp?)?

So what does all this mean? Has the US reached “peak liberty” in the same way as the Roman Republic? We the people have been fed a steady diet of “bread and circuses,” an endless supply of scandals with which to entertain us.

Has it been done on purpose? Are the circuses designed to keep us biting at one anothers’ ankles, distracted from the main purpose of creating an oligarchy, assuring a long line of inherited entitled leaders from which there will be no escape? Are there really two sides battling it out for power? Or is it an illusion, cleverly arranged so we continually squabble between ourselves while the oligarchs slowly settle in?

What do you think?

Its possible.

 

[Ponca Dan]

Its possible.

Thank you for such a reflective in-depth opinion! Something we can all bite into!

 

[Pokeabear]

Thank you for such a reflective in-depth opinion! Something we can all bite into!

 

[cableok]

“Read my lips” by Bush was a scandal? I hate tax increases, but that is certainly stretching the definition of the word.

 

[AC_Exotic]

It's tyranny.

Different rules apply to the ruling class as opposed to the peasant class.

 

[Syskatine]

The Watergate scandal of the early 1970’s (was it 1972?) brought down a President, as well it should have! Tricky Dick Nixon and his cohorts were involved in a conspiracy that could have destroyed our republic.

Since Watergate we’ve had Jerry Ford pardon Nixon and declare that the USSR didn’t dominate Eastern Europe. Bush the elder promised not to raise taxes, “read my lips,” and he promptly raised taxes. Bush the younger assured us Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, got us into a war we are still fighting to this day at the expense of trillions of dollars of treasure and thousands of young American lives, not to mention hundreds of thousands of the lives of the “enemy.” The Clintons - my God! - the list of their malfeasance is endless. Obama politicized the IRS and sent them after conservative groups (which they attacked with zeal), used spies on journalists, ignored the murders in Libya, initiated the spying on the Trump electoral organization, among many other things. And now we have a “dear leader” that is simply incapable of telling the truth. I thought no one could ever match either Bill or Hillary for the sheer volume of lying, but the Donald has not only matched them but has exceeded them. And what has been the result of any of this? We have experienced around 50 years of uninterrupted corruption and exploitation of the American people by our duly elected leaders. Since Nixon has there been a single political leader put in jail? (Hell, even Nixon got away with it!) Charged with a crime? Investigated with the result being an indictment? I can’t recall a single scandal involving people at the top of the political pyramid being punished in the way you or I would be punished for similar crimes. Maybe Rostenkowsky(sp?)?

So what does all this mean? Has the US reached “peak liberty” in the same way as the Roman Republic? We the people have been fed a steady diet of “bread and circuses,” an endless supply of scandals with which to entertain us.

Has it been done on purpose? Are the circuses designed to keep us biting at one anothers’ ankles, distracted from the main purpose of creating an oligarchy, assuring a long line of inherited entitled leaders from which there will be no escape? Are there really two sides battling it out for power? Or is it an illusion, cleverly arranged so we continually squabble between ourselves while the oligarchs slowly settle in?

What do you think?

Don't hate the player, hate the game. Politics has always been corrupt. They're all ambitious and seek power.

 

[CowboyJD]

Thank you for such a reflective in-depth opinion! Something we can all bite into!

Passive aggressive even when someone agrees with you.

Damn, you are habitual.

 

[Ponca Dan]

“Read my lips” by Bush was a scandal? I hate tax increases, but that is certainly stretching the definition of the word.

Yes, it was quite scandalous at the time. The man reneged on the one campaign promise he repeated as often as Trump said “lock her up!” or Obama said “you can keep your doctor.” The conservative side of the Republican Party was absolutely scandalized!

This is a good sidebar to another question: do you not find it strange that it is a crime punishable by jail time for a citizen to knowingly lie to a government agent, agency, congressional committee, etc., but it is considered perfectly natural and expected - standard operating procedure - for a politician to knowingly lie to the American people? No crime there! It seems astounding to me that we the people passively stand around and meekly accept that reality. How about you?

 

[Ponca Dan]

I thought the exclamation points would be an effective indicator of the good natured intent of my comment. Apparently not!

 

[Ponca Dan]

Don't hate the player, hate the game. Politics has always been corrupt. They're all ambitious and seek power.

Well, in my case I hate both the player and the game. We are supposed to be be a society comprised of free people. We all know the game is rigged, our politicians are corrupt, and yet we do nothing about any of it, just passively participate in the charade, assuring ourselves we are doing our civic duty by willingly aligning with one of the parties and convincing ourselves our party is made up of the good guys while the other party has nothing but malintent aimed in our direction. And occasionally we mouth the words the whole game is corrupt. But do we really believe that? If we really believe that why, as free people, do we allow it to continue? The corruption grows and festers and puts our liberty in grave danger. We know that, don’t we? And knowing that why do we sit still for it?

 

[csh]

Don't hate the player, hate the game. Politics has always been corrupt. They're all ambitious and seek power.

This is a reluctant conclusion I've come to, though I'd love to be shown differently. Nobody ascends very high without eventually aligning themselves with some unsavory characters or actions, even if only on a temporary basis. I liked Berry Tramel's comment when we hired Knowles, "It's a good thing coaches have egos, otherwise nobody would take a Big 12 defensive coordinator position."