Dumping IKE!

Progress is an uphill battle.

There's no logical reason for progress to be so difficult, except for the fact that some people seem to thrive on being difficult themselves.

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I am a political independent.  I think of myself, correctly or not, as an individual with the ability to reason and in possession of a general sense of logic.  This whole current flap over the need to get millions of people back to work while the also-obvious need exists to repair our nation's infrastructure, appears to be rather simple.  Let the 21st Century WPA begin!

Our current president is in a constant struggle against illogical folks masquerading as legislators.  I have to question the motives of those who drag their feet - in fact, drag our entire country to a halt - when their own future interests would be better served by opening their eyes.  It must be that many in government have instead opened personal bank accounts and have set up virtual lines of direct deposit from big monied corporations and powerful lobbyists.  In other words, their current monetary self-interests outweigh their concern for the possibility that their luxury cars might one day fall through unrepaired bridges.  Does it not appear that these legislators are being well paid to fight progress?

Then there's the label: Progressive to deal with.  It's often thrust from the lips of ultra-conservatives as though it contains poison or a vile oath.  In actual fact, President Obama has never shown himself to be terribly progressive, merely logical in trying to help the masses in our society.  I was one Independent who helped elect the man because at least he seemed to hold out the hope of being somewhat progressive, and following the utter destructive previous administration, he offered a huge breath of fresh air.  Intelligence alone makes him far more acceptable as a national leader than was the embarrassment and the appearance of ignorance we had to endure for eight years previous.

But really progressive?  Would that he were more so and could find a way to bring others along in to a progressive mentality.  Our country is in dire need of some dramatic brand of progress.  Having the "rich get richer and the poor get poorer" spells regression for a society.  That frustration has gone on far too long.

If only our leadership could become as wildly liberal and progressive as former President Eisenhower, we might begin the climb out of the dumps.  We need not go all the way back to FDR for an example of rescuing the country from ruin; the respected Republican, Eisenhower, will do just fine.  Try to consider what it took for him to push through the outragious spending bill to get the Interstate Highway System established.  Just imagine that kind of forceful action in dealing with legislators today!  Today, we can't even manage to repair what Ike built! 

Today's conservatives would be trying to dump Ike, their own party's flag-bearer, and make him a "one-term-president."  He was far more progressive than President Obama has shown himself to be thus far.  But to hear the ludicrous rhetoric of the far right in their sound bites on the news, you'd think they are facing some kind of liberal monster.  No, I'm afraid what they're fighting against is common sense and decency.  What today's House of Representatives actually represents is apparently greed - supporting and enabling the immense greed of huge corporations and wealthy individuals.  And almost certainly their own greed.  Surely enough loose change falls from those deep pockets into the waiting hands of many legislators to influence their votes.  (Why a dedicated investigative reporter hasn't made it a mission to dig into the personal, and hidden, income details of members of Congress, I cannot fathom.)  I'd wager that the salaries of many of todays members of congress, salaries that have risen to be quite substantial, are less than the amount they take in under the table.  Let the needs of the masses go un-noticed as long as the Golden-egg-producing Geese of Corporate America, Wall Street and Big Oil keep handing out bribes!

Real progress will come only when our nation's willingly duplicit (or sadly ignorant) electorate wakes up and fires those who do not represent the people at large.  We can UN-elect those whose self interests are placed before public needs.  Easy to spot these people; they've sworn an oath to never raise taxes.  They pass this off as a good idea and get away with it because it's easy to hoodwink a populace who quite often can't see the big picture.  Never raise taxes is an aluring mantra, but it's really a sworn protection for the rich, and there can be little reason to protect those outrageous incomes unless it trickles down to lawmakers' bank accounts.  It doesn't trickle into yours or mine.  The concept of never increasing taxes is ignorant and destructive.  Progress is the victim.

I miss Ike.