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Back in the '60s and early '70s most of us thought, "If the American people only knew what was going on in Vietnam, they would stop the war and throw the bastards in D.C. out with righteous anger." We were proved wrong in Chicago, Kent State, and My Lai.
Again, we have an administration with an all too compliant congress, who are committing obvious crimes against humanity; crimes against the constitution; crimes against the people of the United States. And, many are waiting for, if not expecting, the American people to see all this happening and rise up in righteous anger.
The hard truth is that there will be no impeachment. No quick withdrawal from a lost "war". No trials of the guilty. And, certainly, no revolution.
"All politics is local". Despite the (usually subdued) outcry of a few politicians, a media devoted to the bottom-line rather than the truth, and an outraged few citizens, most of the American public doesn't care. As long as the "war" doesn't cost them a child, spouse, brother, sister, or someone close to them, they don't care. As long as they have a job and a paycheck, they don't care about the poor and under/unemployed. As long as they don't have to empty their bank accounts to pay for the "war" and "defense", they don't care. Most Americans will never utilize their "freedom of speech" in any significant way, because they don't care. Most Americans could care less about "freedom of the press" because they don't pay attention to the news and believe that that freedom has to do with pornography which they enjoy in "acceptable" forms. They don't care about the starving millions of the world because it's not them or anyone they know.
Most Americans view "the news" as entertainment. If it's not entertaining, if it doesn't involve sex, slaughter, or celebrities, they switch channels to something they do find entertaining, sex, slaughter or celebrities. The world doesn't exist beyond their families, their friends, their work, their wallets, their desires, their property.
Why do Americans keep voting in people who are obviously incompetant, sociopathic, corrupt? Because those politicians promise to lower their taxes and miraculously fund the things they want for free. And, protect them from whatever bogeyman they are taught to believe threatens them. Terrorists, illegal immigrants, gays, minorities, women, socialists, "liberals", "the government", "the courts", "flag burners", and whole list of others that actually pose no threat.
Don't believe it? Check the current nincompoop infesting the White House. Watch the politcians they elected pose, pander, and prevaricate. And, finally, look at how many citizens even bother to vote in this "democracy".
The system is corrupt because the American people prefer it that way. The truth is that if an unapologetic fascist dictatorship were to take over, most Americans would go along with it because it wouldn't affect them personally.
"All politics is local."
Note: I expect the usual, "What are you going to do about it?" response. The answer is, whatever I can short of violence.
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