To fight ...

Or not to fight, that is the question.

I've been thinking about it on a much more regular basis lately, especially after seeing, for these past two years, exactly what our President and the Democratic Party are made of. Not very much, it would seem.

We know what the Republicans want; we've known it for years but since their last election they've become blatant at it. Whether they're on the ropes, as some say, and they're desperate, or whether they're so far along with their "master plan" (what I believe), they don't care who knows about it anymore; who knows? What happened in Wisconsin last night, and other related events around the country, is evidence of the level they will stoop to, blatantly, to get their agenda through.

The corporations have co-opted our news media, all of them, going so far (with Fox) as to produce outright propaganda. We are fed nothing but drivel, at least in the medium that counts, television, and straight, honest reporting is dismissed or outright vilified. We're bombarded with schlock and as a result, a good chunk of the American people are uninformed and ignorant of what actually goes on. It's the way the "Masters of the Universe" like it because the ignorant are easily led.

Our election process is so fucked, thanks to SCOTUS and the prevailing campaign finance rules, the amounts of money needed to get elected is so great that big money donors are granted the loudest voice in the discourse. Even Democrats have to play the game (and it seems many embrace it too). There is no room for the "Voice of the People" anymore. We are drowned out in an avalanche of cash from the Bigs (Oil, Ag, Pharma, MIC, et. al.). We know all this but the people we elected to change it seem oblivious.

We were promised "hope and change" and all we got was the "same old song and dance", on steroids since last November's elections. Our President, while saying a lot of things we wanted to hear on the campaign trail has backtracked on almost all of it. When he did choose to fight for principle, it was weak at best. The man's negotiating skill on things of import are, putting it kindly, vacuous and self-defeating. Poor enough to think he could even be a plant for the Republicans; let alone the fact he let Bush Inc. walk away from prosecution scot-free.

Our Democratic leadership in Congress is no better, having allowed themselves to be stymied at every turn by Republican obstruction when they had a majority in both houses and then losing the House last November. That's not counting the third of Dems who, in a sane world, would be considered Republicans. They prove their uselessness every day.

Meanwhile, since September 11th 2001, we have turned into a police state with our economy in shambles. If there is never another Islamic terrorist threat again in the United States, they can point to 9/11 as the day they won. This is why terrorism is so effective. Even a superpower can be brought to its knees with inferior leadership (let alone a buncha crooks who saw it as a gift from heaven). All the slogans from that time, "if we give in the terrorists win", are now just so much horseshit on the side of the trail.

We, as a whole, have become a nation of cowards; allowing the "Security State" to flourish. If we were to "stand up to the terrorists" we should have stood up against our own government when they introduced draconian surveillance laws (Patriot Act) and idiotic security schemes for a supposedly "free" nation. Notice our "President of Change" happily accepts the enhanced executive powers of the Bush administration instead of trying to ensure the White House never has that type of authority again.

Instead of ending wars that are draining our treasury as promised (remember the campaign trail again), he escalates a war in a place where no foreign army has found success since the days of Alexander the Great; a waste of lives and money. I will say this, he hasn't gotten us into any new ones yet.

And then I see my fellow Americans, 25% of whom will blindly do whatever anybody with an "R" behind their names tells them. Let alone the 40% - 60% who follow whatever position the Washington "Village" take. There are very few who actually think for themselves. My 24 year old German nephew (a blue collar man, not like he's some sort of poli-sci major) knows more about what's going on here than most Americans and can speak on it more intelligently too. We're more interested in celebrity train wrecks than how fucked our country is and how to realistically fix it.

So I look back at all of this, how the country has changed, and not, in the almost seven years since I started this joint, and I wonder what are our choices for the future.

At best Obama gets reelected and the Dems control at least one house of Congress for the next 6 years; basically the mess we have now.

At worst, the presidency and all of Congress will be under Republican control. It would be all over then.

I don't like either of those options.

When we started this fight, we were dedicated to getting Bush out of the White House. After 2006, we had some hope and in 2008 we thought things would begin to change, but things have actually gotten worse in some respects; for those people who've been financially ruined by layoffs, or the sub-prime crisis, or any number of ways the rich have tried to separate them from their savings especially.

So I ask myself, do I want to stay in the country I love, the country I've fought for, and the country that gave me so many opportunities? And the answer is "no".

It's not worth another 6 years of our lives for a "maybe". It's not worth it when the best we can hope for is the status quo and there's no guarantee it won't get worse after that. There will be no benefit for us, no "social safety net" if we need it in our golden years, let alone affordable health care. It's just not worth it.

Yes, we had plans to retire in Europe but we're moving up our timetable (we planned to go in about 10 years). I certainly won't wait around for another six years as Obama and the Dems allow the Republicans and their corporate patrons dismantle what is left of this country. I'm not waiting around until the Bigs decide they should own everything and just take what they can't legislate away from us. My wife and I have worked too hard over the last 35 years to lose what little we've been able to put away because we have to pay some rich asshole's share to support this place. I'm tired of paying for things when I have no voice in how the money is spent or see any benefits from it. While they still call this nation "America", it ain't the America I knew nor is it one I want to be a part of any longer.

As soon as Dad-in-Law Fixer heads off to the Great Beyond, we're outta here.