‘Divide and conquer’ politics

Their interest is not the common good. Their only concern is
hoarding as much as they can for the few at the top of their executive garbage
pile. Everyone else be damned.

And if any upstarts in government try to make any waves, the
company lobbyist enforcers can calm the turbulence and drown the troublemakers
with money that’s now even easier to spread over the waters.

So what are the rest of us to do? There is only one answer.
That would be to unite in outrage and organize mass pressure groups to scare the
hell out of those in power — to let those desperate to keep political office
know that they will be thrown out if they don’t pay attention to the true needs
of their populations.

We’ve already seen it work with the Tea Party movement. The
problem is that one is fueled largely by right-wing, simpleminded ignorance. It
is organized by people who want to keep any meaningful protest DISorganized and
maintain the status quo that pays them so well.

It’s a classic “divide and conquer” strategy,
backed by those who want to divide their riches with as few others as possible.
To accomplish that they keep those fed up fighting among themselves, calling
each other names, instead of coming together and channeling “I’m mad as
hell and I’m not going to take it anymore” passion into meaningful action.

The Massachusetts election certainly represented that kind
of valid resentment. The sad thing is the voters there may have added another
person to the Senate who is part of the problem, someone who can be counted on
to thwart desperately needed healthcare reform, for instance.

Ben Bernanke’s reappointment to head the Fed looked for a while
like it might go down in flames because of the widespread bitter feelings about
way the fat cats are once again gobbling public trillions while everyone else
starves.

Bernanke is an interesting case. Should he be celebrated as
a main engineer of the economic rescue, or scorned and tossed out as one of
those who helped cause the calamity? At the moment, it looks more and more like
he can accumulate enough support from Republicans and Democrats to save his new
term and in the process save the face of the president who has cast much of our
economic fate with Bernanke.

What about the two guys whom President Obama relies upon to
shape financial policy, Timothy Geithner and Lawrence Summers? They raise the
same questions. Are they the best public protectors, or are they the foxes in
the henhouse and far too cozy with those who want to keep stealing the golden
eggs?

What about the members of Congress? Can we take a real close
look to see which ones go to the highest bidder when they make their decisions
about laws to bring effective controls to what is the lawless frontier of
finance?

After that, can we organize to “throw the rascals out,”
as they say? Can we work hard to make sure that their replacements are
qualified and committed to rescuing our system, as opposed to demagogues and
those who come up with catchy slogans and phony promises? “YES WE CAN!”
(I made that up.)

Remember that, as they have with the Tea Party movement, the
bad guys will muddy the debates. Thanks to the Supremes, they can more easily
spend even greater amounts of their ill-gotten gains on TV ads and other
propaganda, deigned to distort the issues and confuse everyone. So a national
People’s Rescue won’t be easy. In fact, the chances are slim there will
actually be “Change you can believe in.” (Made that up, too.)

If there is not, it won’t long before the voters’ apathy
will be complete, as nearly everyone will have taken a “What’s the use?”
attitude.

No one will even bother to present alternatives to the ones
our wealthy rulers put in charge to do their bidding. It’s up to us to prevent
that from happening. To the extent it hasn’t already.

The time will come when the corporations won’t even have to
spend on campaign ads.

Visit Mr. Franken’s website at www.bobfranken.tv.

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