After centuries of isolation, China has grown massive in power and industrial strength because it opened itself to the world. The Chinese are beating us at our own game. Theirs is an avowed communist country excelling in capitalism. It allows its industries and society to borrow from and compete against the world's best. It approves ongoing modernization of its economic structures. Its leaders understand that this ‘openness’ is key to China's success.
"Flying from the stunningly modern Beijing airport to the Newark airport now is like flying from Paris to Burkina Faso," says one business traveler. "There's a different spirit in China. They have a market of a billion people who are so extraordinarily energized in the way we haven't been since the fifties."
We, on the other hand, appear to be withering on the vine. Most sowing and nurturing underway now in America is done by corporations and special interests which push the individual aside in the name of obscene profits and outrageous executive pay. Sadly, its blurred vision has allowed our highest court to see corporations and special interests as “persons,” relative to campaign contributions. The court opened the floodgates for big money to control ever more, including now our elections. The court thus strangles individual Americans. That is not equality. It is grossly unequal. We’re about to harvest what we’ve planted. Under the charade of taking care of Americans, the lunacy of our legislative inflexibility and our judicial astigmatism, have brought us to this point.
For centuries when aristocracy wanted something more it simply burdened the lower economic classes with another tax. Nobility never paid its share. In 2011 America nothing has changed. We are told to be grateful for our mega employers because it is they who employ the rest of us. True, but the other half of the equation is equally true: without employees there is no elite.
Over the last decade we knowingly gave away our jobs, mostly to China. Now we shout, “where are our jobs?” Duh. Congress gave our corporations incredible tax-breaks when they decided to gift away Americans’ jobs. Corporations demanded, Congress complied. This administration inherited the problem. The day Obama was inaugurated those who created the problem demanded he fix it. A clever ploy: distract attention by blaming others for national joblessness. In 2010 less than 10 percent of America’s tax burden was paid by corporations and special interest groups, many of which paid zero tax last year thanks to made-to-order legislation. When you give away a nation’s jobs without first having something to replace them you begin dismantling the nation. That was executed not by one individual but mostly by our legislative government. In some areas that could be a treasonable offense.
Everything that is today could not be were it not for that which came before. That doesn’t speak well for where we’re coming from.
In the 21st century our government is trapped in a 20th century dynamic. You can’t drive forward looking in your rear view mirror. China has been trapped in a centuries old system of society and economics, but now its leaders have seen the light and opened up. They’ve vaulted out of their old paradigm and appropriated the west’s prodigious manufacturing savvy. We gave it, they’ve got it.
Our wounds are self-inflicted. We have the government we deserve. It’s the old “you reap what you sow’ story. In the coming 2012 election Americans should demand that “I dare you politics” vanishes from America. You get elected. That means you go to Washington obligated to make a better nation, a better world, a better place and life for our children, not to make a lifelong career for yourself with every perk that you continue to reject for the American people. Americans are tired of that disconnect and elitism. And, they’re angry.
It’s easy to talk the right way as a singular politician, but that’s political suicide when you’re speaking for the party. Scripted politics is tired and Americans are tired of it. And, frankly, it’s uninspiring and downright dangerous. The people cry out for leadership but there is none. Scripted politics is not leadership. Congress seems unaware of the mood of the people. There’s a dramatic groundswell building for meaningful transformation. The people are forming their own slightly rebellious parade.
It’s said all politics are local, but in the case of the New Hampshire first-in-the-nation primary, all politics are social. Obama won the presidency with his handlers and supporters understanding how to use the internet to get votes. The loser wondered what happened. Now, with social media every voter is only a keystroke away from believable, immediate personal persuasiveness.
Freedom isn’t worth having if it doesn’t include the freedom to make mistakes. One of the marks of superior people is that they are action oriented. One of the marks of average people is that they are talk oriented. Politicians play their games because they secretly believe they’re smarter and sharper than the rest. Warning: The voters usually prevail. Maybe later than sooner, but they do overcome. Being nudged aside and ignored doesn’t work anymore. That was yesterday. Today clear thinking and action control the day.
“You can count on Americans to do the right thing, after they’ve tried everything else,” said Winston Churchill in his droll style of making a point. He was right.
Dick Rozek
Portsmouth, NH
10/07/2011
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